An Appraisal Perspective of Teacher Burnout: Examining the Emotional Work of Teachers

K-12 teaching is a profession characterized by high levels of burnout and emotional exhaustion. Teacher burnout has been widely reviewed and studied; however, only limited literature examines the emotional aspects of teachers’ lives and its connection with teacher burnout. The purpose of this article is to review the literature on teacher burnout and teachers’ emotions and to examine the role of teachers' appraisal of their emotional exhaustion. Through reviewing the literature on teacher burnout and emotions, I argue that the habitual patterns in teachers’ judgments about student behavior and other teaching tasks may contribute significantly to teachers’ repeated experience of unpleasant emotions and those emotions may eventually lead to burnout. In order to ease teacher burnout, I argue that more studies on the antecedent appraisals that teachers make are necessary to help teachers better understand how their emotions were triggered and then learn how to regulate those emotions.     

Stressors,Self‐Efficacy,Coping Resources,and Burnout among Secondary School Teachers in Spain

The relationships among teacher occupational stressors, self‐efficacy, coping resources, and burnout were investigated in a sample of 247 Spanish secondary school teachers. Concretely, two specific aims were formulated in order to examine the effect of teaching stressors on teacher burnout and the role of self‐efficacy and school coping resources as mediator or moderator variables in the stressor–burnout relationship. Teachers reported that when their pedagogical practice in the school setting was being interfered with or hindered by a set of factors from the multiple contexts involved in students’ learning, problems of burnout occurred. In addition, results revealed that teachers with a high level of self‐efficacy and more coping resources reported suffering less stress and burnout than teachers with a low level of self‐efficacy and fewer coping resources, and vice versa.     

新建本科院校教师职业倦怠与社会支持的相关研究

采用Maslach职业倦怠量表和社会支持评定量表对新建本科院校教师进行了调查。结果显示:(1)新建本科院校教师整体职业倦怠水平不高。(2)新建本科院校教师职业倦怠状况在性别、婚姻状况以及职称上没有显著差异,但副教授与讲师倦怠水平相对较高。(3)新建本科院校教师职业倦怠与社会支持之间存在着显著负相关,社会支持对职业倦怠有显著的负向预测作用。     

The relationship between teacher self-concept,teacher efficacy and burnout

Teacher self-concept and efficacy have been investigated with burnout separately, while the two self-beliefs might work together to impact burnout. Guided by a model of the cyclical nature of teacher efficacy, we aimed to extend previous work on self-perceived predictors of teacher burnout by simultaneously investigating teacher self-concept and efficacy to detect the possibility of teacher efficacy being a mediator between teacher self-concept and burnout as well as whether such relationship remains constant across all groups of teachers with different gender and teaching experience. A sample of 1892 teachers across seven Chinese geographical regions completed a self-reported questionnaire addressing self-concept, efficacy, burnout and demographic variables. Structural equation modelling indicated that teacher self-concept influenced the burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment via teacher efficacy. Further multi-group analysis suggested that this mechanism worked equally across different gender and teaching experience groups. With a non-western teacher sample, teacher efficacy was found to work as a mediator between teacher self-concept and burnout. The finding especially contributes to the knowledge in the teacher efficacy literature. The integrated relationship should be further explored in other cultures.     

Teachers’ Emotional Competence and Social Support: Assessing the Mediating Role of Teacher Burnout

This study explored the relationships among teachers’ emotional competence, burnout as a mediator, and social support. Teachers’ emotional competence was assessed via measures of emotional intensity and emotional regulation. Social support was evaluated in terms of external versus internal support, and teacher dissatisfaction with support received. Participants were 149 Italian primary school teachers. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The findings suggested that teacher burnout partially mediated the relationship between emotional intensity and satisfaction with social support received. Overall, the results showed that teachers were at risk of highly intense unpleasant emotions in relation to their burnout syndrome. Moreover, teachers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction with social support received was predicted by burnout symptoms. These results extend the findings of earlier studies, and provide indications as to how to help teachers experiencing burnout.     

An exploration of EFL teachers’ attributions

The present study investigated English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ attributions of success and failure. It also set out to investigate whether these attributions vary by teachers’ age, teaching experience, gender and educational level. To do so, 200 EFL teachers were selected according to convenience sampling among EFL teachers teaching English in Language Institutes in Mashhad and Tehran, two cities in Iran. The participants completed the language teacher attribution scale measuring four attributions: teaching competency (TC), teacher effort (TE), student effort (SE) and institution supervision (IS). The present study yielded mixed results regarding English language teachers’ attributions of success and failure events. It was also found that these attributions vary by their age, teaching experience and educational level, but not by gender. The discussion and implications of the research are further presented with reference to the earlier findings.     

A Comparison of Special,General and Support Teachers’ Controllability and Stability Attributions for Children’s Difficulties in Learning

The study aimed to explore teachers’ attributions for learner difficulties in their schoolwork. In order to explore their attributions of controllability and stability, three groups of teachers, general mainstream class teachers (N = 39), mainstream learning support teachers (N = 35), and special school teachers (N = 25) were asked to rate vignettes about children’s difficulties. The results showed that the two groups of teachers working in the mainstream settings viewed learners with identified support needs as having less control over their performance than those with no specific support needs, while special school teachers viewed both learner groups similarly. Similar findings were found for teacher attributions of controllability in high‐ and low‐ability learners. Stability attributions across all conditions showed that special school teachers viewed children’s difficulties as more amenable to change than did the two groups of mainstream teachers. The implications of these findings for inclusion in mainstream schools are discussed.     

Examining the relationship between perceptions of teaching self-efficacy,school support and teacher and paraeducator burnout in a residential school setting

Despite teacher self-efficacy and burnout’s influence on student outcomes, little research has been conducted on teacher self-efficacy and burnout in residential treatment schools. This study attempts to fill this need by examining the self-efficacy and burnout of teachers and paraeducators in a residential treatment school in the United States. We explore the relationships between educators’ perceptions of school supports and educators’ sense of self-efficacy and burnout Our results revealed that while educators’ perceptions of school supports were not related to educators’ sense of efficacy, there was a significant relationship between educators’ perceptions of school supports and reported levels of burnout. Educators who reported lower levels of school supports had high levels of burnout. We discuss implications for larger studies on this topic and for supporting educator well-being in residential treatment schools.     

教师职业倦怠的有效管理对策探析

教育的质量取决于教师的素质。目前,教师职业倦怠正如一只蛀虫慢慢蚕食教师的积极主动性,使教师的内在潜能难以发挥,严重影响了我国教育质量的提高。学校管理目标的核心是促进教师的发展。为了积极应对教师职业倦怠问题,学校管理者要从树立"以人为本"的管理思想、增强教师主人翁意识、构建多元化评价机制和搭建专业发展平台等多方面入手,努力探索学校和教师共同发展的最佳途径。     

Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Multiculturalism in Relation to General and Diversity-Related Burnout

This study focuses on teachers’ general and diversity-related burnout in relation to teachers’ attitudes toward multiculturalism. Results are based on the responses of 120 teachers working at five different urban, ethnically diverse junior vocational high schools in the Netherlands. Analyses indicated that teachers with assimilative attitudes exhibited higher levels of general and diversity-related burnout, whereas there was no relationship between pluralistic attitudes and burnout. In addition, there were no relationships between teacher background variables and attitude and burnout, besides the finding that native teachers experienced less general burnout, and had less pluralistic attitudes, than nonnative teachers.     

Burnout and teacher self-efficacy among teachers working in special education institutions in Turkey

The aim of this paper was to investigate the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and burnout among special education school teachers in Turkey. One hundred and eighteen teachers completed the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Teachers belonged to the psychological counselling and guidance programme, primary education, special education programme, programme in education of students with mental impairment, programme in education of students with hearing impairment, programme in education of students with visual impairment, music education and art education. Findings showed that there were significant relationships between teacher self-efficacy and burnout. Also, significant differences were found between genders and branches in terms of burnout and teacher self-efficacy. Indices of structural equation modelling indicated that domains of burnout were strongly predicted by self-efficacy. Findings highlight the importance of self-efficacy beliefs in special education staff’s level of emotional involvement, sense of accomplishment and engagement.     

Exploring associations between supervisory support,teacher burnout and classroom emotional climate: the moderating role of pupil teacher ratio

Abstract

In previous studies on classroom emotional climate (CEC), factors related to teacher’s working conditions have rarely been included. Thus, in the current study, we examined associations between supervisory support, teacher burnout and CEC, and whether pupil teacher ratio (PTR) moderated this association, applying a randomised-control trial design. Participants were students from 300 classes at the end of grade 1, and 300 teachers. Structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed significant relations between supervisory support and teacher burnout and between teacher burnout and CEC. Supervisory support was indirectly related to CEC through teacher burnout. Finally, PTR moderated the association between teacher burnout and CEC.     

Self‐efficacy,school resources,job stressors and burnout among Spanish primary and secondary school teachers: a structural equation approach

This study examines the relationship between school resources, teacher self‐efficacy, potential multi‐level stressors and teacher burnout using structural equation modelling. The causal structure for primary and secondary school teachers was also examined. The sample was composed of 724 primary and secondary Spanish school teachers. The changes occurring in the Spanish teacher role in the last decade were taken into account to select job stressors. The results obtained revealed that external (school support resources) and internal (management classroom self‐efficacy and instructional self‐efficacy) coping resources have a negative and significant effect on job stressors. In turn, job stressors have a positive and significant effect on teachers’ burnout considering it as both a unidimensional and multidimensional construct. Furthermore, the hypothesised structure of burnout dimensions revealed that emotional exhaustion plays a key role in explaining Spanish school teachers’ burnout. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Rating students’ problem behaviour: the role of teachers’ individual characteristics

This study examined the role of teachers’ personal characteristics and mental health status on their frequency ratings of student problem behaviour. A sample of 121 primary school teachers were asked to rate the frequency of a student’s behavioural problems, and to self-report their personality traits, psychopathology symptoms and burnout. Overall, the results revealed that teachers’ ratings were significantly predicted by their psychopathology symptoms and to a lesser extent by their personality traits and burnout levels. Student and teacher demographic characteristics were also predictive of teacher ratings. Since teachers are among the primary informants of students’ mental health, the results of this study pose the need to take into consideration teachers’ individual characteristics, when their ratings are critically evaluated during a student’s referral process.     

Factors relating to regular education teacher burnout in inclusive education

The aims of the research were to identify the environmental factors that relate to the work of regular school teachers who have students with special needs in their classroom, and to find out the correlation between these factors and teacher burnout. A total 330 primary school teachers filled in a questionnaire that had three parts: (1) personal background data; (2) the Friedman’s burnout questionnaire; and (3) environmental features typical of the work of school teachers that include students with special needs in their classroom, in four areas: psychological features, organizational, structural and social. Results show that the background data that related significantly to burnout was teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion. The more positive the attitude was, the more the teacher experienced burnout in the category of self‐fulfilment. This finding was contrary to the hypothesis of the research. Two other background variables were found to relate to the de‐personalization aspect of burnout, teaching higher‐grade students and having an additional administrative role in school. Two other findings that were found to correlate with higher burnout rates were the number of students with special needs in class (more than 20%) and very little assistance provided to the teacher. Three environmental factors were found to have negative correlation with burnout: the organizational factor, the psychological and the social, with the latter being the most significantly negatively correlated with burnout—i.e. the less social support the teacher experienced, the higher was her level of burnout.     

Does burnout begin with student-teaching? Analyzing efficacy,burnout, and support during the student-teaching semester

The burnout process may begin as early as the student-teaching experience [Gold, Y., 1985. Does teacher burnout begin with student teaching? Education, 105, 254–257]. Data from 49 student–teachers in the southwest United States were gathered twice during their student-teaching practicum. Data assessing teacher efficacy, teacher burnout, learning climate, and cooperating teacher support (guidance or imitation) were analyzed using correlational analyses, repeated measures MANOVA, a 2×2 repeated measures MANOVA, and stepwise regression. Results indicated significant increases in efficacy and decreases in burnout symptoms over time. We found significant interactions in the three factors of burnout by guidance group, such that student–teachers experiencing high guidance demonstrated lower levels of burnout at the end of their practicum.     

丹东地区特殊学校教师职业倦怠分析报告

本文采用问卷法探讨了丹东地区113名特殊学校教师职业倦怠的特点,并进行了分析。结果表明：特殊学校教师职业倦怠显著低于普通学校教师;特殊学校教师职业倦怠在教龄、学历方面存在着显著性差异;在职称、是否担任班主任方面存在一定的影响;特教教师职业倦怠存在着显著的地域差异。     

民办高校英语教师职业倦怠研究

职业倦怠是影响教师,尤其是民办高校英语教师职业生涯发展的重要因素之一。认识职业倦怠,找到克服职业倦怠的有效对策,有助于帮助教师缓解职业倦怠,重新获取职业自豪感,追求更高层次的专业发展。     

The Development and Psychometric Properties of the Teacher Social Stress Scale-Student Related (TSS-Sr)

Teacher burnout is a growing phenomenon that may dramatically reduce the quality of life of both teachers and students. Many studies have conceptualized teaching as a high-contact profession and, focusing on the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout, they have highlighted the relation with students as a key dimension of teachers’ stress. This paper presents an original instrument (TSS-Sr) to measure teachers’ stress related to the interaction with their pupils. It provides the psychometric characteristic of this scale. Results support a model of measurement of teacher social stress based on four dimensions: verbal aggression, dislike students, awkward reactions, demanding requests. Implications about the use and the applications of this instrument are discussed.