Many of my
friends are teachers and they often tell me how they feel less and less
motivated by the teaching sector and would suggest the seriousness of a
situation where teachers are struggling to find personal meaning in what they
are doing. This is especially relevant in an education sector that relies
heavily on standardized tests where teachers feel a conflict between what they
feel as “good teaching” and the pressure to perform. If this includes a lack of
social support from the school, it can leave teachers feeling isolated,
anxious, and facing inevitable burnout.
According to
educational psychologists Cristina Maslash and Michael Leiter (1997), burnout
has been described as ‘a prolonged response to chronic emotional and
interpersonal stressors on the job’, and is defined by the three dimensions:
- Exhaustion: a
state in which the teacher feels they cannot offer any more of themselves
- Cynicism: a
distant attitude toward work, colleagues, students and other aspects of
the job
- Inefficacy: a
feeling of becoming incompetent and ineffective at the job
Recent studies report that between 10 and 20%
of teachers could be suffering from high burnout levels, and between 20 and 40%
from moderate levels. In the United States 17% of all teachers leave the
profession within the first 5 years. Some of the factors associated with
teacher burnout are students’ challenging behavior, work overload and lack of
time, and role conflict and ambiguity.
Research into teacher
burnout has also revealed an important link between perceived working environment
and individual burnout levels, that is to say the higher burnout is perceived
collectively, the higher the chances that individual teachers will become burnt
out. Several studies have also reported the relation between teacher burnout
and harmful effects on physical and psychological health, how it negatively
affects work performance as well as professional and family relationships. In
addition, burnout can influence the way teachers perform their work as well as
curriculum-specific contents. In an era where student Social and Emotional
Learning is high on the agenda and schools are incorporating it into the
academic curricula, Ransford et al. (2009) found that teacher burnout was
negatively associated with the promotion of alternative thinking strategies
linked to socioemotional curriculum.
Research into
prosocial classrooms has focused mainly on the academic outcomes of students
and interaction between teachers and students. The development of rapport
between the teacher and the student is seen as fundamental as they both enter
the classroom with inter-related goals where both rapport and a prosocial
climate is co-constructed that actively encourages student participation (Sidelinger
& Booth-Butterfield, 2010). According to Schrodt, Turman, & Soliz (2006),
participating in rapport-building behaviors has been shown to positively
influence students’ opinions of instructor credibility and students’
evaluations of instruction.
This may be where
theory and practice clash when we consider that already overworked teachers are
now burdened with the added pressure of having to provide warm and emotionally
responsive support to all children with the aim of building a rapport. Just
take a minute to reflect on what it might mean to you as a teacher to always be
emotionally available to all your students. Would you feel extra pressure
knowing that students’ opinions of your credibility were linked to your
capacity to develop rapport?
With no, or very
little training, teachers are expected to cultivate a warm and nurturing
classroom climate, coach students through conflict with thoughtfulness and
display Zen-like emotional regulation, often in the midst of chaos. Whilst at
the same time attending to the demands from parents, school boards and an
ever-increasing amount of standardized testing. Very little professional
development is spent on acquiring these emotional competencies and it is easy
to see how teachers can find attending to students emotional and behavioral
needs overwhelming, which if we are to believe the academic literature, will
lead to lower academic performance by the students. In this situation a teacher
may be tempted to over-compensate and revert to authoritative and punishment
styles just to keep a grip on the class and any sense of emotional regulation
is lost as the class deteriorates into a self-sustaining environment of
disruption. This is what Jennings & Greenberg (2009) refer to a “burnout
cascade”.
Warning signs of
teacher burnout
True
burnout is much more than simply feeling tired or overwhelmed, and can lead
to serious depression. That's
why it's so vital to be vigilant about the warning signs.
- Fatigue and sleep issues: A full day of teaching
is enough to make anyone feel tired, but if you're experiencing fatigue
before you even get to school, you may need a break. However, those
experiencing burnout often struggle with insomnia,
which can turn into a vicious cycle.
- Repeated periods of forgetfulness and intense
trouble concentrating: Burned-out teachers may find it hard to complete
normal tasks and have trouble concentrating on their work. A lack of sleep
can amplify these symptoms even more.
- Appetite and weight issues: Any drastic weight
loss or gain should be investigated by your doctor, as this is often a
sign that you need to focus on your overall health.
- Depression and anxiety: If minimized or ignored
at the early stages, teacher burnout can intensify into feelings of
anxiety and depression. Always speak to your doctor if feelings of sadness
or anger are affecting your daily life.
How to Avoid Burnout if
you are a teacher
The theory
says that to avoid teacher burnout, teachers need to build balance into their
lives by setting clear work boundaries and managing to find down time at the
weekends. Which sounds fantastic, but a busy schedule and a demanding head of
department may not be so permitting. If you can do that then by all means go
ahead, but most teachers will need to grit their teeth and continue. You may
not be able to completely avoid burnout, but there are certain things that you
can do to lessen its effect upon you.
1. Focus only
on your class and try not to get caught up in school politics or gossip. Stay
focused on the task at hand, which is teaching kids.
2. A change
is as good as a rest. Maybe you can change age group, subject or class
3. Build a
positive community amongst your work colleagues
Burnout is
a serious condition that can have grave consequences on physical and
psychological wellbeing. If you or a colleague is suffering from stress,
overwork or burnout and would like to speak to a psychologist then you can
contact me here.
References
Sidelinger, R. J.,
& Booth-Butterfield, M. (2010). Co-constructing student involvement: An
examination of teacher confirmation and student-to-student connectedness in the
college classroom. Communication Education, 59(2), 165–184.
Schrodt, P., Turman,
P., & Soliz, J. (2006). Perceived understanding as a mediator of perceived
teacher confirmation and students’ rating of instruction. Communication
Education, 55, 370–388.
Maslach. C &
Leiter. M (1997) The truth about burnout: how organizations cause personal
stress and what to do about it
Ransford. C, Greenberg. M,
Domitrovich. C, Small. M & Jacobson. L (2009) The role of teachers’
psychological experiences and perceptions of curriculum supports on the
implementation of a social and emotional curriculum. School psychology
review 38(4):510-532
