The World Health Organization (WHO) 2019 defined “burnout” as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: 1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; 2) increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and 3) reduced professional efficacy” (WHO, 2019). In both the US and the UK it has been reported that as high as one in three new teachers quit the profession within five years of beginning. The tendency of teachers to quit their jobs before retirement age, is strongly correlated with burnout and is a growing concern for schools in the US. A meta-analysis of burnout and teacher attrition revealed that the areas of burnout, exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced accomplishment had significant positive correlations with teachers’ intentions to quit their jobs (Madigan and Kim, 2021). This study seeks to investigate the perceptions of teacher burnout of students entering an educator preparation program. The purpose of this study is to shed light on situations, personal characteristics and perceptions of burnout in students seeking to be educators in order to better prepare pre-service teacher candidates for teaching careers.

Authors: Christina Janise Wickard, Emily Reeves-Fyfe, Daphney L. Curry

Published in: London International Conference on Education (LICE-2023)

• Date of Conference: 13-15 November 2023
• DOI: 10.20533/LICE.2023.0036
• ISBN: 978-1-913572-66-2
• Conference Location: St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK