The Measurement Of The Burnout Of College English Teachers And The Construction Of Its Attribution Model From The Perspective Of Job Demands-Resources Theory

Since the beginning of the new century,with the rapid development of the global economy,competition has become increasingly fierce in all walks of life.The growing work pressure has given rise to the spread of an occupational disease called “job burnout” and teachers are accounted one of the high-risk groups.The burnout of teachers will have an impact on not only the students and classroom atmosphere,but the successful implementation of educational reforms and the sound advancement of the whole society as well.As a special group long marginalized among college teachers in China,teachers of College English,whose professional development falls far behind other college teachers,are under great work pressure and more prone to job burnout.In recent years,the job burnout of teachers of College English is drawing the attention of more and more researchers.However,domestic studies in this field began rather late and still remain at a low level.On the one hand,most empirical studies of the job burnout of teachers of College English are descriptive,and the scales employed in the studies are directly borrowed from abroad.What’s more,there are many problems in relation to the correct use of those scales and the final measurement results are usually lacking in reliability and comparability.On the other hand,factors contributing to the burnout of teachers of College English are normally deduced in the way of empirical generalization and rational speculation.As yet,no researchers have made attempts to construct an attribution model by a quantitative approach,thus there being no convincing evidence concerning the relationship between causes for the burnout of teachers of College English and the their job burnout.Based on the Job Demands-Resources theory,this study measures the level of job burnout among college English teachers and constructs its attribution model via a mixed research method of both qualitative and quantitative approaches.The following research questions are addressed: How is the overall level of burnout for teachers of College English? How are personal variables related to the burnout of teachers of College English ? What are the main job characteristics contributing to the burnout of teachers of College English? How are job demands and resources related to the burnout of teachers of College English? And the major findings are as follows:First,the study finds that a relatively high percentage of college English teachers demonstrate symptoms of burnout,some reaching the medium or even the high level.Second,individual variables including one’s educational background,professional title,years of teaching experience,teaching workload,university level and category are found to be associated with burnout rates,yet there is no significant relationship between gender and burnout.Third,qualitative studies show that the job characteristics of college English teachers that may lead to burnout include teaching-related role overload,scientific research stress induced by promotion,disruptive student behavior,work-family conflict,organizational justice,supervisory support,job autonomy and advancement opportunities.Fourth,the regression analysis shows that job demands are positive predictors of teacher burnout while job resources are negative predictors of teacher burnout.And last,structural equation modeling shows that indicators for goodness of fitting of the three attribution models proposed in the study are all acceptable,the one-factor model being the best.The above findings will offer some referential value for policymakers,college management,teachers of College English and researchers in this field.The novelty of the study lies in that it seeks to explore the most important job-related factors contributing to the burnout of teachers of College English from the perspective of Job Demands-Resources theory,clarifies the relationship between job demands,job resources and different dimensions of burnout and the predictability of the factors,and constructs the relevant attribution models.Due to the present research conditions,there are still some limitations in research design,sampling control and scale development.In future studies,researchers are expected to explore the possibilities for improvement in these aspects.Longitudinal studies or studies focusing on the effectiveness of interventions should also be conducted.