A comparison of burnout among honors, regular education, and special education K-8 teacher

This study employed a quantitative, ex-post facto non-experimental design to examine the effect of whether teaching honors, regular, or special education classes in either an elementary or middle school setting influenced the experience of teacher burnout. Participants included 69 teachers from two counties in a Southern state. The study survey consisted of one measure: Maslach Burnout Inventory -- Educator Survey (MBI-ES). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that there was no significant main effect for both teacher specialty and grade-level taught in regard to the experience of teacher burnout on the MBI-ES. Additionally, when both teacher specialty and grade-level taught were looked at separately in regard to the experience of teacher burnout, there was no main effect. Educational leaders at both the district as well as the school level may use these results to provide in-service training to help teachers develop coping techniques to deal with the experience of burnout symptoms. Furthermore, this study suggests recommendations for future research in the area of teacher burnout such as use of a mixed method research design as well as the inclusion of high school teachers.