A Study Of Job Burnout Among College English Teachers During The Middle Stage Of Teaching Career

Ever since it was officially proposed, job burnout has become a focus forresearchers. Numerous studies indicate there is a high incidence of job burnout amongteachers. Now almost every domestic university has the department of college Englishteaching, and college English teachers constitute a very large part of the whole teachingstuff. If these teachers suffer from job burnout for a long time, it will inevitably affectthe quality of English teaching. Actually, the phenomenon of job burnout among collegeEnglish teachers has been prevalent and prominent in recent years. A series of studieshas been conducted by some domestic scholars, but it is relatively scarce and notspecific. The present study aims to explore the status quo of college English teachersduring the middle stage of teaching career from the perspective of teacher professionaldevelopment, probe into the causes of job burnout and put forward some suggestionsfor its alleviation.Accordingly, the following research questions are put forward:(1) what is thewhole status quo of job burnout among college English teachers during the middle stageof teaching career at the target university?(2) What is the relationship betweendemographic variables and job burnout among college English teachers during themiddle stage of teaching career? Specifically, does job burnout differ in terms ofdemographic variables during a specific stage of teaching career?(3) Besides thepossible demographic variables, what are the other factors which may contribute to thejob burnout?Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were adopted in the present study.A survey questionnaire, which includes two parts (Demographic Survey and TeacherBurnout Scale), was used to collect information. The participants are college Englishteachers during the middle stage of teaching career. In this survey, a total of52validquestionnaires were obtained for data analysis. Among them, six participants took partin the follow-up interviews mainly to solve the last one research question.Research findings indicate that the overall burnout of college English teachers during the middle stage of teaching career at the target university is not serious. Theyundergo a moderate level of emotional exhaustion and a low level of depersonalizationand reduced personal accomplishment. There is a significant difference betweendifferent groups of gender among college English teachers during the middle stage ofteaching career. Specifically, male teachers are found to suffer from a higher level ofburnout than female teachers in the three dimensions and overall burnout level;moreover, there is a significant difference in the dimension of depersonalization andreduced personalization and the overall burnout level. No significant difference is foundbetween groups of years of teaching, educational level, professional title, weeklyteaching periods and yearly income. But teachers with21-25years of teaching arefound to have the highest level of job burnout, those with7-10years of teachingexhibiting the lowest level; teachers with a master’s degree suffer from the highestdegree of job burnout in the three dimensions and the overall burnout; teachers with ajunior title are reported to undergo the most serious burnout, those with a senior titleexperiencing a comparatively lower level; in addition, there is a significant differencebetween groups of professional title in the dimension of reduced personalaccomplishment; teachers with more weekly periods suffer from more serious burnout;the higher the yearly income is, the lower the burnout level is. Interview data reveal thatthe factors of job burnout among college English teachers are presented in the followingaspects: social support, organization, students and teaching situation. Based on theconclusions drawn above, this study puts forward some suggestions for alleviating thejob burnout from the perspectives of social support, organizational support andindividual efforts.