An Investigation Into Senior High School English Teachers’ Burnout

With the continuous deepening of education reform in our country,the responsibilities and missions of teachers are increasing day by day,and so is teachers’ work pressure.When teachers cannot effectively cope with the pressure,job burnout will easily occur.Teachers’ job burnout not only affects their own physical and mental health and personal professional development,but also seriously influences the improvement of education and teaching quality.In recent years,teachers’ burnout has attracted more and more attention from scholars at home and abroad,but most of the domestic studies have targeted higher vocational colleges.Only a few of them have focused on primary and secondary school teachers,and there have been fewer studies on high school English teachers.In view of this,this study uses high school English teachers as a sample to investigate and understand their current status of job burnout.The purpose is to explore the status and causes of job burnout among English teachers in senior high schools in the region,and to understand the status of burnout and the differences in demographics.In this study,198 English teachers from five high schools in Yancheng,Jiangsu Province were used as samples.Questionnaire surveys,personal interviews,and case studies were used to investigate the current status of teachers’ job burnout.The main three issues are as follows:(1)What is the current status of teachers’ job burnout?(2)What are the factors that affect the job burnout of English teachers in high schools ?(3)What measures should be taken to relieve the job burnout of high school English teachers ? During the research,this study also selected 5 high-score group teachers and 3 low-score group teachers to conduct one-to-one interviews to further analyze the causes of high school English teacher’s job burnout.The results of the data analysis have indicated that:(1)The overall situation of English teachers’ professional burnout in Yancheng is not too serious,but the emotional failure dimension is an exception,and the level of low personal accomplishment and depersonalization is not high.(2)Among demographic variables,age,teaching age,education,and school type have significant effects on burnout.Teacher burnout is most serious among teachers aged 30-40 years.Teachers who have been teaching for more than 20 years show the least job burnout.Postgraduate teachers have a low sense of personal accomplishment.Key middle school teachers show higher emotional exhaustion.(3)In terms of social,organizational,and personal factors,long working hours,heavy work pressures,unbalanced pay and rewards,unreasonable school evaluation mechanisms,insufficient personal knowledge and ability to meet job requirements,and lack of social support are important ones affecting job burnout.Based on the results of data analysis,the research conclusions and implications of this study are as follows:(1)Although the burnout of English teachers is not too serious,the serious emotional exhaustion of high school English teachers should raise the awareness of schools and the education administration departments.(2)Middle-aged English teachers have a serious job burnout.Postgraduate teachers and key middle school teachers have different types of job burnout.Schools and education administration departments should pay special attention to their study,work and life.(3)In addition to differences in teaching age,age,education,and school type,factors such as long working hours,heavy workloads,and lack of social support are also the main causes of job burnout among high school English teachers.It is worth noting that some teachers regard organizational factors as the most important cause of burnout.Finally,this study proposes specific measures and countermeasures to alleviate the job burnout of English teachers in high schools in the region from three aspects.