TEACHER BUNROUT 2
Teacher Burnout
Educators are facing so many ranging challenges from endless certification requirements,
low-salaries, and test-based teaching systems. It leaves educators with no room for creativity,
motivations or even room for connection with students. Despite being one of the most
demanding and important job the teacher burn out as been rising in the classroom.
Education is an important factor in promoting equality in the United States, resulting in a
reduction of the workforce (Troesch & Bauer,2020). Losing so many teachers is affecting the
profession in a negative effect such as achievement gaps and less effective instructional
strategies that affect not only the educator but also the student. There are many reasons why
teachers are leaving the profession, one of these that has been the constant misunderstanding
between educator and administration, student behavior issues and the unrealistic teaching
expectation.
A questionnaire survey was conducted with 297 teachers to collect information on the
main challenges that they face daily and what triggers educator to quit. The survey response
according to the article provided many adequate information, the first issue was the demand in
the teaching profession. Teacher is highly overloaded with work, reporting at seven in the
morning to meet expectation of education system to complete unrealistic teaching goals. Teacher
is expected to meet specific lesson expectation that must be understood by students before
moving on to the next lesson, yet some students are not ready to move on which follows by
students falling into those small cracks because if educator doesn’t move on then the
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expectations by the educators are not being meet. The increased demands, including physical
needs by the students and social requirement, trigger burnout where teachers develop system
fatigue (Troesch & Bauer, 2020) Teachers who fail to meet the high demands in the teaching
profession leave and join other professions without increased demands.
The second reason the survey reveals the challenges faced when handling different
students, every student needs a different environment to learn a teacher’s responsibility to ensure
that every student gets the acquire knowledge they need. Students with learning disabilities
require more effort from teachers to ensure that they can learn like any other student (Troesch &
Bauer, 2020) Educators are responsible for ensuring that all students are accommodated during
the teaching process, with so much pressure teachers find it challenging to adjust the teaching
process to meet the needs of all students. Education provides specific regulations that tend to
increase teacher stress levels and are still expected to meet the teaching standards.
(Troesch&Bauer,2020) The study found that many teachers reported the increased need to
cooperate with others teacher during the education process to solve classroom issues. No matter
what the issue is teachers are expected to collaborate with school principals in solving issues that
arise, such as school management, which increases the stress in teachers’ life.
The study showed that many teachers also lack commitment to the school they teach.
Teachers in public schools report high levels of intention to quit the profession due to toxic work
environment, these include no support from administration, lack of budget for supplies and social
amenities as health care for teachers. Working at low performing school have a high level of
stress for the teachers. The teacher’s professional image is influenced by school performances
(Chambers Mack et al.,2019). Teachers are motivated to maintain a better professional image
through exemplary results.
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Throughout the years education has changed in many ways, curriculum, guidelines,
policies etc., but the biggest changes in education come from the current and future generations
to come. Education has always been a way to open a child’s way of thinking and way to teach
how to solve problems that one faces in life. An experience teacher knows that children’s
performance is not based off a state performance test and that it is based on what and how the
child learns. Every teacher has varying problems in their teaching career, frustrations, stress and
the pressure that makes many teachers quit and look for other fields where teacher can earn a
salary without the stress. By acknowledging the work done by the teachers gives them hope for
the duties they undertake each day. Respecting teachers for their work will help the performance
of learners under the teachers care.
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Reference:
Troesch, L. M., & Bauer, C. E. (2019, December 26). Is teaching less challenging for career
switchers? First and second career teachers’ appraisal of professional challenges and
their intention to leave teaching. Frontiers.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03067/full
Chambers Mack, J., Johnson, A., Jones-Rincon, A., Tsatenawa, V., & Howard, K. (2019). Why
do teachers leave? A comprehensive occupational health study evaluating intent-to-quit
in public school teachers. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 24(1),
e12160. https://doi.org/10.1111/jabr.12160
Factors contributing to teacher burnout during COVID-19 - Sage Journals. (n.d.-a).
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.3102/0013189X211004138
