Occupational Stressors of Novice EFL Teachers in Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the occupational stressors that novice EFL teachers encounter, how these stressors affect them, and whether they tend to use resilience strategies or experience burnout symptoms. Within the qualitative research method, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews from three novice EFL teachers. The data were analyzed by coding and categorizing. The findings show that novice EFL teachers experience multiple stressors related to being inexperienced, students, parents, school administrations, lesson preparation, using a second language, preparing more materials, dealing with many skill areas, not being seen as important as other subjects and social stigmas. Also, they tend to use resilience strategies like social support, collaborating, being prepared, separating teacher identity and self-identity and acceptance rather than experiencing burnout.