The Burnout among Mathematics Teachers in Middle schools in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Teaching is a difficult profession that sometimes leads to the burnout of teachers, and is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. There are symptoms of burnout that can impact learners and teachers' behaviour and psychology to enhanced turnover, affecting learners and schools. Teacher burnout is regarded to be one of the most psychological issues that can gradually exhaust teachers. Teachers burnout can influence teaching objectives and educational environment, which make practitioners experience an indifference that can lead to health issues, absence of work, and the intention to leave the profession. Within the professional field, teachers reported higher burnout rates when compared to other occupations (Fisher, 2011). Several studies concluded that the occupational environment had a distinct correlation to an individual’s behaviours. Teacher’s perceptions of the work environment affected their physical and emotional well-being (Baran, 2012; Fernet et al. 2012; Lavian, 2012; Ortner, 2012). The multidimensional role of the teacher has been the focus of numerous studies. Teachers tend to have many roles including mentor, counselor, parent and disciplinarian. These extra roles, which go hand in hand with teaching, have displayed negative consequences including taking the focus off of teaching (Fernet, 2012; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2009) thereby, affecting a teacher’s personal self-efficacy. Many studies show rising rates of employee turnover, absence, and sick leave of teachers at different instructional levels in latest decades, combined with a growing incidence of mental health issues influencing teachers (Carlotto & Palazzo, 2006). Researchers have tried to define factors that could be related to burnout syndrome (Gasparini et al., 2005; Yaegashi et al., 2009). As per the essence of a teacher's job and the environment in which these practitioners work, there are a variety of stressors that, if constant, may contribute to burn-out syndrome, undermining the career, social and emotional life of the teacher. The concept of burnout connected with life dissatisfaction and workplace depression (Hakanen & Ahola, 2012; Schaufeli & Hakanen, 2012; Biron & Toker, 2012) as the reason for the disability of workers raises important issues for practitioners, which have extensive implications for employees (including teachers), clients, employers and insurance providers (Hall et al., & Connor, 2016). There is a need for a better understanding of the risk factors, the protective factors against the development of burnout, and the different underlying mechanisms. Many researches mentioned that there are many issues could lead to burnout among mathematics teachers in Saudi Arabia, such as curriculum, students, teachers, supervisors, and administrative problems (Ali & Abdulhakim, 2013; Naser, 2010; Alrasi & Noor 2014). This study tries to understand the main sources that cause burnout of mathematics teachers using qualitative method.