The impact of organizational climate on burnout among homeroom teachers and special education teachers (full classes/individual pupils) in mainstream schools☆

Abstract

This article reports on a quantitative research study designed to examine the impact of organizational climate on burnout among homeroom and special education teachers working in Israeli state (non-religious) schools. The research literature identifies various causes for teacher burnout, offering evidence that special education teachers experience more burnout than teachers of mainstream classes. The research population for this study comprised 302 teachers from elementary schools in the state education system of the Tel Aviv district. The research group was divided into three subgroups: 138 teachers in regular education, 102 teachers from the Local Resource Center for Special Education Services (MATIA program) who were integrated into mainstream schools, and 62 special education teachers. The research tool was a questionnaire titled ‘Teaching Role, School Characteristics, and Teacher’s Feelings,’ which was specially constructed for the study. Data analysis examined 302 questionnaires completed by the regular and special education teachers. The Structural Equation Models instrument was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses utilizing AMOS 4.0 software. The data analysis showed that teachers start out of a sense of idealism and a belief in their willingness and ability to work hard. For many, the harsh reality of teaching becomes apparent within a very short time in the classroom and involves problematic work with difficult classes, often in an unsupportive organizational climate. These problems lead to stress followed by burnout and even to a desire to quit the profession. Feelings of stress and burnout were found common to teachers in both regular and special education classes and the explanation was found to involve classroom dynamics. On the other hand, the MATIA teachers, who work in mainstream schools with only one or two pupils, showed different results for all the parameters tested. School organizational climate was found to have a significant impact on burnout. The more unsupportive the school organizational climate is perceived, the greater the feeling of stress and burnout among teachers appears to be. Conversely, the more supportive the school organizational climate is perceived to be, the more likely the teacher is not to experience burnout.