The role of time perspectives in Language Teachers’ Burnout

Abstract

The present study attempted to investigate the role of time perspectives in language teachers’ burnout and its three dimensions, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. For this purpose, a group of 302 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were asked to fill out Zimbardo’s Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) along with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The results of correlations demonstrated significantly positive relationships between burnout, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization with the past negative and present fatalistic time perspectives (p < .01), and significantly negative ones with past positive, present hedonistic, and future perspectives (p < .01). On the other hand, personal accomplishment had a significantly negative relationship with past negative and present fatalistic (p < .01), and a significantly positive relationship with past positive, present hedonistic, and future perspectives (p < .01). Furthermore, according to what structural equation modeling (SEM) showed, language teachers having a negative outlook on the past and a fatalistic perspective of the future were more likely to experience emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and burnout in general; whereas those with past positive, present hedonistic, and also future time perspectives were more likely to feel personal accomplishment in their career. Finally, the findings were discussed, and the potential implications were drawn.