Causes of Early Childhood Teachers' Burnout Stability

In the theoretical hypotheses of this study, we divided the factors affecting burnout among early childhood teachers into contextual, social, organizational, professional and personal factors.

1. Contextual factors and burnout of early childhood teachers.

The so-called contextual factors mainly refer to the teacher's age, teaching experience, the class they teach, so the kindergarten system and other factors.

The results of the study show that age, teaching age, classes taught, and so the kindergarten system have different effects on the burnout of early childhood teachers in Beijing. Some of the results are quite different from the findings of foreign studies as well as our theoretical assumptions.

(1) Teachers' age.Maslach&;Jackson, SchwaIwanicki,, AndersoIwanicki, Schwabetal,,Rueletal.r's study found that younger teachers are more likely to burnout than older teachers. This difference was also found in our study, with an age hairline around 40 years old. However, due to the small sample size above 40 years of age, the generalizability of the findings is equal to further verification.

(2) teaching age. AndersoIwanicki's (1984) study found that teachers with 13"24 years of teaching experience are more likely to show a decrease in self-fulfillment; Borg&;Falzon argues that teachers with more than 20 years of teaching experience are more susceptible to the phenomenon of burnout; Feler points out that, of the eight stages of teacher development. "orientation stage" (the first few years after teaching) and "career frustration stage" (about 15 years of teaching) are burnout-prone fatalities; and Steffy's "Teacher Career Development Model Steffy's "Teacher Career Development Model" categorizes teacher development into five stages, and argues that in the "Continuous Retreat" period of the "Retreat Career Stage" (basically equivalent to Feler's "Career Frustration Stage"), teachers are more susceptible to burnout. It is believed that teachers are more prone to professional lassitude during the "persistent withdrawal" period of the "withdrawal career stage" (basically equivalent to Feler's "career setback stage"). In our study, we found that burnout was more widely distributed among early childhood teachers from the time they joined the profession to the time they had 23 years of teaching experience, and that the situation was significantly better among veteran teachers with more than 23 years of teaching experience.

While Figure 1 shows that among the early childhood teachers with 1"23 years of teaching experience, the proportion of burnout among teachers with 8, 9, 16 and 19 years of teaching experience is lower, and the proportion of burnout among those with 5, 11, 12 and 15 years of teaching experience is higher, it seems to be insufficient to validate the foreign viewpoints about the correlation between burnout and the stage of teachers' hair tuxedo, and also it is difficult to determine the stage of the vulnerability of the early childhood teachers' burnout. Whether this is reflecting the characteristics of the profession of early childhood teachers, is still waiting for further research.

(3) Age classes taught. Considerable research confirms that in primary and secondary schools, the higher the grade level of the students, the more prone teachers are to burnout, and that high school teachers are more prone to burnout than middle school teachers. Our findings, on the other hand, found nothing similar. There was no significant difference in the incidence and rate of burnout among teachers in nursery, elementary, middle, large and mixed-age classes.

(4) So the kindergarten system. We compared the burnout status of teachers in four different types of kindergartens in Beijing (public, private, collective, and enterprise), as well as in reformed and non-reformed kindergartens, and the results showed that the kindergarten system did not have a significant effect on the burnout of Beijing's kindergarten teachers.

This result is inconsistent with our theoretical hypothesis that "kindergarten system will have an impact on teacher burnout, and that the burnout phenomenon of teachers in public kindergartens will be lower than that in other systems." -is inconsistent. From Table 2, the livelihood rate of teacher burnout in public kindergartens (68.5%) is even higher than in other kindergartens, and although the difference does not reach the significant level, this result is also very intriguing. What does it indicate? How can it be interpreted? It needs to be studied and explored in depth.

2. Social factors and burnout of early childhood teachers.

The so-called social factors refer to the general social environment in which teachers work and live. They mainly include the requirements and expectations of social changes and educational reforms for the teaching profession, public awareness of the teaching profession, and parents' attitudes.

(1) New requirements and high expectations brought by social changes. It can be said that all studies on burnout have seen the impact of social changes on teacher burnout. Researchers agree that in recent decades, social change and the educational reforms it has led to have continuously raised new demands and expectations on the teaching profession, so that teachers are constantly faced with new challenges. While this has provided them with opportunities for professional development, at the same time, these demands and expectations have created increasing pressure on teachers. Burnout is precisely the negative attitudes and behaviors towards the profession that result from the inability of practitioners to effectively relieve excessive work pressure. This shows that the new requirements and high expectations brought about by social changes are an important cause of teacher burnout.

Our research confirms that "changing demands and expectations" is the main variable in social factors that affects the burnout of early childhood teachers, with a total effect coefficient of 0.4443.

(2) Public recognition and respect for the teaching profession. Many foreign studies have found that the public generally lacks a correct understanding of the teaching profession, "Students, parents, administrators and society do not treat teachers as professionals to give them the necessary respect"; "Teachers are often scolded when they fail, but they do not get any affirmation and rewards when they succeed ". In this regard, Farber points out that those who have never been teachers simply cannot understand the teaching profession, and their perceptions of the profession are usually: it's easy to be a teacher; it's a summer vacation for teachers; and teachers get a lot for very little. ...... It is this lack of public understanding of and respect for the teaching profession that contributes largely to teacher burnout.

In our study, although the overall effect of social recognition and respect for the early childhood teaching profession on early childhood teacher burnout is not very strong, its direct effect is as high as -0.14, which is the highest among all variables. This suggests that increasing the level of public respect and recognition for the profession of early childhood teachers can reduce their burnout to a greater extent.

(3) Parents' attitudes and awareness. Many foreign studies suggest that although parental support and involvement can be of great help to teachers' work and school progress, unfortunately, at present parents tend to be the main source of stress for school teachers. Moreover, parents' perceptions and attitudes, as an important part of the "public perception", lack the necessary respect and recognition of the teaching profession. These are important causes of teacher burnout.

Our findings suggest that parents' attitudes have relatively little impact on burnout among early childhood teachers. This may be related to the tradition of "respecting teachers and emphasizing teaching" in our country, or it may reflect the lack of attention of our teachers to the attitudes of parents.

3. Organizational factors and early childhood teachers' burnout.

Organizational factors here refer to the characteristics of the organization in which an individual works, including professional role orientation, workload, right to information and participation in decision-making, treatment and professional development opportunities, and social support. At the beginning of the rise of burnout research, the characteristics of the organization in which an individual works have been receiving more attention. This is because researchers have found that the primary factor contributing to burnout - stress - often comes directly from the organization.

Our study shows that organizational factors have the greatest impact on the burnout of early childhood teachers in Beijing, compared to social, professional, and personal factors.

(1) Role orientation. Many studies have pointed out that professional role confusion and role conflict are important causes of burnout.

The so-called professional role confusion means that practitioners are not clear about their responsibilities, rights, goal status and obligations to be fulfilled. This phenomenon is often caused by the failure of their organizations to make clear provisions for their duties or to serve as required. And role conflict often occurs when a practitioner feels that the requirements imposed by the organization are inconsistent, contradictory, or inappropriate. Sutton points out that the following situations are most likely to lead to role conflict for teachers: (1) teachers are asked to provide students with a high-quality education but are not allowed to use the best pedagogical methods and curricular resources, and (2) teachers are asked to be in charge of the classroom but are not given the appropriate authority. In addition, when teachers are often asked to do things other than their own work, they are also prone to role confusion and role conflict.

Our study also found that the homogeneity of teachers' professional roles (rather than role confusion and conflict) has an impact coefficient of -0.1856 on burnout, which suggests that clarification of teachers' duties, obligations, rights, and goals can serve to slow down their burnout.

(2) Workload. A large number of studies have shown that heavy workloads, tight deadlines for completing tasks, large class sizes, too much paperwork, and tasks beyond the teacher's ability and scope can cause excessive work pressure on teachers, creating the phenomenon of "role overload". A survey of American teachers showed that some unnecessary text work not only does not provide effective help for their work, but also wastes a lot of valuable teaching time. Sutton identifies two possible reactions to role overload: (1) a decline in quality or not completing the work at all. This often leads to anxiety and low self-esteem. Trying to fulfill the demands of the role. This can lead to lack of time off, physical and mental exhaustion, and family problems (due to lack of time to focus on the family). All of this is very likely to lead to teacher burnout.

Our study found that excessive workload does not have a significant direct effect on burnout among early childhood teachers, but indirectly exacerbates burnout by affecting teachers' professional role orientation and their personal aspects, and therefore should not be taken lightly.

(3) The right to information and participation in decision-making. Numerous studies have found that restricting teachers' right to know and their right to participate in decision-making can lead to teacher burnout. A foreign study showed that among the factors related to schools, whether or not teachers are given the opportunity to participate in decision-making has a very close relationship with their burnout.

Our study found that the "right to know" has a significant effect on preventing or reducing burnout among early childhood teachers, with a total effect coefficient as high as 1.0.498, and the "right to participate in decision-making" is second only to the right to know (1.0.3191), and is also the most important factor in teacher burnout. 0.3191), is also a positive factor in preventing teacher burnout. It can be seen that enhancing teachers' ownership in kindergarten can prevent burnout to a large extent.

(4) Professional development opportunities. Opportunities for professional development also have a close relationship with teachers' professional attitudes.Farber pointed out that the few opportunities for professional development that teachers get in schools is one of the major causes of their burnout.

Our findings show that among the organizational factors that have an impact on burnout among early childhood teachers, professional development opportunities have the greatest direct impact on burnout. The more professional development opportunities teachers enjoy, the correspondingly lower their burnout.

(5) Social support. Many studies have found that the lack of necessary social support is also an important cause of teacher burnout.Eier pointed out that compared with people in other professions, teachers seldom have time to talk with their families and friends, and even in the same school, there is little mutual support and cooperation among teachers.Levine and Sarason believe that the teaching profession is often a "lonely profession" in fact. According to Levine and Sarason, the teaching profession is in fact often a "lonely profession". There is a significantly high correlation between lack of social support and burnout.

Our research also suggests that "social support" has the potential to reduce burnout in early childhood teachers.

(6) Treatment. Low treatment is also believed to be closely related to teacher burnout. Some researchers have pointed out that although the treatment of teachers has been improved in recent years, it is still on the low side compared with other professions; and teachers also generally believe that the remuneration of their labor is not commensurate with the noble mission of the teaching profession assigned to them by the parents and the society, which makes the teachers feel very unbalanced, thus leading to teacher burnout.

From the results of our study, the direct effect of "treatment" on early childhood teachers' burnout (I01.1) is second only to professional development opportunities. (-0.12), indicating that treatment affects early childhood teachers' burnout to a considerable extent. The worse the treatment, the worse the burnout.

In conclusion, giving teachers the right to information, the right to participate in decision-making and the opportunity for professional development in the school, appropriately reducing teachers' workload, clarifying teachers' responsibilities providing teachers with all kinds of social support, and enabling them to get the treatment they deserve can all play a role in reducing and avoiding burnout.

4, occupational factors and early childhood teacher burnout.

The so-called occupational factors, foreign research mainly involves the teaching task, teaching situation and the requirements of the occupation itself three aspects of the content, that these three factors have increased the workload of the teacher from a different perspective. For example, special education teachers are more prone to burnout than general education teachers; too large a class size makes it impossible for teachers to individualize their teaching, and so on. Although the latter has something to do with organizational factors, it is to a large extent determined by factors of the profession itself.

In our study, we categorized career factors into "teaching and learning context" and "personal utility value" (i.e., the utility of the career for oneself). It was found that occupational factors had a lesser impact on burnout among Beijing's early childhood teachers than social and organizational factors. However, the recognition of the "personal utility value" of the profession and the improvement of the quality of the "teaching and learning situation" of kindergarten teachers also play a role in reducing burnout to a greater or lesser extent.

5, personal factors and early childhood teacher burnout.

The so-called personal factors refer to the individual teacher's factors, such as personality/temperament type, control point type, and some of their higher needs. Like organizational factors, the impact of personal factors on teacher burnout has received widespread attention in research.

(1) Personality/temperament type.Gla (1977) and Lin (1987) found that burnout is more likely to occur in individuals with Type A personality traits.The main characteristics of Type A personality are: extremely challenging, competitive, impatient, idealistic, emotional, focused, and committed. Although there is a specific relationship between personality/temperament type and teacher burnout that has been suggested in these studies, this relationship has not been widely empirically confirmed.

Our study also confirms the uncertainty of the relationship between the two, and that personality/temperament type does not necessarily lead to burnout; the attainment of occupational fulfillment contributes to some extent to the change in teachers' personalities.

(2) Types of control points. Among the factors related to individual teachers, control point type is considered to be one of the most important predictors of teachers' professional stress and burnout. Research has generally found that "external control" teachers are more likely to burn out than "internal control" teachers.

Our findings also suggest that "type of control point" has a direct impact on burnout among early childhood teachers: "external" teachers are indeed more susceptible to negative factors in the environment than "internal" teachers, and "external" teachers are more likely to be burned out than "internal" teachers. Teachers with "external control" are indeed more susceptible than teachers with "internal control" to the influence of negative factors in the environment, which can lead to burnout.

(3) Sense of fulfillment and value. Research has found that teacher burnout has a great deal to do with certain higher needs of teachers. These higher needs include: the need for self-actualization, which includes the need for success, the need for achievement, and the need to reach one's full potential in one's work; and the need to be respected, which includes the need for self-respect and the need to be seen by others as a professional. Other studies have confirmed that there is a high correlation between teachers' need for self-esteem and their burnout.

Our study found that "fulfillment" was the variable with the greatest impact on burnout among the personal factors, with a total effect coefficient that was second only to "right to know", "expectations", and "right to participate in decision-making". Its total effect coefficient is the fourth after "right to know", "expectation" and "right to participate in decision-making". Moreover, there is a strong interaction between "satisfaction" and individual teachers' personality/temperament type and the personal utility value of early childhood teachers' profession, indicating that the more satisfaction teachers experience in their work, the more they tend to think that they are suitable for the job, and thus the more they tend to agree with the value of the job for their personal development, which can reduce the chance of burnout. reducing the chances of burnout.

In summary, the findings of this study show that the burnout situation of early childhood teachers in Beijing is not optimistic, and that burnout has a negative impact on the personal work of early childhood teachers, especially physiologically and psychologically.