Teacher Stress and the Manifestations of Burnout

much emphasis on testing, and too much teaching to the test—are driving teachers from the classroom. On top of that are teachers’ clear feelings of hopelessness, or futility, when it comes to the metrics by which many in and outside the profession define educational success, as only 43 percent of surveyed teachers believed student achievement would improve between 2011 and 2016 (MetLife, 2012). In the 21st century, capable teachers who may have entered their careers with confidence and positivity may end up feeling, frankly, burned out.

According to professor Ralf Schwarzer and scholar Suhair Hallum (2008), burnout is “a chronic state of exhaustion due to long-term interpersonal stress within human service professions. It pertains to feelings experienced by people whose jobs require repeated exposure to emotionally charged social situations” (p. 155). Indeed, most difficulties that teachers encounter in the profession are emotionally charged.

Schwarzer and Hallum (2008) quote the foundational work of Michael P. Leiter and Christina Maslach (1998) and argue that there are three symptoms of burnout: (1) emotional exhaustion, (2) depersonalization, and (3) reduced personal accomplishment.

1. Emotional exhaustion: When teachers say, “I am at the end of my rope,” they mean they have emotional exhaustion. It is a juncture of one’s career characterized by the sapping of one’s emotional energy. Frequent symptoms of emotional exhaustion can include lethargy, fatigue, and even debilitation (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). This stress component is more than the physical exhaustion that results from being on one’s feet for seven hours, engaging large numbers of students for whom the teacher has full responsibility. Instead, this manifestation of teacher burnout usually emerges after long exposure to stressful situations—situations that are often beyond the classroom teacher’s control. 2. Depersonalization: When teachers pivot from a positive and enthusiastic professional disposition to a decidedly more cynical and negative one, they generally do so because the job itself has become depersonalized. Depersonalization occurs when a teacher, for whatever reason, no longer feels personally connected to the outcomes of the classroom in which he or she teaches. Teachers who speak of being “over it” or who claim to no longer feel invested in their teaching environment embody this component of burnout, which is more than a simple loss of idealism. Once a teacher depersonalizes his or her job, he or she will have difficulty reclaiming feelings of self-efficacy and success without undergoing intense reflection and professional assessment. This is why so many teachers either stop being personally invested in class outcomes or leave the profession altogether.

3. Reduced personal accomplishment: Schwarzer and Hallum (2008) equate reduced personal accomplishment with “reduced professional efficacy, productivity or capability, low morale, and an inability to cope with job demands” (p. 155). They also define it as feelings of intense inadequacy that often result in a teacher’s lower assessment of his or her professional achievement (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). When a teacher dissociates classroom efforts with any expectation of achievement, then burnout has severely hampered any hopes of finding genuine joy and meaning in his or her educational endeavors. Teachers who claim to find no payoff for hard work, personal sacrifice, and intensive time commitments to their profession often withdraw from making any further commitments.

If teachers’ stress levels are so high as to render them incapable of coping with job demands or recognizing the purpose of their role and commitment to education, their very well-being is compromised, thus making classroom instruction a painful slog from which they disengage (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). Journalist Kassondra Granata (2014) suggests this day-to-day learning environment is unsustainable for not only teachers but their students.

NOTICE the WAVE Have you ever experienced any of the symptoms of teacher burnout—emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, or reduced personal accomplishment? What were the signs for you?

The Benefits of Self-Care

Teachers need to understand that self-care is not indulgent. In fact, it is the height of professionalism for a simple reason: when teachers are not at their best, our schools will not be at their best. When schools do not function in an optimal fashion, our students will not reach their full potential. Thus, responsible professional development must include a robust conversation about self-care. According to teacher and college instructor Jennifer Gonzalez (2017), far too many educators associate self-care with self-indulgence or professional weakness; they often feel guilty when they admit they need more information about self-care. Rather than seek this information, they maintain unproductive, strenuous work habits. As she writes in her popular blog Cult of Pedagogy, “Too many teachers have reached the conclusion that this [unhealthy]