Wellbeing of English Teachers, their Burnout Levels and Coping Strategies: An Explanatory Study at a State University

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Anadolu Üniversitesi, EĞİTİM FAKÜLTESİ, YABANCI DİLLER EĞİTİMİ BÖLÜMÜ, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2024

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: Maide Ebru BACA

Danışman: Gonca Subaşı

Özet:

Considering the critical importance of teacher well-being in education, this study, which was conducted using an Exploratory Research Design, focused on English language teachers' burnout, their coping strategies, and the solution to this situation. The study was conducted with the participation of 50 English language instructors currently working at the School of Foreign Languages of a state university in Türkiye. The quantitative aspect of the study aims to find out the burnout levels and coping strategies used by EFL instructors working at this state university by using Maslach’s Burnout Inventory for educators and Multiple Response Questionnaire for Coping Strategies by (Erdağ, 2019). In addition, the qualitative aspect of the study aims to investigate the reasons behind the burnout of the participant instructors, their coping strategies, and the solutions they find for the reasons behind their burnout. The quantitative data of the study were collected through semi-structured interview sessions with English language lecturers. The semi-structured interview sessions consisted of 2 separate sessions and 18 interviews in total with 9 lecturers, focusing on the reasons behind teacher burnout and solution suggestions. Quantitative analysis revealed that the majority of the lecturers in the current sample experienced average levels of burnout. Qualitative analysis revealed that the reasons behind this experience of the lecturers were factors such as heavy workload, long working hours, inadequate administrative support, and instructors suggested solutions to improve this situation, such as reorganization of working hours, effective communication, lesson planning to attract students' interest, and socialization.

Keywords: Teacher burnout, Coping Strategies, Teacher Wellbeing, EFL Teachers