Professional Self-Concept as a Predictor of Teacher Burnout

Abstract

The primary goal of this research was to investigate the relationship of teacher burnout to the various ways that teachers view themselves professionally and to the ways in which they sense that others within the educational system view them. A total of 641 teachers in 40 Israeli elementary schools completed a modified form of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a composite measure of professional self-concept. Results indicate that of several dimensions of professional self-concept, professional satisfaction–how teachers feel about the gratification they receive from teaching–bore the strongest negative correlation to burnout; that among the possible discrepancies among scores on the self-concept dimensions, the discrepancy between teachers' views of themselves as professionally competent and professionally satisfied bore the strongest correlation to burnout; that stronger correlations to burnout existed in terms of how teachers perceive themselves rather than how they feel that others perceive them; and that from the point of view of teachers, both parents and principals have an exaggerated sense of teachers' professional satisfaction, discrepancies that in both cases were significantly correlated with burnout. Teachers, it was argued, need to give themselves credit for even partial educational successes, to prevent burnout.