Emotional burnout of teachers as a factor of their professional inefficiency

Abstract

The problem of schoolteachers’ emotional burnout and of the personal and professional deformation associated with it is relevant for the pedagogical community all over the world, and Russia is no exception. According to special studies, in 2020, 75 % of schoolteachers in Russia had clear symptoms of burnout, and 38 % were in its acute phase - when burnout significantly affects the quality of life and the ability to work. For any profession, but to a greater extent for the socially oriented (helping) one including schoolteachers, emotional burnout has negative consequences for the ‘burnt out’ specialist, for his colleagues and for his students. The article presents the results of the sociological study of the issues of improving the professional-pedagogical activities of teachers in the Republic of Bashkortostan, which was conducted in April-June 2022 as part of the data for the parliamentary hearings in the State Assembly - Kurultai of the Republic of Bashkortostan (N = 4529). Respondents proportionally represented four groups of schools: Ufa, other cities of the region, centers of municipalities, and villages. The article aims at assessing the scale and forms of emotional burnout among schoolteachers in the region and at identifying the factors-causes (personal and organizational-professional) of its symptoms, negative consequences of burnout in relation to working conditions, and measures to minimize and prevent such consequences. The problem of burnout is determined not so much by individual causes as by management practices inherent in the education system, wages, irregular and uncontrolled workload, and the features of the profession which implies the risk of burnout. The author believes that the scale of emotional burnout of schoolteachers requires a research approach based on the interdisciplinary methodology. Moreover, it is important not only to study the problem but also to propose reasonable measures to help schoolteachers to get out of the burnout condition, and, most importantly, to improve the organization of work in schools: analysis of business processes in school and their optimization, limiting the number of extracurricular activities, increasing the availability of medical and psychological assistance, diagnostics of burnout and providing assistance based on its results.