The association between burnout and demographic characteristics of educators living in boarding schools

Abstract

Many countries around the globe are suffering the effects of high teacher burnout. This is of concern as it leads to a greater teacher attrition rate which has a negative impact on the quality of education in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between the biographical characteristics, such as age, gender and position, of boarding educators and burnout at secondary boarding schools in Gauteng Province. Using Christine Maslach�s theoretical framework on burnout, this study sought to investigate how the three components of burnout, namely: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal achievement correlate with the above-mentioned biographical characteristics of boarding school educators by making use of an exploratory, correlational research design. Boarding educators at boarding schools in four major educational districts in Gauteng Province were purposively selected and requested to complete the Maslach Burnout Inventory which is a survey designed to measure burnout. The results from the analysed data indicated that two areas, where a significant difference was seen, were in the type of school in which the boarding educator worked (independent vs public sector) as well as the ages of the boarding educators. Boarding educators from independent schools had a significantly higher level of emotional exhaustion in comparison with their public school counterparts and boarding educators between the ages of 30 and 39 years scored significantly higher levels of emotional exhaustion.