English Teacher Burnout: A Reflection of Pedagogical Practice in Thai Basic Education Schools

Abstract

Teachers, mainly English as foreign language (EFL) teachers, are at a high risk of experiencing burnout as they have to encounter high work demands and work-stressors related to language teaching (Meidani et al., 2019). Moreover, teacher burnout can significantly affect students and the educational system as a whole as it hinders the teachers from effectively performing their tasks (Iancu et al., 2017). The current study aimed to further explore teacher burnout in the Thai EFL context and identify factors contributing to English teachers’ burnout in Thai basic education. It also investigated whether there were differences in English teachers’ burnout between primary and secondary school teachers of English. Participants of this study were drawn from convenience sampling, consisting of 120 Thai EFL teachers from primary and secondary schools in Northeastern Thailand. Thai version of Maslach Burnout Inventory Educator Survey (MBI-ES) was employed to collect three burnout subscales: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among ten participants who scored highest in MBI-ES. The data analysis revealed that the Thai EFL teachers suffered from emotional exhaustion the most. The ANOVA test and t-test results found that age, marital status, educational background, and teaching experience were burnout factors among Thai EFL teachers. Furthermore, the qualitative data analysis indicated that noninstructional workload, negative work environment, student misbehavior, and lack of administrative support were the leading causes of Thai EFL teachers’ burnout. Also, there were no significant differences between burnout among primary and secondary school teachers of English. Other pedagogical implications and recommendations for future studies are also provided.

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