teachers' burnout thesis

Teacher stress and burnout at all time high heading into new school year

CT (WFSB) - Stress on Connecticut teachers is at an all-time high.

That’s one of the findings in a new Connecticut Education Association survey, done in partnership with WFSB.

More than 800 educators gave their honest outlook about their biggest challenges in the classroom in the exclusive report.

“People sort of feel beaten down and disrespected in the profession a lot and it’s hard to avoid that,” said KC Petruzzi, a high school science teacher.

That is contributing to the growing burnout among educators.

From first grade to high school, these teachers are in different classrooms and districts but share many of the same stressors.

“There is so much stress on the teachers,” said Mark Janick, a high school math teacher.

According to the poll, 78% of teachers say that stress and burnout are their biggest concerns.

“We really focus on the mental health of students but we don’t focus enough on the mental health of teachers who are dealing with the mental health students. There is something called secondary trauma and there is not enough resources to deal with what the students are coming to uswith,” said Laura Clark, a fourth grade teacher.

Nearly 600 teachers also say they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the conditions facing them.

“It’s not the same job as it was when I started teaching 25 years ago, we have a lot of experience up here, they keep adding onto your plate and not taking anything off,” continued Janick.

To add to that, there are staffing shortages in many districts.

77% attribute that to the high-stress job and 67% agree there are too many discipline problems with students and a lack of respect for educators.

Additionally, 66% say low salary contributes to a lack of new teachers coming on board.

“There is no work life balance. Here is a silent expectation that you are always on call with the new apps like parent square, there’s no turning it off. You’re inundated often times at 9/10 o’clock at night,” said Jennifer Rodriguez, a first-grade teacher.

Nearly 500 say they would not recommend a family member pursue a career in teaching.

“We want to encourage people to go into teaching but How do you encourage someone to go into something when you have been at it for so long and you don’t even feel successful anymore. You question, did I do a good job today,” said Gail Jorden, an elementary school teacher.

Despite the hardships, many of the teachers said that it is a passion, they deeply care for their students, and more than half of those who took the survey say they’d choose the career again.

Copyright 2024 WFSB. All rights reserved.

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Multiple buildings evacuated in new haven after suspicious canisters tossed near city hall, news connecticut news, phones, aggressive student behavior and low pay. connecticut teachers are struggling and burnout rates are high..

The poll results , released Monday by the Connecticut Education Association , the state’s largest teachers’ union, show little sign of improving job satisfaction and morale among educators as public schools continue to contend with staffing shortages, beleaguered budgets and mounting mental health challenges.

Of the 875 teachers surveyed, nearly 50% said they intend to “retire or leave education earlier than planned,” and 32% anticipate leaving the profession within the next five years. Another 64% said they would not recommend a career in teaching to friends and family.

The survey data also provides alarming insights into student behavior and mental health. According to the poll, nearly 90% of educators said their students are exhibiting increased stress or anxiety and 54% said students are experiencing increased depression or suicidal ideation. Another 63% of teachers said they have needed to evacuate their classrooms due to student disruptions that place other pupils at risk.

“For several years, we have been sounding the alarm about the challenges impacting student learning and the teaching profession,” CEA President Kate Dias said. “As our cries for help continue to go unanswered, the problems facing public education have intensified. Our educators are underpaid, undervalued, and under a lot of stress, leading them to look for other careers that provide higher pay, improved working conditions, and greater respect.”

Dias said the “predominant issue” is burnout.

“When you see 97%, you might as well see 100% of the educators saying ‘We have got to solve this problem,’” Dias said.

“We feel like we’re continuously adding to the responsibilities and expectations without ever editing and saying ‘Is this manageable?’” Dias added. “You couple that with the low pay…and then you marry it with the lack of respect, the concerns about discipline, the mental health issues and you really start to feel (this) sense of overwhelm, like ‘I’m here because I care about kids. I want to do really important work and yet, I don’t know that I’m going to be able to do that.’”

The survey spanned more than 50 questions ranging from teacher shortages to classroom spending to bullying to indoor air quality and more. Here are highlights from the data and the Courant’s conversation with Dias.

Approximately 70% of teachers say their current salary is not fair compensation.

According to the survey, 70% of educators say they do not consider their salary fair pay for their level of education. Nearly 40% reported that they have taken up another job because their current compensation either does not cover their expenses or does not allow them to save for the future.

Dias said the starting salary for a teacher in Connecticut is around $48,000 — a figure that she said is far too low for a workforce with “high levels of education experience and responsibility.”

“The most recent data is that it requires $100,000 for an independent individual to live in Connecticut. So we’re asking educators to come in and halve that and that’s not a reasonable expectation,” Dias said. “We recognize that we’re not corporate America — we get that — but at the same time, we are a highly competitive workforce.”

Dias said that the number of teachers coming out of Connecticut’s educator prep programs are struggling to keep pace with the number of teachers retiring or leaving the profession. Dias said low pay perpetuates this cycle, especially in underfunded districts.

“If the salaries are low and the conditions are difficult, you’re going to continue to struggle to fill those jobs,” Dias said.

Dias said CEA is advocating for state funds that will be directly earmarked for salaries.

“There’s an opportunity this legislative session to have a real, comprehensive conversation about how to build out sustainable models to improve teacher salary,” Dias said. “We can’t do it through lump sum ECS ( Education Cost Sharing ) funding. There needs to be strategic direct funding that goes towards raising teacher salary.”

More than 80% of educators say students are displaying increased aggression.

Approximately 82% of respondents said their students are exhibiting “increased aggression and dysregulated behavior” compared to years past.

About 63% of teachers said they evacuated their classrooms due to student disruptions that have put other students in danger. More than 70% said they have heard of their colleagues or students being harmed by another pupil and that 35% said they have been harmed themselves.

“People don’t understand … that we’ve had elementary age, like kindergarten, first grade, kids throw chairs and break windows and teachers get harmed in those spaces as a result of that,” Dias said. “They will absolutely destroy a classroom in a matter of minutes.”

Dias said that evacuations occur when students “become highly agitated” due to anxiety, frustration or stress and start to exhibit destructive behaviors.

“When we have to evacuate a classroom, it’s for the safety and security of all of the children involved,” Dias said. “It’s often very stressful, not just for the student who’s kind of in the center of the whirlwind and experiencing all of this stress and frustration and anger … but it’s also a really stressful experience for the children who are in those spaces with them.”

Dias said that part of the challenge is that districts often have “a high threshold” for behavior they allow “to go on in a classroom before a significant intervention will take place.”

“We’re trying to work with our local leaders, our principals, our school social workers to say, ‘How do we intervene sooner so that we don’t get to that space.’”

Dias said the solution will take a systemwide, trauma-informed approach that involves administrators, teachers, parents and mental health professionals to reduce unsafe behaviors.

In general, Dias said teachers are “very worried” about their students’ mental health.

“We have a lot of conversations around data points about academic performance and not nearly enough conversations about ‘Well, how are we managing some of these really disruptive behaviors, these challenges that we’re facing?’” Dias said.

According to the survey, while a majority of educators say their students are experiencing increased stress, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, distractions, disengagement, social withdrawal and family problems, 78% of teachers said they are not “equipped to deal with” their students’ mental health challenges.

“We have to remember that all of us as educators are trained to be educators, not therapists,” Dias said.

“We know that to be accessible to learn, you have to have some sense of safety and security,” Dias added. “What a lot of this data is telling us is that we have to look at our students and talk about how we’re supporting them, not only in their ability to grow academically, but (in) the social emotional welfare.”

Dias said that tackling these concerns to ensure that students feel safe and ready to learn will take “a whole system commitment.”

Teachers want more respect.

Roughly 90% of teachers said it is a “somewhat” or “very serious problem” that “educators are not treated like professionals.” Nearly 81% also expressed concern over “public hostility and criticism of educators and curriculum.”

Dias said “the way we communicate, talk to and treat our educators” matters.

“Our districts need to own that some of this lies in how we lead our district,” Dias said. “If you lean into a bully pulpit of leadership, you’re not going to have educators who feel respected.”

Dias said that teachers with decades of experience should not feel like their perspectives are dismissed by district and school leaders.

“We want to be treated as professionals. We want to be invited into the conversations about how we solve the problems in our districts,” Dias said. “Not everything is a legislative fix. Some things are fixed at the ground level in terms of how we manage our school districts.”

Teachers want phones out of the classroom too.

According to the poll, 90% of teachers expressed support for district policies that “prohibit student use of cellphones during instructional time.” Approximately 77% said they would support extending phone restrictions to the entire school day.

Roughly 60% of educators said student cellphone use is “somewhat” or “very disruptive”

“We have all of these distractions kind of pushing into our instructional spaces,” Dias said. “Districts (are) saying we can’t be relaxed about this, it continues to be a stressor for us.”

Despite continued challenges, Dias said teachers are still optimistic.

While 60% of teachers surveyed said they are “indifferent” or “not looking forward to” returning to their classrooms for the 2024-2025 year, Dias said her conversations with educators tell a different story.

Dias said teachers “start every school year incredibly optimistic” and that Connecticut educators “are really committed to improving our school environments for the students.”

“Regardless of what this survey says, I’ve been out in the field talking to teachers and they are excited to welcome students,” Dias said. “We look forward to maybe changing the story over the course of the school year where we’re talking about the incredible successes we’re having because that’s how we start every school year — with this clean slate of an opportunity to really do amazing work.”

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Why teachers are finding meaningful careers in microschools.

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A teacher works with a student at The Urban Cottage in Tampa, Florida.

For more than two decades, Marianne O’Loan ushered in the new school year as a New Hampshire public school teacher, but as she begins her second year working as a part-time science teacher at The Harkness House microschool in Nashua, New Hampshire, the retiree finds renewed professional fulfillment.

“It is so nice to be able to have relationships with the kids and have freedom with what to teach,” O’Loan told me during a recent interview. “I ask the students what they want to learn, and we go from there to figure out different curriculum and programs. It’s such a refreshing environment to work in. It makes me want to teach more.”

O’Loan is among a growing number of teachers across the U.S. who are finding greater meaning as educators outside conventional classrooms. While many of these teachers are leaving traditional schools to become founders of new microschools and similarly small, individualized learning communities, others are eager to teach in these innovative schools and spaces.

In June 2023, O’Loan retired from teaching in the Bedford, New Hampshire public schools and began doing occasional tutoring work when she heard from her former colleague, Nathan Fellman, that he was looking for a part-time science teacher for his new microschool. Fellman left the public school system a year earlier to launch The Harkness House, a state-recognized independent middle school that will be expanding into high school offerings in the coming months. The microschool currently serves 15 full-time private school students, and an additional 15 part-time homeschoolers.

“The most rewarding thing I find as an independent school founder who spent 20 years in public schools is the flexibility,” said Fellman. “Flexibility means freedom, it means autonomy. It means responsiveness and the ability to truly meet all students where they are.”

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Freer, more flexible education is also what is attracting teachers like O’Loan, who desired more scheduling flexibility as well as greater curriculum flexibility. She says she retired earlier from the district than she otherwise might have because of the increased pressures put on teachers, especially in the wake of the pandemic. “There is a lot of stress on the teachers to try and figure out a way to make up for what the students had lost during the Covid time,” said O’Loan, adding that the stress was taking a toll on her health and well-being.

She’s not alone. According to the RAND Corporation’s 2024 State of the American Teacher Survey , teachers report levels of job-related stress and burnout that are twice that of adults working in other professions. More than 20 percent of teachers said they intended to leave their jobs by the end of the 2023/2024 academic year.

Students conduct a science experiment at The Harkness House in Nashua, New Hampshire.

It’s not just public school teachers who are leaving conventional classrooms for alternatives. In Tampa, Florida, Gabrielle Leffew left her job as an elementary school teacher at a traditional private school to become an English Language Arts and homesteading teacher at The Urban Cottage Educational Collaborative , a Montessori-inspired schooling alternative. Launched in 2015 by former public school teacher Marissa Hess, The Urban Cottage provides part-time drop-off academic and enrichment programs for more than 100 homeschooled students who learn from 14 teachers—including Leffew.

“I find it freeing, but I've also found it very stretching because you really have to think outside of the box for some of these kiddos,” said Leffew, who enrolled her own child at The Urban Cottage. “Typically, you're used to being handed a curriculum and told how to do it and what is expected. Now, it’s about finding what is going to work best for each child.”

That personalization is by design. Hess, who was homeschooled as a child, set out to create an educational environment that would offer the type of tailored learning she enjoyed while growing up, and that she found to be absent as a teacher in conventional schools. She wanted her teachers at The Urban Cottage to experience the creativity and autonomy that led many of them to become educators in the first place. “Our teachers only teach the content areas that they are most passionate about and experts in, and are compensated with a living wage and the benefit of not being overworked,” said Hess. “This creates an environment where the teachers are happy and not stressed out by administration. When teachers are not micromanaged and forced to jump through the next top-down, district-handed mandate, but are instead allowed to do the art of teaching children their most cherished content areas, the students flourish.”

Leffew agrees. She had never considered homeschooling as an option—either personally or professionally—but she explained that microschools and similar homeschooling programs such as The Urban Cottage create the ideal conditions for both students and teachers to thrive. They also enable working parents like her, and others who may not have thought that homeschooling was a possibility, to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of homeschooling along with structured academic support and a consistent community.

Leffew hopes that more parents consider innovative education options for their children, but she also hopes that more teachers consider working in these schools and spaces as well. “I think you're going to walk away every day feeling satisfied with yourself and your work,” said Leffew. “You're going to feel excited and you're going to feel passionate about teaching your students. That's something that I really enjoy, and I think a lot of teachers would love that feeling.”

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4 Warning Signs of Ethical Burnout on Your Team

• Richard Bistrong,
• Dina Denham Smith,
• Ron Carucci

Pressure can cause employees to focus solely on hitting their targets at the expense of moral considerations.

High stress at work can destabilize people’s ethical compass, putting them at heightened risk of ethical lapses. When employees focus solely on achieving their targets, deadlines, or personal financial goals at the expense of ethical considerations — when doing the right thing feels burdensome compared to seemingly less-costly shortcuts — they can teeter on “ethical burnout.” To prevent this, it’s crucial to spot the signs and root out the contributing forces early. The authors present four warning signs that your employees may be heading toward ethical burnout — and strategies to counteract these forces before it’s too late.

Everyone has experienced stress-inducing pressure at work: ambitious financial targets, tough performance reviews, and shrewd competitors, and so on. The resulting stress can harm not just people’s personal well-being, research shows it can also erode their commitment to ethical behavior. This phenomenon, known as ethical fatigue , makes it challenging to take the high road and maintain integrity when faced with complex decisions.

• RB Richard Bistrong is CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC and advises major multinationals on real-world anti-bribery, ethics, and compliance challenges from his front-line perspective.
• Dina Denham Smith is an executive coach to senior leaders at world-leading brands such as Adobe, Netflix, PwC, Dropbox, Stripe, and numerous high-growth companies. A former business executive herself, she is the founder and CEO of Cognitas , and helps leaders and their teams reach new heights of success. Connect with her on LinkedIn .
• Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at  Navalent , working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change. He is the bestselling author of eight books, including To Be Honest and Rising to Power . Connect with him on Linked In at  RonCarucci , and download his free “How Honest is My Team?” assessment.

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Right to disconnect laws have begun. Here's what you should know

By Georgie Hewson

Topic: Small Business

Flexibility to work from home has allowed more people to join the workforce.  ( Pexels: Vlada Karpovich )

Australia's right to disconnect laws for non-small business owners have now come into effect. 

It means Australians will have the legal right to ignore all work communications out of working hours when deemed reasonable. 

So what does it mean and what are your rights?

What is the right to disconnect?

This means that outside their working hours, employees can refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact from :

• their employer, or
• another person if the contact is work-related (for example, work-related contact from clients or members of the public)

Who do the new laws apply to?

It applies to all Australian businesses with over 15 employees.

So wait, can employers no longer contact staff after hours at all?

Not quite. 

The law will not restrict managers from contacting employees whenever they wish .

But it does give employees the right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from their employer outside work hours unless that refusal is deemed unreasonable. 

For example, a manager can send an email after work hours but the employee is not obliged to respond unless it is deemed 'reasonable' for them to do so . 

Rulings over the “reasonableness” of an employee refusing to respond to work communications out of hours will ultimately be determined by the Fair Work Commission.

When is the employee's refusal unreasonable?

The employee's refusal to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact will be unreasonable if the contact is required by law. 

If it is not required by law there are certain matters to consider when deciding if the employee's disconnection is unreasonable. 

the reason for contact.

how the contact is made.

how much disruption the contact causes the employee.

any compensation the employee receives to be available to work when the contact is made or to work outside their ordinary hours.

the employee's role and their level of responsibility.

the employee's personal circumstances, including family and/or caring responsibilities.

What are the penalties?

If an employee raises concerns regarding an employer's continuous contact out of work hours, the employer could receive a fine of $18,000. 

What if there is a dispute?

Disputes about an employee’s right to disconnect should first be discussed and resolved at the workplace level.

If that isn’t possible, employees or employers can go to the Fair Work Commission to deal with a dispute.

You can read more about that on the FWC's right to disconnect disputes page . 

Do they do this overseas?

Other countries have adopted right to disconnect laws of varying degrees in the past few years. 

France is a pioneer, making it mandatory for companies with more than 50 employees to establish parameters for after-hours communication in 2016. 

Other countries that have adopted such laws are Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Slovakia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Ireland and the Philippines. 

What about small businesses?

There is a little more time for small businesses in Australia. 

The laws for small businesses will come into effect August 26, 2025.

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The phenomenon of teacher burnout: mitigating its influence on new teachers.

Kaila Sanford , Dominican University of California Follow

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Elizabeth Truesdell PhD

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Madalienne F. Peters, EdD

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Robin Gayle, PhD, MDIV, MFT

Burnout is a psychological condition with physical, emotional, and mental dimensions. Burnout often includes feelings of exhaustion, long-term fatigue, negative self-concept, despair or hopelessness, frustration, and a lack of productivity at work.

Teacher burnout is a well-known and researched field. It has been documented in the literature that teachers experience high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion, which leads to high levels of burnout and professional attrition. This study examined the incidence of burnout in new elementary school teachers and offered recommendations for changes to organizational structure that may reduce professional burnout.

For the purpose of this study five new elementary-level teachers, with fewer than five years of experience, from several school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area were selected. I, as the researcher, conducted informal as well as formal surveys of self-reported stress levels using the teachers’ own descriptions of their daily stressors. Teachers completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (1981). The researcher then synthesized these findings and use this information to suggest ways in which organizational change can alleviate teacher burnout. Results indicated that new teachers are feeling significant burnout to the point where they are considering leaving the field. Suggestions from participants include hiring more paraprofessionals, providing material resources, and increased opportunities for mentorship and professional development.

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How much do teachers struggle with stress and burnout?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, seth gershenson and seth gershenson associate professor, school of public affairs - american university, research fellow - institute for the study of labor (iza) stephen holt stephen holt assistant professor of public administration and policy - suny albany.

February 8, 2022

There’s long been a perception—even before COVID-19—that schoolteachers are perpetually stressed and on the verge of burning out. Teaching is, without question, a challenging profession. The nature of the work is uniquely challenging, and many facets of the job are outside of teachers’ control—namely, the experiences that students bring to class. And those facets that teachers can control, like lesson preparation and good classroom management, require long hours of managing emotions during the workday and extra, uncompensated effort at night.

Stories in popular media frequently tell these stories with a narrative arc that portrays teaching as a Sisyphean task. One such story , “Hey, New Teachers, It’s OK To Cry In Your Car,” caught our attention years ago due to the vivid description of a rookie teacher hitting her breaking point just a couple months into the school year. Listening to the story, we wondered if teaching really differed from other professions in terms of mental health issues, or if everyone’s similarly stressed out in an increasingly fast-paced, cynical world.

Exploring perception and reality

Does the perception that teachers are uniquely stressed out match the reality? Has mental health worsened over time? And how are trends in mental health different for teachers than similar nonteachers? With Rui Wang of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and support from the Spencer Foundation, we answered these questions .

We use nationally representative survey data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) that tracks two cohorts of young adults as they age. The NLSY 79 sample includes roughly 13,000 respondents who were aged 14-22 when first interviewed in 1979; it assessed mental health in follow-up interviews in 1997, and at ages 40 and 50 for participants. The NLSY 97 sample includes roughly 9,000 respondents aged 12-17 when first interviewed in 1997; it assessed mental health in five different follow-up interviews spanning 2004 and 2015.

With these survey responses, we establish some basic facts about teachers’ mental health:

• In the 1979 cohort, women who became teachers had similar mental health to college-educated nonteachers prior to entering the profession. This suggests differences between teachers’ and nonteachers’ mental health are not due to pre-existing differences. We find no evidence that women with better (or worse) mental health than their peers opt for teaching as a profession.
• While teaching, educators appear to enjoy slightly better mental health, on average, than their nonteaching, college-educated peers. This is not to say that teachers experience no stress, but that their stress levels are no worse—and perhaps even better—than college-educated women in other professions.
• Regarding changes over time, in the 1997 cohort, teachers self-report worse mental health, on average, than their counterparts in the 1979 cohort. Yet, there is no significant difference between teachers’ and nonteachers’ mental health measures in the 1997 cohort—so it appears everyone has more stressors over time, and the decline in mental health is not unique to teaching.

These findings suggest that concerns about mental health, stress, burnout, and work-life balance are universal, and not unique (or uniquely pressing) in the teaching profession. A team at University College London has been studying similar questions in Europe and reached similar conclusions. This doesn’t mean that we should ignore teachers’ concerns, of course. Everyone needs to be in good mental and physical health to do their job well. And in the case of teaching, there’s a lot we can do to ease their workload, boost their morale, and provide supports that enable teachers to be their best selves in the classroom.

Teacher stress and mental health in the 2020s

A major limitation is that all of this research predates the pandemic. Alongside their role as educators, COVID-19 put teachers on the frontlines of managing ever-changing public health guidance and forced an abrupt pivot to remote instruction for prolonged periods of time. The dual burden has re-ignited concerns about teachers’ mental health, workloads, and what this means for the future of the teaching force.

As the pandemic and efforts to control it continue, teachers face unprecedented work-related stress, for sure. Recently, a survey released by the Alberta Teachers’ Association made headlines with the striking result that one-third of surveyed teachers said they were not sure they’d return to the classroom next school year. In the U.S. context, a recent survey conducted by the RAND Corporation finds a notable increase (almost 50%) in the share of teachers who say they might leave the profession at the end of the current school year, compared to pre-pandemic survey results. In addition to concerns about mass departures, stress hinders the effectiveness of those who remain in the profession. Protecting and maintaining a robust workforce of effective teachers necessitates helping teachers in developing the tools and skills for managing workplace stress. But first, we need to understand the sources of workplace stress.

As if keeping schools operational during a pandemic wasn’t stressful enough, keep in mind that teachers have had to confront the ripple effects of extreme political polarization in the U.S. in recent years as well. Teachers now find themselves in the center of conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates,  how to teach about racial issues in social studies and history, and a nonstop cycle of current events that continue to raise the salience of both deep partisan divisions and racial inequities.

The need to address these controversial topics with students, with increasing interference from parents, has undoubtedly made an already difficult job that much more challenging. And, since public schools are a safety net institution in the U.S.—often providing children multiple meals per day and their primary access to technology—teachers, especially those in preschool and day-care centers , have also been tasked with helping students navigate pandemic impacts on basic needs while experiencing their own pandemic-related hardships. In short, America’s contentious political climate and ongoing pandemic have simultaneously increased teachers’ workloads—and work-related stress.

New podcast turns spotlight onto teachers’ workloads

To help parents, school leaders, policymakers, and teachers understand and confront these challenges, we created a five-episode podcast called “ Mind the Teacher ,” with support from the Spencer Foundation and American University’s School of Public Affairs. In it, we speak to a range of experts including educators, researchers, and journalists about identifying and addressing problems related to teachers’ mental health.

Our main takeaway is that mental health is an important, and too often overlooked, aspect of our lives. This is true for everyone: teachers and nonteachers, parents and students. The global pandemic has shone a spotlight on the importance of, and inequities in, mental health. It’s also made the broader public, including parents, more aware of the challenges that teachers face, and the hard work they do, on a daily basis. While mental health concerns are not unique to teachers, teachers play a hugely important role in society, and their concerns must be addressed.

There’s a lot that school leaders, policymakers, and community stakeholders can do to support teachers. Some of these lessons come from the general psychology literature on workplace mental health, some come from listening to teachers, and some are just common sense.

There’s no silver bullet here. Rather, our reading of the literature suggests a two-pronged approach , with both individual-facing interventions and organizational-level changes. Teacher-directed interventions may include increased pay or programs that provide free counseling. Other teacher-facing interventions that have been shown to lift teacher morale include mindfulness training , peer mentorship, and coaching programs . School leadership might consider allowing teachers more autonomy, input on policy issues, planning and preparation time, and paid personal/mental health days. Decision-makers can free up valuable teaching capacity by providing grading assistance, reducing class sizes, and employing more counselors, social workers, and supervisory administrators.

At the organizational level, interventions should focus on quality, supportive leadership, access to free or affordable health care (including mental health care), and systematic policies to ease teachers’ workloads. And leadership should recognize racial and socioeconomic disparities and design support systems that alleviate the historical stresses on Black and other marginalized teachers.

Ultimately, many aspects of workplace stress stem from anxiety about being effective at work. Teachers, like many other professionals, want to be effective in their jobs and suffer from increased stress, anxiety, and depression when they know they aren’t at their best or are not receiving needed support. Both the individual- and organization-level approaches outlined here share a recognition that teachers’ mental health is inextricably linked to feeling supported and effective in the classroom—and that means giving teachers the dedicated time, space, and resources they need.

At the end of the day, public schools play a fundamentally important role in society, and teachers play a fundamentally important role within schools. It’s a difficult job made even tougher by the pandemic. We should fully support teachers and their mental health, as they can’t do their best work—and ensure that our students reach their full potential—when they’re suffering from chronic fatigue, pressure, and stress.

Authors’ note: If you’ve read this far, we hope that you’ll give “ Mind the Teacher ” a listen. All stakeholders should find this to be a useful resource. Episodes are available on Apple and Stitcher , and can also be streamed from American University’s website ; the latter also offers transcripts and links to the research referred to in each episode.

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Understanding the factors affecting teachers’ burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

Orly shimony.

1 School of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

2 Seymour Fox School of Education, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Haya Fogel-Grinvald

Thomas p. gumpel, associated data.

All the data files are available from the OSF database - https://osf.io/74j3c/ .

During the COVID-19 pandemic, which enforced social distancing and isolation, teachers were required to handle multiple challenges related to their work, including dealing with remote teaching, in addition to personal, medical and financial challenges. The goal of the current research was to examine factors that contributed to professional burnout and commitment to work among teachers during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 344 elementary school teachers in Israel completed online self-report questionnaires, including assessments of stressors, anxiety, resilience, self-efficacy beliefs, and coping strategies. Structured Equation Modeling [SEM] was used to examine the contribution of these factors to professional burnout and commitment.

The gaps between needed and received support had a direct effect on teachers’ burnout and commitment, and an indirect effect through anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs. Stress relating to remote teaching and support-gaps regarding remote teaching were the most significant of all the stressors and sources of support.

Conclusions

Collectively, these findings highlight the significance of remote teaching as the main cause of stress and professional burnout and suggest that proper preparation of teachers—before and during times of crisis, may have a significant impact on their mental and professional well-being.

Introduction

Professional “burnout” has been defined as a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job [ 1 ]. Several studies confirmed a two-factor structure of the burnout syndrome, including emotional exhaustion and personal fulfillment [ 2 , 3 ]. Teaching is considered a profession with high rates of burnout [ 4 , 5 ], which eventually lead to high professional turnover rates [ 6 ]. Teachers burnout has a significant impact not only on their own will to maintain their profession and their ability to manage classroom behaviors but was also shown to affect their students’ performance and motivation [ 7 ]. In this study, we aimed to better understand the factors that contribute to teachers’ burnout and commitment to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which was announced in March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a worldwide pandemic, was a significant global stressor [ 8 , 9 ]. As part of the curve-flattening policy adopted by many countries around the globe, schools were closed, affecting more than 1.5 billion students from 185 different countries [ 10 ]. As a result, educational systems were forced to adopt emergency routines and new teaching methods, such as remote teaching, or learning with parents’ assistance and involvement [ 11 ]. In addition, school teams dealt with health and financial uncertainties and frequent changes in teaching methods. Indeed, several studies to date demonstrated the effect of COVID-19 on teachers’ mental and professional state [ 9 – 13 ]. Collectively, these studies report increases in teacher burnout, which also resulted in high rates of turnover during the pandemic. However, the specific factors within this uniquely stressful situation that may lead to increased burnout rates are still not entirely understood.

Burnout has been shown to be affected by both internal (e.g., psychological distress, anxiety) [ 14 ] as well as external factors, such as teaching resources [ 15 ]. Considering internal factors, such as distress, and anxiety first, these factors were shown to collectively increase in the general population [ 16 – 18 ] and specifically in teacher populations [ 13 ] during the pandemic. Not surprisingly, increased levels of professional burnout were observed among teachers during the pandemic. For example, a study conducted among middle school teachers in Israel found that the high levels of stress during the pandemic were associated with increased burnout and desire to leave the profession [ 14 ]. Similarly, a cross-sectional study among healthcare workers found that trait worry and psychological distress significantly predicted work burnout during the pandemic [ 19 ]. Another cross-sectional study conducted during the first wave of the pandemic among 125 primary school teachers found that 54% of them experienced burnout [ 12 ].

Self-efficacy beliefs, defined as “people’s beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives” [ 20 ], have also been suggested as another internal predictor of teachers’ burnout [ 21 ]. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs are related to their ability to be effective teachers [ 22 ] and to their commitment to teaching [ 23 ] and are negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion [ 24 ]. The more teachers perceive themselves as empowered by their organization, the more they express their commitment to their organization and to their profession [ 25 ]. Specifically, self-efficacy beliefs may act as a mediator of the relationship between the stress experienced by teachers during this period and eventual burnout. Studies found that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs ratings were lower during the pandemic compared to previous studies conducted before the pandemic [e.g., 26]. Furthermore, teachers who engaged in virtual teaching only, had the lowest levels of self-efficacy beliefs compared to their peers, who taught in hybrid or face-to-face models. This may be related to the challenges of using novel teaching methods or to the stress and anxiety from teaching the pandemic. In contrast, higher self-efficacy beliefs were found among teachers who reported greater levels of support within their schools during the pandemic [ 26 ]. However, none of these studies, to the best of our knowledge, has examined the effect of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs on burnout levels during the pandemic.

The type of specific coping strategy used to deal with the stressful situation is another internal factor that may contribute to teachers’ professional burnout [ 27 ]. In distressing situations, people use one of two coping strategies—approach-coping or avoidant-coping. Approach-coping strategies are activities designed to change stressful situations or accept their presence, such as seeking comfort and understanding. In contrast, avoidant-coping strategies aim to increase emotional or physical distancing from stressful situations, such as drug and alcohol use [ 28 ]. In a study which examined the coping strategies used by teachers during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the authors found that the approach-coping strategies were linked to increased happiness, welfare, health, and resilience [ 29 ]. In contrast, avoidant-coping strategies were associated with higher levels of stress, anxiety, anger, sadness, and loneliness. Herein, we ask whether the specific coping strategy used is associated with teachers’ burnout.

In addition to these internal factors—of anxiety, distress, self-efficacy beliefs, and coping strategies—there are external factors that may also significantly affect teacher burnout. Among them, the social support system within the school seems to be a key factor. Studies show that within-school support from peers and supervisors is more effective in reducing teacher burnout compared with non-school support from family and friends [e.g., 30]. A recent study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found that administrative support, such as instructional, technological, or emotional assistance, played a crucial role in reducing teacher burnout [ 31 ]. Similarly, perceived support, such as support from the school principal and peer assistance, may also contribute to reducing emotional exhaustion and improving personal accomplishment among teachers [ 32 ]. In addition, social support may strengthen the sense of self-efficacy beliefs among teachers, leading to further reduction in burnout levels [ 33 ]. A comprehensive study from Canada which included 1,626 teachers found that the changes in teaching methods and administrative support predicted teacher burnout during the pandemic [ 34 ]. This is in line with a recent report which examined the educational policy and effects in OECD countries and found that shifting from frontal teaching to remote teaching during the pandemic was done without proper training and support [ 10 ]. Collectively, these studies show that increased burnout during the pandemic was the result of new information and communication technologies, and that the support from the school played a key role in the ability to handle these challenges [ 12 ].

Teachers’ seniority may also affect their professional burnout, commitment to work, and self-efficacy beliefs. However, findings related to seniority are thus far mixed. For example, while one study found that seniority affected self-efficacy beliefs [ 33 ], another study involving elementary school teachers did not find an effect of seniority on burnout [ 32 ]. One potential reason for this discrepancy could be that the effect of seniority on burnout is non-linear. Indeed, a study among 201 high-school teachers, found that teachers with up to five years of seniority and teachers with 21 years or more were more committed to their organization compared with teachers with 6–20 years of seniority [ 33 ]. To the best of our knowledge, no study to date examined the effect of seniority on teachers’ burnout during the pandemic.

In the current study, we examined how all these potential factors—level of stress and anxiety, coping strategies, self-efficacy beliefs, and gaps between the needed and received support contribute to teachers’ professional burnout and commitment to work during the 1 st and 2 nd waves of the pandemic among elementary school teachers. While the relationships between factors such as stress, self-efficacy beliefs, and coping strategy are well-established, there is a lack of understanding of how a health and social crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic may affect them. Based on the literature reviewed, we developed a theoretical model linking these factors together ( Fig 1 ) and applied structural equation modeling to examine its statistical validity. The model examines how all predictors contribute—both directly and indirectly—to teachers’ commitment to work and to their professional burnout. A secondary goal of this research was to focus on the different types of stressors and support-gaps and their relations with the dependent variables- anxiety, self-efficacy beliefs, burnout and commitment.

Hypothesized positive correlations are marked by ‘+’, negative correlations are marked by a ‘-’ sign, and connections which incorporate both positive and negative dimensions are marked by a ‘+/-’ sign.

Gaining a better understanding of the factors contributing to teachers’ professional burnout and commitment to teaching during a time of global crisis may have important implications for preventing stress-related burnout and applying better coping mechanisms during times of crisis. The pandemic itself is a case study for a scenario with a global impact, and as the literature cited above showed, increased burnout among teachers was observed globally. Although most schools have now returned to in-person teaching routines, understanding of the factors contributing to burnout during crisis may help with preparation for future crises.

Materials and methods

Participants and procedure.

The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the Hebrew University’s institutional committees and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Seymour Fox School of Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (approval number 2021C06). All participants gave written informed consent before participating in any study-related activities.

We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective quantitative research, designed to determine the path to professional burnout and commitment to work among elementary school teachers during the 1 st and 2 nd waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using this design, we could collect data from a relatively large pool of participants at a single point in time.

Data collection took place between January 25th and February 20th, 2021, during Israel’s 3 rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 344 teachers were recruited using a “snowball” sampling method, a convenience sampling technique [ 35 ], via mailing lists, groups of teachers in digital and social media, and teachers with whom we had prior acquaintance. Using the “snowball” sampling technique, we were able to reach teachers’ populations that are difficult to sample when using other sampling methods.

Sample size calculations were conducted using the G-Power software, based on an expected effect size of Cohen’s d = 0.2, as was found in a recent study [ 30 ], for the correlations between the coping approach and the mental state. A sample size of at least 262 participants is required to obtain a power of 0.95 and a significance level of 0.05. Since the dropout rate tends to be relatively high in online studies, we collected data from more participants.

Teachers who met the following inclusion criteria and expressed interest were included in the study: [a] teachers working in elementary, state, or state-religious schools in the Jewish sector. [b] native Hebrew speakers. The exclusion criteria were being on sick leave for more than two weeks or not teaching during this period for reasons other than COVID-19 infection for more than two weeks. We attempted to include a diverse sample in terms of socio-demographic status by advertising in different geographic areas across Israel.

After providing informed consent, participants were given a link to a mobile application and were asked to complete a battery of online questionnaires. The overall completion time for the entire battery was ~25 min. Participants were not directly compensated for their participation in the study. However, participants were asked to provide their email addresses if they wanted to participate in a raffle to win a laptop (four were given to participants).

Participants were asked to provide their responses to all questionnaires in relation to the 1 st (February through May 2020) and 2 nd (June through October 2020) waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel. We measured stressors, needs and sources of support, anxiety, resilience, coping strategy, and self-efficacy beliefs as independent variables, and burnout and commitment to teaching as the dependent variables. Below we provide the full list of measures used.

Since all data collection took place online, we applied the following procedures to maintain the trustworthiness of the data: first, a Google reCAPTCHA was integrated in the application, such that participants were required to click the "I am not a robot" phrase before filling out the questionnaire. This is an acceptable procedure designed to prevent robots from filling out the survey [ 36 ]. Next, three easy random mathematical questions were interleaved among the questionnaires (e.g., “2+2”). This was done to make sure that the participants are attentive to the questionnaires and are not providing random answers. Finally, teachers who wanted to participate in the raffle were required to provide their email address, and we verified that the email address given was valid.

Of note, data collected during this study was saved on the secure database only if the participant clicked on "I am not a robot" and approved to continue, completed all questionnaires, and answered the three mathematical questions correctly, and provided a valid email address (in case an email address was provided).

Stressors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic

W used a 15-item questionnaire which is based on Main et al.’s [ 37 ] original questionnaire to measure stressors resulting from the SARS pandemic, and was adjusted by Khouri et al. [ 19 ] for the COVID-19 pandemic. All items are scored on a 5-level rating scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). An exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation yielded the following four distinct categories and accounted for 68.5% of the variance: (a) physical concerns, (b) mental health concerns (self and relatives), (c) economic and employment concerns (own, relatives), and (d) concerns related to remote teaching. A total score was derived from the average of all 15 items, as well as sub-scores for each category, with higher scores indicating higher level of concern. The scale had strong internal consistency in our sample (Cronbach’s α = .89).

Needs and sources of support during the pandemic

We used a novel questionnaire that was developed specifically for this study. This 32-item questionnaire included questions from two main types: (a) needs—or sources of support that the teachers needed (16 items), and (b) sources of support received by teachers (16 items). Answers to each item were given on a 6-point Likert scale, from 1 (not at all) to 6 (very much). Final scores were derived by calculating the average difference between items in group “a” (needs) and group “b” (sources), as well as separately for each category. Higher scores indicate a higher level of needs or receiving higher assistance compared to what was received. An exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation yielded four categories of needs and sources of support, accounting for 60.9% of the variance: (a) the school and the Ministry of Education, (b) remote teaching infrastructure, (c) emotional needs and support, and (d) family and friends. The internal consistency of this scale in our sample was good (Cronbach’s α of .87 and .78 for parts a and b, respectively).

State anxiety

State anxiety was assessed using the 20 items assessing state anxiety from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) [ 38 ]. Each item is scored on a 4-point scale, ranging from 1 (almost never) to 4 (almost always). Total scores range from 20 to 80 points, with higher scores indicating higher levels of anxiety. The scale also yields a categorical distinction between low (scores between 20–37), moderate (scores between 38–44) and high (above 45) levels of anxiety [ 39 ]. The internal consistency of this scale in our sample was high (Cronbach’s α of .92).

Psychological resilience

Psychological resilience was measured using the 10-item version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) [ 40 ]. This scale measures the feeling of resilience and one’s ability to cope with stress. Responses are provided on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (almost never) to 4 (almost always). Total resilience scores range from 0 to 40 points, with higher scores indicating higher self-reported resilience. The internal consistency of this scale in our sample was adequate (Cronbach’s α = .82).

Coping strategies

Coping strategies were measured using the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced inventory (Brief-COPE) [ 29 ]. This 28-item questionnaire measures two categories of coping strategies (see similar use in MacIntyre’s et al. study [ 29 ]): 14 items represent ‘approach’ coping strategies and 14 measure ‘avoidant’ coping strategies. Items are rated on a 4-level rating scale, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (very much). The total score in each group is the average of the items, with higher scores indicating higher levels of the coping strategy. The internal consistency in our sample was good (Cronbach’s α = .78 for both avoidant and approach strategies).

Teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs

Self-efficacy was measured using the short version (12-item) of the Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) [ 39 ]. On this scale, teachers were asked to evaluate their likely success regarding remote teaching. We used the overall score (12 to 60 points) based on its high reliability in previous studies (Cronbach’s α = .90) [ 41 ] and in the current study (α = .92). Each item rated on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much) when higher scores indicating higher levels of self-efficacy beliefs.

Commitment to teaching

Commitment to the teaching profession was measured using the 9-item Teacher Commitment Scale (TCS) [ 40 ]. Items were rated on a 6-point scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 6 (very much). Total scores range from 9 to 54 points, with higher scores indicating a higher level of commitment to the teaching profession. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be good in previous studies (Cronbach’s α = .71–.89) [ 42 , 43 ], as well as in our sample (Cronbach’s α = .84).

Professional burnout

Teachers’ burnout from their profession was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) [ 1 ]. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). Here, we used the 14 items which measure two components of burnout concerning teacher-student interactions: emotional exhaustion (six items), and personal fulfillment (eight items). The internal consistency of this scale in our sample was good (Cronbach’s α of .76 and .86 for emotional exhaustion and personal fulfillment, respectively).

Data analysis

IBM SPSS [Statistical Package for the Social Sciences] version 27.0 and IBM AMOS Graphics software version 27.0 were used for statistical analyses. First, descriptive statistics were used to derive participants’ characteristics and study variables. All data were checked for normality and for multivariate outliers. We then used Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficients to examine the correlations between study variables, and FDR correction with Benjamini-Hochberg method [ 43 ] was applied to adjust for multiple testing. After reviewing the correlations, we tested the theoretical model with the factors contributing to burnout and commitment to teaching (see Fig 1 ), using Structural Equation Model (SEM) [ 44 ] with maximum likelihood estimation. Model fit was assessed using the following standard goodness-of-fit indices: chi-square, Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), and Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) [ 45 ]. A non-significant chi-square, CFI and TLI equal to or greater than .95, and RMSEA equal to or less than .06 are indicative of an acceptable fit. The standardized path coefficients were assessed to examine the statistical significance and directions of path estimate that exist between the variables in the model. Lastly, Pearson’s correlations were used again to zoom-in on the different types of stressors and sources of support and their correlation to the outcome variables. For all analyses, p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Characterization of the study sample

Table 1 lists the demographic characteristics of the study sample. A total of 344 elementary school teachers, from 133 different regions and provinces in Israel, participated in this study. There were no missing data points in the study sample. In total, 320 of the 344 participants were female (93%) and 24 males (7%). The age range of participants was 21–69 years (Mage: 40.69 years; SD: 10.85). Most participants were married or in a relationship (82.5%). More than 50% had at least 10 years seniority as teachers.

Descriptive statistics and correlations between measures

Descriptive statistics of the study variables are shown in Table 2 . Overall, the mean level of anxiety in the sample was 42.03 ± 11.42, on a scale from 20 (low anxiety) to 80 (high anxiety). More than 60% of participants reported moderate to high levels of anxiety (total score of 38–80) during the pandemic: 21.51% experienced moderate levels of anxiety (total score of 38–44; M = 41.35 ± 11.41) while 39.83% of them experienced high anxiety (total score of 45 and over; M = 53.29 ± 7.46). The overall mean level of psychological resilience in the study sample was M = 29.7 ± 7.0 on a scale from 0 (low resilience) to 40 (high resilience).

a All reported p-values were adjusted using FDR correction;

* p < .05;

** p < .01;

*** p < .001.

As a first step towards forming the model, we first calculated the correlations between predictor variables and between predictors and outcomes (see Table 2 ). As expected, both commitment to teaching and personal fulfillment (the 1 st factor of burnout) were positively correlated with the predictors of psychological resilience and self-efficacy beliefs, and negatively correlated with state anxiety. Furthermore, commitment to teaching and personal fulfillment had a significant negative correlation with the gap in support (i.e., the gap between the support needed and the support received) and with stressors. In other words, the larger the gap between needs and provided support, and the higher the level of stressors, the lower the commitment to teaching and the sense of fulfillment. In addition, commitment to teaching had a significant weak negative correlation with avoidant-coping, such that more use of avoidant coping was associated with less commitment. No such correlation was found with the ‘approach’ coping style.

The 2 nd factor of burnout—emotional exhaustion—was negatively correlated with resilience and with self-efficacy beliefs, such that lower levels of psychological resilience and perceived self-efficacy beliefs were associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion. As expected, emotional exhaustion was positively correlated with avoidant-coping, gap in support, and with all stressors, such that higher levels of emotional exhaustion were associated with higher levels of avoidant-coping, reduced support-gap, and with higher levels of external stressors.

We further examined the correlation between professional seniority (i.e., the number of years as a teacher) and all other variables using Spearman’s correlations. Professional seniority was weakly negatively correlated with anxiety, with emotional exhaustion, and with the gap between needed and provided support (r s (344) = -.13; -.12; -.11, respectively; all p values < .05), and weakly positively correlated with commitment to teaching and with personal fulfillment ( r s (344) = .11; .15, respectively, all p values < .05).

Validation of the theoretical model using SEM

Our first goal was to examine the direct effects of model predictors—namely, stressors, coping strategies, seniority, resilience, and support—on professional burnout and commitment to teaching. In addition, studied their indirect effects through anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs. To further examine the theoretical model, we used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). We excluded the variables with no significant direct or indirect effect on the dependent variables: professional seniority, resilience, and approach coping. The final model is given in Fig 2 . All fit indices indicate a suitable fit of the model to the data (Χ 2 (6) = 5.974, p = .426, CFI = 1.00, NFI = .99, RMSEA = .00, and TLI = 1.00).

The gap in support had a direct and significant effect on all other variables. Specifically, insufficient levels of support directly affected burnout (personal fulfillment and emotional exhaustion) and commitment to teaching. Support-gap also indirectly affected burnout and commitment to teaching, via its effect on self-efficacy beliefs and on anxiety. In other words, insufficient support (less received than desired) directly led to lower levels of professional commitment and to higher levels of burnout, and indirectly, by contributing to the reduction in self-efficacy beliefs and higher levels of anxiety.

Both stressors which were associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., health concerns, dealing with remote teaching) and using the avoidant-coping style had similar and small direct effect on the emotional exhaustion component of burnout, but not on personal fulfillment nor on commitment to work. Interestingly, both variables—stressors and avoidant-coping—had strong indirect effects on burnout and professional commitment, via their strong positive effects on anxiety (0.33 and 0.31 for stressors and avoidant-coping, respectively).

Finally, both anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs significantly contributed to the two components of professional burnout and to commitment to teaching. Specifically, higher levels of anxiety reduced personal fulfillment and commitment to teaching, and increased emotional exhaustion, while higher levels of self-efficacy beliefs had the opposite effect.

COVID-19 related stressors in relation to outcome measures

A secondary goal of the study was to better understand different factors related to the pandemic in relation to well-being and burnout among teachers. More specifically, we aimed to focus on different sources of stress and the gap in support, and their relations with anxiety, self-efficacy beliefs, professional burnout and commitment. For this, we calculated the correlations between all types of stress and support-gaps with all outcomes (see Table 3 ).

We found that stressors related to remote teaching and the gap in support of remote teaching were significantly correlated with all other outcome measures. Higher levels of stress from remote teaching were associated with increased anxiety and with emotional exhaustion. In addition, a larger gap between the support needed and received for remote teaching was associated with lower levels of commitment to teaching. In general, all stressors and support-gaps were positively correlated with anxiety and with emotional exhaustion.

In this study, we examined the factors which contributed to teachers’ burnout and commitment to teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, we collected information from 344 elementary school teachers, assessing their mental health, concerns, and resources during the pandemic. Using SEM analysis, we found that the stressors, gaps in support, and coping strategies all contributed to teachers’ burnout, both directly and indirectly, via their effect on anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs. The gaps in support further affected teachers’ commitment to work. A closer look at the different stressors and sources of support and their relations with other variables revealed that the most significant predictors of professional burnout and commitment were stressors and gaps in support which were specifically related to remote teaching. Another contributor was the use of avoidant-coping strategies, which was associated with increased anxiety and burnout and decreased self-efficacy beliefs and commitment.

The contribution of support-gaps, stressors, and coping strategy

A main finding in our study is the fact that insufficient support (i.e., a larger gap between needed and received support) contributed both directly to lower levels of professional commitment and to higher levels of burnout, as well as indirectly, by affecting both self-efficacy beliefs and anxiety. This novel finding is generally in line with previous literature, showing that a supportive environment increases the likelihood of teachers remaining in their job for extended periods of time [ 46 ]. Specifically, teachers rated the support they received from the school’s principal as a critical factor contributing to a feeling of professional satisfaction [ 47 ]. Our study demonstrated the importance of support from schools during emergency times such as the pandemic, even when teaching is done from home. Our results further showed that among the different sources of stress and support, the support from schools is even more critical than support from family and friends. This finding suggests that stakeholders and schools should focus on supplying support to teachers on normal days and particularly during crisis times.

In addition to support, we further found that stressors associated with the pandemic (e.g., health concerns, remote teaching) as well as avoidant-coping styles had direct effects on emotional exhaustion (one of the two components of burnout), and indirect effects on burnout and on professional commitment, via their effects on anxiety. Increased stress during the pandemic has been shown in multiple studies to date, and a recent meta-analysis concluded that 30% of teachers experienced high levels of stress during the pandemic [ 48 ]. In addition, a recent study conducted among Israeli teachers found that more than half of them experienced high levels of stress, which were associated with increased burnout and a desire to leave the profession [ 14 ]. Here we further found that teachers’ burnout was in addition affected by their use of a maladaptive coping strategy, sources of support, and their self-efficacy beliefs, suggesting that tools to strengthen these supports should be provided to teachers by schools ahead of time. In addition, our zooming in on different stressors revealed that stress relating to remote teaching was the most significant one of all the stressors, suggesting that the challenges of teaching were even more salient than the direct effects of the pandemic.

The use of a particular coping strategy to handle stressful situations also contributed to burnout. Specifically, we found that the use of an avoidant-coping strategy was associated with higher levels of stress and anxiety and was associated with increased burnout, and with a reduced commitment to teaching. This finding is consistent with a recent study by MacIntyre and colleagues, in which the authors reported that an avoidant-coping strategy was associated with increased negative emotions of anger, sadness, and loneliness in teachers during the pandemic [ 29 ]. Here, we further show that coping strategies are not only related to changes in mental health but also contribute to burnout and commitment to work. Interestingly, however, the more adaptive coping strategy (approach-coping) was not associated with burnout or with commitment in our study. The fact that the study by MacIntyre and colleagues did find effects of this strategy on positive emotions may indicate that while this type of strategy is beneficial for positive emotions in personal life, it may not have a significant effect on work-related outcomes. It may be that professional burnout and commitment to work are less related to a positive attitude toward the pandemic, such as the approach coping strategy. More research is needed to better understand the potential contribution of this type of strategy to burnout among teachers.

Anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs as contributors to burnout

More than 60% of the teachers in our sample reported medium to high levels of anxiety during the pandemic. This finding is aligned with those of recently-conducted studies [e.g., 13, 27, 48] and of recent meta-analyses showing high levels of anxiety during the pandemic both in the general population and specifically among teachers [ 49 , 50 ]. Here, we further show that higher levels of anxiety contributed to a reduction in personal fulfillment and commitment to teaching and increased emotional exhaustion among teachers, indicating that teacher mental state had a significant impact on their professional functioning. The indirect relations between support, anxiety, burnout, and commitment to teaching in our model, suggest that sufficient support from school could alleviate anxiety which in turn would have led to less burnout and better commitment to teaching during the pandemic.

Gaps in support also influenced teacher self-efficacy beliefs, which in turn have led to increased burnout and decreased commitment. Several studies demonstrated that during pandemic times, teacher self-efficacy beliefs were reduced compared with pre-pandemic times [e.g., 27]. This reduction in self-efficacy beliefs appears to be related to remote teaching. Teachers who were only teaching virtually reported the lowest levels of self-efficacy beliefs, as compared to teachers who were teaching in a hybrid or all-in-person form [ 27 ]. Potentially, the requirements associated with remote teaching, including learning new technologies and adapting lesson plans for virtual and hybrid instruction, have a significant effect on self-efficacy beliefs. In another study, self-efficacy beliefs were also found to mediate the association between difficulties stemming from remote teaching and perceived stress [ 51 ]. Collectively, these findings and our results demonstrate the difficulties in adopting new forms of teaching. They may also suggest that support from the school in adopting new methods of teaching during the pandemic could contribute to teacher self-efficacy beliefs. A strong sense of self-efficacy leads to less burnout and a greater commitment to teaching. Strategies for increasing self-efficacy beliefs among teachers could therefore be employed to reduce burnout and increase commitment, especially during crisis times [ 52 ].

Psychological resilience entails better recovery from adversity and a better ability to regulate negative emotions [ 53 ]. Indeed, individuals with high resilience adapt better to stressful situations [ 54 ]. Our findings show that higher levels of resilience alleviated teachers’ stress due to remote teaching. We claim here that teachers who have high levels of self-reported resilience can better adopt new teaching methods and frequent changes between methods. This finding is also in line with previous findings which pointed to the relationship between resilience, professional functioning, self-efficacy beliefs, burnout, and stress among teachers, during non-pandemic times [ 55 ]. Interestingly, however, the effect of resilience in our model was weaker, secondary to more prominent variables such as support-gap and stressors. It may be that during emergency times the effect of internal factors such as resilience are weaker than the effect of external factors such as support. Future studies should therefore address the question of psychological resilience and examine its relationship with teachers’ burnout during times of distress.

Source of stress and support during the pandemic

To examine the factors associated with teachers’ stress during the pandemic, we assessed four different categories of stressors–- stressors related to remote teaching, health worries, financial concerns, and occupational worries. Our results show that all these categories were significant sources of stress for teachers during the pandemic, all directly affecting their professional burnout. The effect of stressors on burnout and their commitment to teaching was also expressed indirectly, via its effect on anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs. This finding is consistent with the literature, generally showing that stress contributes to professional burnout. Specifically, previous studies found that even during non-pandemic times, teachers deal with many professional stressors leading to stress at work and in their personal life, which in turn lead to professional burnout [ 56 ].

Among the four stressors examined, our findings indicate that stress related to remote teaching was the most significant one. Remote teaching that was enforced during the long lockdown periods included new challenges related to online teachings, such as the use of novel technology, teaching from home while having young children, sharing computers between family members, and the like. Our results are consistent with those of recent studies, showing that one of the main stressors that led to burnout among teachers during the pandemic was new teaching demands due to the transition to online teaching [ 32 ]. While we hypothesized that teachers’ seniority will affect this factor, no such effect was found in our study. It may be that remote teaching was novel enough to both new and senior teachers alike, hence no effect of seniority was found. In addition to the difficulties brought about by the switch to online teaching, another study found that teachers believed that the online platform prevented teachers from teaching the regular curriculum [ 47 ]. Furthermore, a recent study found that even teachers with relevant technological skills reported decreased well-being [ 57 ]. Our results further suggest that online teaching constituted the primary stressor among teachers, even compared to health-related stressors, leading to more significant burnout and reduced commitment to teaching.

A novel finding from our research is that insufficient support from schools increased teacher burnout and decreased their commitment to work. We examined the gaps between the support that teachers felt they needed, compared to the support they received, and found that the highest gap was in the support related to remote teaching. This gap significantly contributed to lower levels of commitment and self-efficacy beliefs and higher levels of anxiety and professional burnout. A previous study found that altogether, the use of new information and communication technologies, work/family conflict, social support, and workload related to distance education, have led to increased burnout [ 12 ]. Our study further shows that remote teaching did not constitute merely a technical challenge or exhaustion from an increased workload, but instead, has led to stress and a specific need for support from the school. Specifically, more significant support from the school regarding remote teaching might have reduced adverse feelings among teachers such as anxiety. Interestingly, a recent study reported that not just the pandemic—but also returning to teaching in the classroom after it—was accompanied by high stress and anxiety among teachers [ 58 ]. This finding may suggest that stressors related to remote teaching may also stem from frequent changes and a lack of stability and consistency. One conclusion is that support from the school should supply teachers not only with technical skills but also emotional skills to deal with this kind of situation.

Broader implications

This study is rooted in specific educational, technological, social, and cultural circumstances in Israel which affect Israeli schools and remote teaching. Nevertheless, the literature outlined above along with our findings demonstrates a universal effect of COVID-19 on teachers around the globe. Despite the different cultures and teaching methods, the global transition to remote teaching universally led to a reduced commitment to teaching, and increased stress, anxiety, and burnout for teachers. The results of the current study therefore further contribute to this body of knowledge, specifically highlighting the need for better preparation and training for teachers in novel remote teaching methods.

This study has important implications in two dimensions—technical and psychological. At the technical level, stakeholders should make efforts to strengthen remote teaching skills among teachers and ensure that teachers have all the necessary facilities for remote teaching and to support a smooth transition to remote teaching when this is required [ 59 ]. In addition, help can be provided in the form of a strategy of reframing, which aims at leading to an approach coping, instead of the use of avoidant coping. The contribution of mental health-related factors—such as anxiety and distress—to burnout and commitment, calls for providing better and stable support for teacher populations, especially during crisis times. There is a need to provide teachers with a place to express their feelings at such times, exposing administrators and stakeholders to teachers’ actual needs [ 60 ].

Study limitations

Our study has several limitations which may affect the generalizability of the findings. First, data collection was done retrospectively, i.e., participants were asked to address their feelings about the 1 st and 2 nd waves of the pandemic during the 3 rd wave. Such retrospective self-reports may be biased in multiple ways and are limited to a subjective point of view. Importantly, during the 3 rd wave of the pandemic, unlike the uncertainty of the first two waves, people may have felt more depression or despair, which is more characteristic of a chronic, rather than an acute state [ 61 ].

In addition, the design of this study was cross-sectional, and as such, no causal or sustained effects could not be addressed. This cross-sectional design further limited our ability to assess the contribution of effects not related to COVID-19 on professional burnout among the teachers in our sample. Second, our study sample included elementary school teachers, which limits their generalizability to middle and high school teachers. Although we aimed for a diverse sample, the majority of the sample included women, which is also similar to their proportion in the teaching profession. Given that past research indicated that teachers’ mental health is significantly related to gender [ 62 ], the results may be biased in this respect. Future research with long-term follow-up and a diverse sample of teachers from different educational systems and genders should be conducted to strengthen and validate the current findings.

Finally, we should note that the study only examined a limited set of potential contributors to burnout and professional commitment, considering the feasibility of the remote application of the study. Other factors which may have affected burnout such as socioeconomic status were not considered here, and should be examined in future studies.

We found that gaps between the needed and received support had a direct effect on teacher burnout and commitment, and an indirect effect through anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs. Stress relating to remote teaching and support-gaps regarding remote teaching were the most significant of all the stressors and sources of support. These findings demonstrate the significance of remote teaching as the main cause of stress and professional burnout and suggest that proper preparation of teachers and support by schools can have a significant effect on teachers’ mental and professional well-being.

Funding Statement

This work was supported by a research grant to authors O.S, M.N. and T.G. from the Israeli Ministry of Education (grant number 23/11.20). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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