Preschool Teachers’ Burnout Experiences: a qualitative study

Daily challenges related to the specifics of a teacher's work are associated with a high risk of burnout syndrome. It is very important to understand and timely recognize the problems of the pedagogue, as the burnout syndrome begins imperceptibly, but later causes serious consequences for the pedagogue himself/herself and the entire educational process.

In order to reveal the professional burnout experiences of pre-school teachers and the impact of burnout on the management of the educational process, a qualitative research was chosen. Data are collected through semi-structured interviews. Teachers with 5 or more years of teaching experience who have undergone or are going through the professional burnout were selected as participants in the study. This made it possible to delve deeper into the research object and obtain important information about the phenomenon under the study. 12 pedagogues participated in the study.. The received data were analysed while using the inductive qualitative content analysis. The evidence was grouped into 43 subcategories, which were later grouped into 8 categories, that allowed to clarify 3 major themes revealing: the difficulties arising during teaching process that stimulate the burn out, the emerging of certain behavioral features that testify the approaching or already existing burnout and the impact of the burnout on the teachers‘work.

The study revealed that teachers face various challenges at work (difficulties in communicating with parents, poor relations with colleagues, heavy workload, large number of children in groups), which often cause tension, stress and anxiety, possibly leading to the development of professional burnout. Signs of professional burnout that emerged in the study include emotional exhaustion, which manifests as an excessive feeling of physical and emotional fatigue, nervousness, inability to concentrate, and depersonalization, which manifests as a desire to distance oneself from others, a cynical attitude toward work, others, and even one's own duties.