Dissertation
Teacher burnout and resilience: a narrative inquiry study about teacher experiences in the wake of COVID-19
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Drexel University
Sep 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001869
Abstract
In the wake of teaching during the COVID-19 global pandemic, teacher burnout and retention have become an issue nationally, as reflected in surveys conducted throughout 2020-2022 (Steiner et al., 2022). Quantitative studies from 2020-2022 have begun to illuminate personal and contextual risks and protective factors that have influenced teachers' feelings of burnout or resilience, especially when faced with the challenges of teaching through the pandemic. This narrative study aimed to explore how teachers' stories can yield deeper insight into the demands and resource provisions under which teachers have been functioning amid the pandemic, and how these multisystemic demands and resources have caused them to feel stressed or helped them adapt access resilience. The following two questions guided this study: 1) What stories did teachers tell about their feelings of burnout (e.g., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and professional satisfaction) after teaching during the pandemic? 2) What stories did teachers tell about their feelings of resilience or dynamic, positive adaptation in the face of adversity after teaching during the pandemic? Seven secondary teachers from one school in the Midwest were interviewed twice, and their stories coded for patterns. A researcher's journal was also used to track patterns and questions in the data. The study found four results: (a) The empathic load and pace of change burned teachers out in COVID-19; (b) leadership was a source for connection, but mostly a primary contributor of uncertainty, disconnection, and depletion; (c) teacher exhaustion rose sharply from bridging the gaps between the "new normal" and the "back to normal;" and (d) collegiate networks were mutually empowering, courage-building, and multisystemic resource-multiplying. The findings from this study can be used to help school leaders and policy makers address teacher burnout post-COVID-19, and give teachers the pivotal resources they need to build resilience. Keywords: teacher burnout, teacher resilience, multisystemic resilience, teacher COVID-19 stories, post-COVID teaching, relational resilience, collegial networks, multisystemic burnout
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Details
- Title
- Teacher burnout and resilience
- Creators
- Lara Anne Taylor
- Contributors
- Harriette Rasmussen (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xi, 157 unnumbered pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991021229714404721