Meslek Lisesi Öğretmenlerinin Mesleki Tükenmişlik Düzeylerinin İncelenmesi

People spend most of their daily lives at work, and planning their business activities. Therefore, it is inevitable for people to experience stress in business life. Particularly, factors like differentiation of social roles, disagreements in interpersonal relationships, competition in working environments, individuals’ struggle to demonstrate themselves, and higher expectations, cause stress and adversely affect people’s mental health. Stress in work life, combined with challenges and problems in individuals’ private lives, causes serious problems in both the individual and organisational meaning (Cemaloğlu & Şahin, 2007). Burnout appears with the physiological and emotional feeling of exhaustion as a result of inability to cope with the stress, in people who work in close contact with other people. There are many causes of burnout. Some of these are personal, such as age, gender, marital status, education level, or profession, while others are organisational, like work overload, uncertainty or conflict of roles, characteristics of the working environment, working hours, or relationships with colleagues. Symptoms of burnout are organized into three categories: physical, psychological and mental, and behavioural symptoms. Physical symptoms of burnout include problems and complaints like chronic fatigue, importance, loss of energy, attrition, and higher sensitivity to diseases, frequent headaches, nausea, spasms, backache, and sleep disorders (Çam, 1995). Psychological symptoms of burnout include feelings of frustration, nervousness, and psychological withdrawal, preference for superficial relationships, distraction, or alienation of clients. Individuals feeling burnout show behavioural symptoms such as bad temper, sudden neurotic explosions, bursting into tears, extreme sensitivity, desire for solitude, reluctance to work, being absent or late for work, slowing down or delaying work, difficulty organizing, increased tendency to consume pills, alcohol, tobacco, or other stimulants, eating disorders, marriage and family conflicts, alienation from family and friends (social environment) and introversion, interpersonal problems, distress, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, inability to mobilize, lack of trust in others, loss interest in the institution, and sneering or accusing behaviour (Akten, 2007). Işıkhan (2004) has defined the teaching profession as posing a serious risk to individuals, as it adversely affects mental health, and consequently their working lives, due to characteristic and stressful situations in the education environment. “Teachers experience more stress than other professions in general, because of the conflicts between studentsteachers, school and families in the education and training services, disciplinary problems of students, overcrowded classes and insufficient physical conditions, excess bureaucracy, low salary, difficulty to promote, criticisms of the society, pressure of social and political forces on educational institutions, reward system and insufficient participation in decision making decision processes at educational institutions” (Çokluk, 1999). Teachers’ responsibilities include ensuring qualified collaboration between schools and families, and orienting families in connection with their children’s training-education. In conducting their training-education duties, teachers must have positive relationships with their managers, colleagues, students, parents, school personnel and the community. As teachers have to establish such multidimensional relationships in their working lives, they have to continuously work face-to-face with people (Cemaloğlu & Şahin, 2007). Although there is extensive research on professional burnout, there are very few studies that focus on vocational high school teachers and compare the burnout levels of vocational course teachers and culture course teachers. Purpose of the Research The core objective of this research is to investigate the professional burnout levels of vocational high school teachers. To arrive at this broader objective, answers were sought for the following questions. 1. What are the professional burnout levels of vocational high school teachers? 2. Does the level of professional burnout among vocational high school teachers significantly vary by demographic variables such as (a) gender, (b) marital status, (c) seniority, (d) education level, or (e) branch? 3. Is there a significant difference in the professional burnout levels of culture course teachers and vocational course teachers? 4. Do professional burnout levels of vocational high school teachers significantly vary on the basis of teachers’ willingness in selecting the profession? Theoretical Framework Maslach’s Burnout Inventory. Maslach’s Burnout model is also called the “multidimensional burnout model” or “three dimensional burnout model”. According to Maslach, burnout is a continuous reaction to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors related to work, and is defined in three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and the feeling of reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). Emotional exhaustion is a reaction of an intensively working individual against pushing so hard and failing to meet other people’s demands (Işıkhan, 2004). This dimension of burnout is rather seen in professions where it is inevitable to work intensively and face-toface with people. Emotional exhaustion is the beginning and most important component of burnout (Maslach & Jackson 1981). It is accepted that emotional exhaustion constitutes the first and fundamental stage of burnout, the moment when the person’s emotional resources diminish at a psychological level, and continues increasingly (Akçamete et al, 2001). Depersonalization involves insensitive attitudes and behaviours towards others to whom they offer services. Such behaviour manifests in grim, cold, and uninterested manners. People who experience emotional exhaustion often feel too weak to solve other people’s problems, and use depersonalization as a way to escape. They reduce their interpersonal relationships to the minimum level necessary to keep things in order. According to Maslach, depersonalization is the most problematic dimension among the three components of burnout (Aksoy, 2007). Personal Failure is the self-perception of being inadequate and unsuccessful. Method This qualitative research is a field study, planned to analyse the burnout levels of vocational high school teachers from their own perspective, conducted using a descriptive method. The research universe covers 542 Vocational High School teachers in various branches, working at five Vocational High Schools in Şişli, Istanbul, during the 2011–2012 academic year. The sample is composed of 215 teachers who voluntarily responded to the questionnaires. A Personal Information Form and the Maslach Burnout Inventory were used to collect data for this research. The Personal Information Form was developed by the researcher in order to collect data on certain variables related to Vocational High School teachers. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981) and adapted into Turkish by Ergin (1993), was used to gauge each teacher’s burnout level. The Maslach Burnout Inventory is a tool prepared to measure the burnout of people who work in professions that serve people directly, assessing the three sub-dimensions of burnout, including “Emotional Exhaustion”, “Depersonalization” and “Personal Achievement”. The Statistical Packet for Social Studies (SPSS) 15.00 software program was used to analyze the data. In statistical analysis of subordinate problems of the research, arithmetic average, Independent Groups t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used. Findings In the analysis of the demographical information of the participants, it is seen that samples comprise of 64 women (29.8%) and 151 men (70.2%), totalling 215 vocational high school teachers. According to Ministry of National Education (MEB) data from 2014, 30% of teachers working at industrial vocational high schools in Istanbul are women, while 69.7% are men in academic year 2013-2014. Of the teachers participating in the research, 149 are married (69.3%), while 66 are single (30.7%). Out of this group, 45 subjects (20.9%) have between 1-5 years of experience, 54 (25.1%) have 6-10 years of experience, 61 (28.4%) have 11-15 years, 29 (13.5%) have 16-20 years, and 26 subjects (12.1%) have 21 or more years of experience. Of these teachers, 157 (73%) teach undergraduate studies, while 58 (27%) are graduate teachers. When we look at branches of teachers, 94 (43.7%) of them teach general knowledge courses, while 121 (53.3%) teach vocational courses. Of respondents, 187 (87%) willingly chose their profession, while 28 (13%) have selected this profession unwillingly. *Ed. Note: It’s not good English to start a sentence with a numeral, so I have rephrased many of these.] The highest average burnout score ( ̅=3.21) corresponds to “I feel I am working too much” in the emotional exhaustion dimension. The lowest average burnout scores ( ̅=1.47) is “I feel like I’m not treating some people inhuman, because of my job” in the depersonalization dimension. When the lowest dimension scores of professional burnout were compared, differences among the dimensions were screened. The highest average of burnout scores is seen in emotional exhaustion ( ̅=2.37), followed by personal failure ( ̅=2.30) and depersonalization ( ̅=1.87). To identify whether there is any significant difference in burnout scores between genders, a t-test analysis was performed, revealing that there is a statistically significant difference between emotional exhaustion dimension and gender (p<.05). This suggests that female teachers experience more emotional exhaustion compared to their male colleagues. In depersonalization and personal achievement, no meaningful difference is seen between genders (p>.05).As a result of the t-test analysis conducted to identify if there exists any significant difference in teachers’ burnout scores by marital status, no statistically significant difference was seen in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal achievement dimension averages by marital status (p>.05). This suggests that burnout levels are not affected by whether the teachers are married or single. No statistically significant difference among emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal achievement dimensions was determined in seniority, education level or marital status. As a result of the t-test analysis conducted to identify if there exists any significant difference in teachers’ burnout scores by their willingness to select the profession, a statistically significant difference was seen in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions by willingness (p<.05). This suggests that teachers who have selected the profession unwillingly are experiencing more burnout in emotional and depersonalization dimensions, compared to those who have selected the profession willingly. There is no statistically significant difference between personal achievement dimension score averages and the issue of selecting the profession willingly or not (p>.05). Discussion and Conclusion Based on the findings of the research, we see that there is no significant difference in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal achievement sub-dimensions of teachers’ burnout levels. When we look at the sub-dimensions of professional burnout, we see the highest burnout in the emotional exhaustion dimension, followed by personal achievement and depersonalization dimensions respectively. As a result of the research, there is a significant difference in burnout levels of teachers by gender. No significant difference is seen in depersonalization and personal achievement sub-dimensions by gender. The teachers’ emotional exhaustion dimension varies significantly by gender, as female teachers experience more emotional exhaustion compared to their male counterparts, perhaps because female teachers’ professional expectations and professional roles differ from men’s. Today, women’s social roles are changing, where women have responsibilities both at home and at work. By trying to fulfil both of these responsibilities, teachers may fail to have the intended job satisfaction in business life. Moreover, as the teaching profession requires one-to-one interaction with crowded groups of students, negativities in human relations can have an emotional effect. The finding of our research, that there is a significant difference only in emotional exhaustion dimension with female teachers, suggests that women are more emotional than men. According to another result of the research, teachers’ emotional exhaustion dimensions vary significantly among vocational course teachers and culture course teachers. We see that teachers of cultural courses experience more emotional exhaustion than vocational class teachers. There is no significant difference between depersonalization and personal achievement sub-dimensions by branch. Conducting this research in vocational high schools has allowed us to make such a comparison. In the district of Şişli, the number of students per class at professional and technical secondary educational institutions is 56 (Şişli District National Education Department, 2014). At Vocational High Schools, theoretical and applied vocational courses are held at workshops. In vocational courses, class is divided into a few workshop groups, reducing the number of students and making it easier for the teachers to practice. This may vary by the conditions of the school, class size, and teacher staff. In culture courses, teachers have to lecture 56 students on average, and even higher at many schools. Such situations preclude the teachers from performing their profession. Efforts should be spent to allocate no more than 34 students per class at such schools. According to other results of the research, there is a significant difference between burnout levels by willingness to choose their profession. Teachers’ emotional exhaustion and depersonalization sub-dimensions also show a significant difference by the willingness to choose their profession. It was observed that teachers who have chosen their profession unwillingly experience more emotional exhaustion and depersonalization than those who have chosen willingly. There is no significant difference in the personal achievement subdimensions by teacher’s willingness to choose the profession. Teaching has a direct effect of first rank in raising and shaping future generations. In addition to the knowledge conveyed by teachers, they have effects and contributions in various ways including lifestyle, manner of communication, social rules, etc. While those who choose the teaching profession willingly can make such decisions with certain awareness, those who became teachers unwillingly run the risk of failing to fully devote them to the profession. Consequently, university applicants should be given long-term consultation and guidance during the process of choosing departments, so the most suitable and willing people can be directed towards the teaching profession. Having numerous studies on the topic, yielding varying results based on variables and sub-dimensions, arouses interest in the possible results that may be found by combining such research using a meta-analysis method. School administrators should collect more data to measure the professional burnout state of their staff, and conduct school-wide studies to increase employees’ job motivation and commitment to the job.