1.1 Background of the Study
Since 1970s, job burnout has been a buzzword in psychological and Educationalresearches. Just as what the president of American Education Association (W.McGuire, 1979) was worried about: feelings of burnout had attacked numerousteachers who worked with love, ideals and devotion.Relevant researchers (Schaufeli, Maslach & Marek, 1993) have reported thatmany people enter the field of teaching with great enthusiasm, high expectations, andidealism. As scholar Farber (1991) pointed out, teachers devote themselves toestablishing a learning community among students, their colleagues, school leadersand even parents through their inspired instructions and commitments. And a greatmany teachers even regard education as a noble career of conscience and love, andthey do not require much material rewards. However, as it has been proved by somescholars (Schaufeli, et al., 1993), sooner or later, continuous anxiety and stress fromthe work of a teacher will inevitably deplete their enthusiasm and impact on theirphysical and psychological health, and eventually result in the so-called "teacherburnout". Alot of teachers have been found to exhibit almost all of the classic burnoutsymptoms, such as excessive worry, a lot of complaints, malicious humor, apathy,chronic fatigue and frustration, low interest and motivation for working and a desireto leave the teaching position. According to Grosch and Olsen (1994), thecombination of these symptoms gradually leads to a decrease of workers’ populationin teaching profession. It will lead to the declination of teachers’ quality and quantityso that a high quality education will be out of the question.
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1.2 Significance of the Study
Prior researches have reported that teachers abroad or at home are forced byincreasing burnout, which is threatening the quality of teachers’profession and life, aswell as the overall education. More and more people, such as educators, psychologists,teachers themselves or even ordinary citizens begin to realize the importance ofpreventing and alleviating teacher burnout. However, little studies on senior highschool English teachers have been done— their current situation is still a mystery.In the study, the author tries to find out the current burnout level of senior highschool English teachers by answering three research questions which are proposedbased on the three dimensions of teacher burnout, namely:
1. What is the current burnout level of senior high school English teachers in thedimension of emotional exhaustion?
2. What is the present burnout level of senior high school English teachers in thedimension of depersonalization?3. What is the burnout level of senior high school English teachers in thedimension of reduced personal accomplishment now?
Benefiting from the study, the current situation of senior high school Englishteachers’burnout levels in the three dimensions and their overall burnout level will be found out. And some implications to prevent or ease teacher burnout will be putforward. Thereby, English teachers in senior high schools themselves, school leadersand relevant educational administrative departments will have vigilances andreflections on teacher burnout. Senior high school English teachers’ physical andpsychological health, their teaching or even the whole，英语论文网站，英语论文范文
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