Weekend Research: Music Teacher Burnout

This year, it’s entirely possible that you had times you felt burnt out. If that’s the case, you are certainly not alone.

Today we’ll dive into some research studies on music teacher burnout. This conversation will build on the one we had last Friday about using research as an approach to problem-solving in the music room.

We’ll talk about some studies that have been conducted on music teacher burnout, some characteristics of burnout, the factors that impact burnout, and finally, what we can do about it.

 
Weekend Research - Music Teacher Burnout
 

Research Referenced on Music Teacher Burnout

  • Bernhard, 2016 - Investigating Burnout Among Elementary and Secondary School Music Educators: A Replication

  • Cheek and others, 2003 - Using Music Therapy Techniques to Treat Teacher Burnout

  • Gordon, 2000 - Sources of Stress for the Public School Music Teacher: Four Case Studies

  • Hedden, 2005 - A Study of Stress and Its Manifestations among Music Educators

  • McLain, 2005 - Environmental Support and Music Teacher Burnout (is burnout impacted by other factors in a teacher’s life? 

  • Sindberg, 2011 - Alone All Together—The Conundrum of Music Teacher Isolation and Connectedness

What is Burnout?

  • No set definitions, but many symptoms

  • Physical Symptoms of Burnout: insomnia, fatigue, headaches

  • Emotional Symptoms of Burnout: increased crying, increased yelling, increased drug / alcohol use, detachment, low productivity, absenteeism, higher risk-taking, feeling helpless / hopeless

How Can We Measure It?

  • Maslach Burnout Inventory - Educators Survey

  • Likert scale 0 (never) - 6 (always)

  • Three areas: 

    • Emotional exhaustion 

    • Depersonalization 

    • Accomplishment 

  • Emotional exhaustion example statements

    • “I feel used up at the end of the day” 

    • “Working with people all day is really a strain for me” 

    • “I feel like I’m working too hard on my job” 

  • Depersonalization example statements

    • “I feel I treat some students as if they were impersonal objects” 

    • “I don’t really care what happens to some students” 

  • Personal accomplishment example statements

    • “I deal effectively with the problems of my students” 

    • “I feel very energetic” 

    • “I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job”

What Impacts Burnout?

  • Social Support (the human element): We have less burnout when we’re surrounded by a supportive community of colleagues and lead by supportive administration

    • This was the finding in McLain (2005) and Sindberg (2011) 

    • Research (and perhaps life experience) tell us music teachers feel isolated a lot of the time (Sindberg, 2011). This is was particularly true for teachers who traveled to more than one campus 

    • The Cheek study (2003) also referenced marital status is strongly correlated with lower burnout rates

  • Professional Development: We have less burnout when we have training in pedagogy and other areas of teaching

    • Many teachers feel underprepared when they get in the music classroom, and many teachers feel that their pre-service training wasn’t enough or wasn’t relevant at all. This theme of needing more professional development was in Gordon (2000) and Hedden (2005).

    • Many of us teach at more than one campus, or teach more than one subject area (like band or choir). Both those factors are connected with higher levels of burnout and stress (Bernhard, 2016; Sindberg, 2011) 

  • Classroom Management: We have less burnout when we’re confident in our approach to increasing student motivation and handling teaching disruptions. 

    • McLain (2005), Gordon (2000), Hedden (2005)

  • Stress Management and Time Management: 

    • We feel less burnt out when we feel like we have tools to manage our stress and tools to manage our time well (McLain , 2005; Hedden 2005)

    • Music therapy, combined with cognitive behavioral therapy was used in Cheek et al. (2003) to decrease burnout symptoms in elementary teachers

    • Hedden (2005) surveyed the same teachers in a 7 year study and the area of stress decrease was mostly in time management. Bernhard (2016) noted that initial certification teachers specifically showed higher levels of emotional exhaustion in the MBI-ES

So What Should We Do?

  • Prevention is more effective than treatment

  • Social Relationships and Support: When we have the vocabulary to communicate our burnout experience, we can be more communicative to people in relationships with us

  • Professional Development: Use available resources (books, colleagues, courses, podcasts) to learn about areas of teaching

  • Classroom Management: Use available resources (books, colleagues, courses, podcasts) to learn about mindsets and approaches to building relationships with students

  • Stress Management and Time Management:  Mental health training, drink some water, take a walk, then take a nap

Opposite of burnout: Energized. Inspired. Refreshed