Pre-service teacher education and beginning teacher burnout

Abstract

A sample of Queensland teachers at the beginning of their careers was surveyed to test the hypothesis that pre-service teacher education is a significant predictor of early career burnout. A total of 100 probationary teachers in their first year of teaching were surveyed anonymously on one occasion. After controlling for a range of variables known to influence stress and burnout in teachers, the duration of a teacher’s pre-service teacher education program added significantly to the explanation of variance in Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization scores. Based on Hobfoll and Freedy’s (1993) conservation of resources theory, the results of the present study suggests that teachers who have completed significantly less than four years of pre-service teacher education may have commenced their careers lacking important internal resources for handling the high work demands characteristic of the profession.