Burnout confirmed as a viable explanation for beginning teacher attrition

Abstract

The present study investigated the hypothesis that early career burnout is significantly and positively associated with serious turnover intention in teachers at the beginning of their careers. A sample of 96 teachers working in their second year as teachers in Australia was surveyed in 2006 and confidentially asked about their perceptions of their work and whether they had any serious intentions to leave their job and/or their profession. Respondents were also administered the Educators version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI: Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996). Significant associations between serious intentions to leave current teaching position and all three MBI subscales were found. These findings replicate the results of two other independent studies investigating turnover intention and the experience of burnout in beginning teachers working in Australian education systems. Together these studies provide strong support for the view that early career burnout is a realistic and straightforward explanation for high early career attrition rates that have been reported as problematic for the teaching profession in a number of countries including Australia