中文摘要

教师已经成为工作倦怠的高发人群之一。由于教师的工作负担沉重，承受

的社会压力日益增加，导致教师工作倦怠的现象越来越突出。本研究借鉴国外

工作倦怠理论和测量工具，采用问卷调查（玛勒诗职业倦怠量表-教育工作者问

卷）和访谈的方法，调查北京市一所中等职业学校英语教师工作倦怠的状况并

分析其成因。

研究结果表明，中等职业学校英语教师的倦怠水平明显高于普通中学英语

教师。在造成其职业倦怠的诸多因素中，超负荷工作量、工作资源的缺失（如

缺乏必要的支持和反馈）以及机构对教师的挤压是被调查学校英语教师普遍反

映的三个因素。但是在对教师的访谈中，我们也欣喜地看到我们职业学校的教

师们仍旧保持着他们对于学生的关心，主要表现在他们开始着重关注中等职业

学校学生这个特殊群体的心理特征并积极寻求解决学生心理问题的方法。

调查中等职业学校外语教师工作倦怠的实际情况，才能为教育行政部门、

教师教育结构等提供有益的信息，使他们能够针对中等职业学校外语教师工作

倦怠采取恰当有效的干预措施，从而促进中等职业学校外语教师队伍的良性发

- I -

展，进一步推进我国职业教育的快速稳定发展。

关键词：英语教师；中等职业学校；职业倦怠

Abstract

Having been suppressed by the burden on the job and from the social context,

teaching has become an occupation in which job burnout highly prevails. Teachers

appear to bear more and more burnout. In order to investigate how often the burnout

is in English teachers of the chosen vocational middle school in Beijing and to

analyze the major factors which contribute to their burnout, the paper intends to

utilize the methodologies of questionnaires (Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators

Survey) and interviews based on the established theories and measurements on

burnout.

Research results indicate that the English teachers in the chosen vocational

middle school are bearing much more burnout than those in regular middle schools.

Among many factors which contribute to burnout, the overload, the absence of job

resources (e.g. a lack of support or feedback), and the institutional suppression stand

out. However, we can still see these teachers’ concerns for their students, such as their

II

focus on the psychological issues of the vocational middle school students. What’s

more, they also have already taken actions to seek solutions to their students’

psychological problems.

Investigation on the virtual state of English teachers’ burnout in vocational

middles school could offer the educational administrative departments beneficial

information, which would help them to take proper and effective measures to

intervene in those teachers’ burnout. In addition, it could also help boost the

development of both the vocational school teachers and the vocational education

around our country.

Key Words: English teachers; vocational middle school; job burnout

Table of Contents

中文摘要 ..................................................................................................I

Abstract ……………………………………...….……………..……….II

I. Introduction ………………………………..………………..………..1

1.1 Background of the burnout research ………………………………….……1

1.2 The existing problems and the purpose of this paper ………………………3

1.3 The significance of the study ………………………………………………3

1.4 Research questions …………………………………………………………4

II. Literature Review ……………………………...………….……..….5

2.1 The pioneering phase ……………………………………………………….5

2.2 The empirical phase ……………………………………………………...…7

III

2.2.1 Concept of burnout ……………………………………………...…7

2.2.1.1 Theory of burnout …………………………………...…….7

2.2.1.2 Assessment of burnout ………………………….…….….10

2.2.2 Factors contributing to burnout ……………………………..……12

2.2.2.1 Situational factors ………………………………………..12

2.2.2.2 Individual factors ……………………………………...…15

2.3 Outcomes of burnout ………………………………………………...……18

2.3.1 Job performance ………………………………………………….18

2.3.2 Health …………………………………………………………….19

2.4 Summary ……………………………………………………………..…...20

III. Research Methodology …………………………..………....…….23

3.1 Research questions …………………………………………….…………23

3.2 Subject description …………………………………………….…………23

3.3 Instruments …………………………………………………….…………23

3.3.1 Scale ………………………………………………….………….23

3.3.2 Interviews …………………………………………….………….24

3.4 Procedures ………………………………………………………….…….24

Step 1: Burnout scale: Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey

(MBI-ES) …………………………….............…25

Step 2: In-depth interviews ……………………..……………..………..25

IV. Results and Discussions ……………………..……………………27

4.1 Burnout Scale ………………………………………….………………….27

4.2 In-depth interviews ……………………………….……………………….31

4.3 Factors contributing to teachers’ burnout …………………………………40

4.4 The teachers’ inner concerns for students ………………………...………43

4.5 Summary ……………………………………………………...…………..47

V. Conclusions ……………………………………..……….……...…..49

5.1 Major findings ……………………………………...……………………..49

IV

5.2 Other findings ………………………………………..…………………...50

5.3 Implications …………………………………………...…………………..51

5.4 Limitations of the present study ………………………………………….51

5.5 Suggestions for further research ………………………………………….52

References ……………………………………………..……………….53

Appendix I Maslach Burnout Inventory - Educators Survey (MBI-

ES) ………………………………….…………56

Appendix II Interview outline …………………………………….….60

Acknowledgements ………………………………..………………......61

V

Survey on Burnout of English Teachers in a Vocational Middle

School in Beijing: A Case Study

I. Introduction

1.1 Research Background of Burnout

The relationship that people have with their work, and the difficulties that

can arise when that relationship goes awry, have been long recognized as a

significant phenomenon of the modern age. The use of the term burnout for this

phenomenon began to appear with some regularity in the 1970s in the United

States, especially among people working in the human services. This popular

usage was presaged by Greene’s 1961 novel, A Burnout Case, in which a

spiritually tormented and disillusioned architect quits his job and withdraws

into the African jungle. Even earlier writing, both fictional and nonfictional,

described similar phenomena, including extreme fatigue and the loss of

idealism and passion for one’s job. What is noteworthy is that the importance of

burnout as a social problem was identified by both practitioners and social

commentators long before it became a focus of systematic study by researchers.

Originally, burnout was defined by Freudenberger (1974) in an article

entitled Staff Burnout as a specific psychological condition. At the beginning,

the research was exploratory and had the goal of articulating the phenomenon

of burnout, characterized by a strong applied orientation. Much of this work

consisted of authors’ personal experiences (Freudenberger, 1974, 1977a, 1977b)

or narratives based on specific programs or case studies (Maslach & Pines,

1977; Pines & Maslach, 1978, 1980), and it was characterized by conceptual

disagreement. Perlman and Hartman (1982) compiled a list of the multiple

conceptualizations used during this period. Definitions of burnout included (a)

to fail, wear out, become exhausted; (b) a loss of creativity; (c) a loss of

commitment for work; (d) an estrangement from clients, co-workers, job and

6

agency; (e) a response to the chronic stress of making it to the top; and finally

(f) a syndrome of inappropriate attitudes toward clients and toward self, often

associated with uncomfortable physical and emotional symptoms. Although

these notions were similar, they lacked a common and precise measure of

burnout.

It was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that systematic empirical

studies on burnout were conducted and published (Iwanicki & Schwab, 1981;

Maslach & Jackson, 1981). During these years, the concept of burnout was

more clearly conceptualized and defined. Also during this period, an accepted,

standardized, and psychometrically sound instrument, the Maslach Burnout

Inventory (MBI), was developed to measure burnout (Maslach & Jackson,

1981, 1986).

In the 1980s the work (Maslach & Jackson, 1981, 1986; Kahill, 1988;

Kirmeyer & Dougherty, 1988; Russell, Altmaier, et al., 1987) on burnout

shifted to more systematic empirical research. This work was more quantitative

in nature, utilizing questionnaire and survey methodology and studying larger

subject populations. A particular focus of this research was the assessment of

burnout, and several different measures were developed. The scale that has had

the strongest psychometric properties and continues to be used most widely by

researchers is the Maslach Burnout Inventory developed by Maslach and

Jackson.

In the 1990s this empirical phase continued, but with several new

directions. First, the concept of burnout was extended to occupations beyond

the human services and education. Second, burnout research was enhanced by

more sophisticated methodology and statistical tools. Third, a few longitudinal

studies began to assess the links between the work environment at one time and

the individual’s thoughts and feelings at a later time. In addition to addressing

the fundamental premise that burnout is a consequence of the interaction of an

individual with a work setting, longitudinal studies are important for assessing

7

the impact of interventions to alleviate burnout.

There has been a recent expansion of work on burnout in which three

areas are involved: an international expansion of research, a theoretical

expansion to a model of person-job fit, and an expansion of the basic construct

to include the positive state of job engagement.

1.2 The existing problems and the purpose of this paper

The research on burnout, especially on teachers’ burnout in our country

began in 1990s and to date stays in description and measurement of this

phenomenon, mainly on burnout review rather than empirical research (赵玉芳、

毕重增，2003；王芳、许燕，2004；刘晓明，2004). What’s more, the

studies on burnout mentioned above at home emphasize on ordinary middle

school teachers rather than on vocational middle school teachers, who are

bearing much more burnout.

Secondly, there were no published articles or research on English

teachers’ burnout (or foreign language teachers’ burnout) till the year 2006 (程

晓棠，2006).

Thirdly, most of studies on middle school teachers’ burnout (王芳、许燕，

2004；胡永萍， 2004；刘晓明， 2004；程晓棠， 2006) indicated that

demographic characteristics, like age, gender or teaching experience are the

main factors which result in teachers’ burnout.

Given these existing problems mentioned above, one purpose of the

thesis is to see whether the factors which contribute to vocational middle

teachers’ burnout fit the current research results or not. Another aim is to draw a

picture of English teachers’ burnout in the chosen vocational middle school in

8

Beijing and to provide first-hand data and materials for future related studies.

1.3 Significance of the study

From the theoretical perspective, the case study on the chosen vocational

middle school can provide vivid and fresh information on English teachers’

burnout and make some qualitative preparations for further studies on

vocational middle school English teachers’ burnout.

From the practical perspective, it’s believed that the real living state of

vocational school teachers deserves much more attention and effective

measures could be taken to alleviate burnout which will promote teachers’

professional development and progress in vocational education.

1.4 Research Questions

(1) Is there any burnout in English teachers of the chosen vocational middle

school in Beijing? If so, how often?

(2) What are the major factors which contribute to their burnout?

9

II. Literature Review

2.1 The Pioneering Phase

In this phase, the work was exploratory and had the goal of articulating the

phenomenon of burnout. The initial articles appeared in the mid 1970s in the

United States and their primary contribution was to describe the basic

phenomenon, give it a name, and show that it was not an uncommon response.

This early writing was based on the experience of people working in human

services and health care --- occupations in which the goal is to provide aid and

service to people in need, and which can therefore be characterized by

emotional and interpersonal stressors. The initial articles were written by

Freudenberger (1975), a psychiatrist working in an alternative health care

agency, and by Maslach (1976), a social psychologist who was studying

emotions in the workplace. Freudenberger provided direct accounts of the

process by which he and others experienced emotional depletion and a loss of

motivation and commitment, and he labeled it with a term being used

colloquially to refer to the effects of chronic drug abuse: burnout. Maslach

interviewed a wide range of human services workers about the emotional stress

of their jobs and discovered that the coping strategies had important

implications for people’s professional identity and job behavior.

Thus, burnout research had its roots in care-giving and service occupations, in

which the core of the job was the relationship between provider and recipient.

10

This interpersonal context of the job meant that, from the beginning, burnout

was studied not so much as an individual stress response, but in terms of an

individual’s relational transactions in the workplace. Moreover, this

interpersonal context focused attention on the individual’s emotions, and on the

motives and values underlying his or her work with recipients.

The clinical and social psychological perspectives of the initial articles

influenced the nature of the first phase of burnout research. On the clinical side,

the focus was on symptoms of burnout and on issues of mental health. On the

social side, the focus was on the relationship between provider and recipient

and on the situational context of service occupations. Most of this initial

research was descriptive and qualitative in nature, utilizing such techniques as

interviews, case studies, and on-site observations.

Several themes emerged from these early interviews in the human services,

suggesting that the burnout phenomenon had some identifiable regularities.

First, it was clear that the provision of service or care can be a very demanding

and involving occupation and that emotional exhaustion is not an uncommon

response to such job overload. The second component of depersonalization

(cynicism) also emerged from these interviews, as people described how they

tried to cope with the emotional stresses of their work. Moderating one’s

compassion for clients by emotional distance from them (“detached concern”)

was viewed as a way of protecting oneself from intense emotional arousal that

could interfere with functioning effectively on the job. However, an imbalance

of excessive detachment and little concern seemed to lead staff to respond to

clients in negative, callous, and dehumanized ways.

A better feel for the situational context of the provider-recipient relationship

came from field observations, in addition to the interviews. It was possible to

see first-hand some of the job factors that had been described in earlier

interviews, such as the high number of clients (caseload), prevalence of

negative client feedback, and scarcity of resources. It was also possible to

11

observe other, unreported aspects of the interaction between provider and client,

such as nonverbal “distancing” behaviors.

Interwoven throughout this early work was a central focus on relationships ---

usually between provider and recipient, but also between provider and

coworkers or family members. These relationships were the source of both

emotional strains and rewards and sometimes they functioned as a resource for

coping with stress. The centrality of these interactions for the experiences that

were being described made it clear that a contextual analysis of the overall

phenomenon would be the most appropriate way to gain insight into it.

In addition, this first phase was characterized by a strong applied orientation,

which reflected the particular set of social, economic, historical, and cultural

factors of the 1970s. These factors influenced the professionalization of the

human services in the United States and had made it more difficult for people to

find fulfillment and satisfaction in these careers (Cherniss 1980, Farber 1983).

The strong concern in these occupations about the problem of burnout led to

calls for immediate solutions, despite the lack of much solid knowledge of

burnout’s causes and correlates. Burnout workshops became a primary mode of

intervention, and were also used as sources of data by some researchers.

2.2 The Empirical Phase

2.2.1 Concept of Burnout

2.2.1.1 Theory of Burnout

Burnout was initially a very slippery concept --- there was no standard

definition of it, although there was a wide variety of opinions about

what it was and what could be done about it. Different people used

the term to mean very different things, so there was not always a

basis for constructive communication about the problem and

solutions for it. However, there was actually an underlying

consensus about three core dimensions of the burnout experience,

and subsequent research on this issue led to the development of a

12

multidimensional theory of burnout (Maslach 1982, 1998). This

theoretical framework continues to be the predominant one in the

burnout field.

Today, the most commonly accepted definition of burnout is the three-

component conceptualization used by Maslach and colleagues

(Maslach, 1982; Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Pines & Maslach,

1980). One component of burnout, emotional exhaustion, is

characterized by a lack of energy and a feeling that one’s emotional

resources are used up. This “compassion fatigue” may coexist with

feelings of frustration and tension as workers realize they cannot

continue to give of themselves or be as responsible for clients as

they have been in the past. A common symptom is dread at the

prospect of returning to work for another day. When people

describe themselves or others as experiencing burnout, they are

most often referring to the experience of exhaustion. Of the three

aspects of burnout, exhaustion is the most widely reported and the

most thoroughly analyzed. The strong identification of exhaustion

with burnout has led some to argue that the other two aspects of the

syndrome are incidental or unnecessary (Shirom 1989). However,

the fact that exhaustion is a necessary criterion or burnout does not

mean it is sufficient. If one were to look at burnout out of context,

and simply focus on the individual exhaustion component, one

would lose sight of the phenomenon entirely. Although exhaustion

reflects the stress dimension of burnout, it fails to capture the

critical aspects of the relationship people have with their work.

Exhaustion is mot something that is simply experienced --- rather,

it prompts actions to distance oneself emotionally and cognitively

from one’s work, presumably as a way to cope with work overload.

Another component, depersonalization or dehumanization, is

13

marked by the treatment of clients as objects rather than people.

Workers may display a detached and an emotional callousness, and

they may be cynical toward co-workers, clients, and the

organization. Visible symptoms include the use of derogatory or

abstract language, strict compartmentalization of professional lives,

intellectualization of the situation, withdrawal through longer

breaks or extended conversations with co-workers, and extensive

use of jargon. One classic analogy is that of a petty bureaucrat,

going strictly “by the book” to deal with individual clients rather

than becoming personally involved enough to tailor a solution or an

approach to the client’s needs (Daley, 1979). Depersonalization is

an attempt to put distance between oneself and service recipients

by actively ignoring the qualities that make them unique and

engaging people. Their demands are more manageable when they

are considered impersonal objects of one’s work. Outside of the

human services, people use cognitive distancing by developing an

indifferent or cynical attitude when they are exhausted and

discouraged. Distancing is such an immediate reaction to

exhaustion that a strong relationship from exhaustion to cynicism

(depersonalization) is found consistently in burnout research,

across a wide range of organizational and occupational settings.

The final component of burnout, diminished personal

accomplishment, is characterized by a tendency to evaluate oneself

negatively. Individuals experience a decline in feelings of job

competence and successful achievement in their work or

interactions with people. Frequently there is the perception of a

lack of progress or even lost ground. The problem employee who is

routinely receiving disciplinary citations from the supervisor, or the

feelings one might imagine if one were bailing out a leaky boat and

14

realized that the boat may sink, are symptomatic of this component.

The relationship of inefficacy (reduced personal

accomplishment) to the other two aspects of burnout is somewhat

more complex. In some instances it appears to be a function, to

some degree, of either exhaustion, cynicism, or a combination of

the two (Byrne 1994, Lee & Ashforth 1996). A work situation with

chronic, overwhelming demands that contribute to exhaustion or

cynicism is likely to erode one’s sense of effectiveness. Further,

exhaustion or depersonalization interfere with effectiveness: it is

difficult to gain a sense of accomplishment when feeling exhausted

or when helping people toward whom one is indifferent. However,

in other job contexts, inefficacy appears to develop in parallel with

the other two burnout aspects, rather than sequentially (Leiter

1993). The lack of efficacy seems to arise more clearly from a lack

of relevant resources, whereas exhaustion and cynicism emerge

from the presence of work overload and social conflict.

2.2.1.2 Assessment of Burnout

In the 1980s the work on burnout shifted to more systematic empirical

research. A particular focus of this research was the assessment of

burnout, and several different measures were developed. The scale

that has had the strongest psychometric properties and continues to

be used most widely by researchers is the Maslach Burnout

Inventory developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981).

In the initial development of the Maslach Burnout Inventory,

47 items were administered to a sample of 605 individuals from a

wide variety of service occupations. Ten factors emerged and,

based on a variety of elimination criteria, four factors, composed of

25 items, were then administered to a new sample of 420

individuals from similar occupations. The same four factors

15

emerged from this confirmatory sample, three of which had

eigenvalues greater than 1. These three factors, composed of 22

items, make up the subscales of the MBI. Respondents indicate the

frequency and the intensity with which each item is experienced,

with the scale ranging from 1 (“a few times a year”) to 6 (“every

day”) for frequency, and from 1 (“very mild, barely noticeable”) to

7 (“very strong, major”) for intensity. A space is provided to

indicate if the item is never experienced by the respondent. The

instrument does not measure the presence or absence of burnout

per se. Rather, experienced levels of burnout fall on a continuum.

For instance, high scores on the emotional exhaustion and

depersonalization subscales and low scores on the personal

accomplishment subscale (this subscale is reverse scored) reflect

high levels of burnout and vice versa. No predictions are made

concerning critical threshold levels.

Subsequent research using the MBI has revealed that the

intensity and frequency dimensions of burnout are highly

correlated (Anderson & Iwanicki, 1984; Brookings, Bolton,

Brown, & McEvoy, 1985; Gaines & Jermier, 1983), so the revised

version of the MBI (Maslach & Jackson, 1986) includes only the

frequency dimension.

The MBI-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) was designed

for use with people working in the human services and health care.

A second version was developed for use by people working in

educational settings (the MBI-Educators Survey, or MBI-ES). In

both the HSS and ES forms, the labels for the three dimensions

reflected the focus on occupations where workers interacted

extensively with other people (clients, patients, students, etc):

emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal

16

accomplishment.

Given the increasing interest in burnout within occupations

that are not so clearly people-oriented, a third, general version of

the MBI was developed (the MBI-General Survey, or MBI-GS).

Here, the three components of the burnout construct are

conceptualized in slightly broader terms, with respect to the job,

and not just to the personal relationships that may be a part of that

job. Thus, the labels for the three components are: exhaustion,

cynicism (a distant attitude toward the job), and reduced

professional efficacy. The MBI-GS assesses the same three

dimensions as the original measure, using slightly revised items,

and maintains a consistent factor structure across a variety of

occupations.

2.2.2 Factors Contributing to Burnout

2.2.2.1 Situational Factors

Burnout is an individual experience that is specific to the work context.

Thus, the research over the past 35 years has maintained a

consistent focus on the situational factors that are the prime

correlates of this phenomenon. The results of this research paint a

clear picture of the impact of the work situation on individual

burnout.

Job Characteristics

Quantitative job demands (e.g. too much work for the available time)

have been studied by many burnout researchers, and the findings

support the general notion that burnout is a response to overload.

Experienced workload and time pressure are strongly and

consistently related to burnout, particularly the exhaustion

dimension. Studies of qualitative job demands have focused

primarily on role conflict and role ambiguity, both of which

17

consistently show a moderate to high correlation with burnout.

Role conflict occurs when conflicting demands at the job have to

be met, whereas role ambiguity occurs when there is a lack of

adequate information to do the job well.

In addition to studying the presence of job demands, burnout researchers

have investigated the absence of job resources. The resource that

has been studied most extensively had been social support, and

there is now a consistent and strong body of evidence that a lack of

social support is linked to burnout. Lack of support from

supervisors is especially important, even more so than support from

coworkers. Another set of job resources has to do with information

and control. A lack of feedback is consistently related to all three

dimensions of burnout. Burnout is also higher for people who have

little participation in decision making. Similarly, a lack of

autonomy is correlated with burnout, although the strength of the

relationship is weaker.

Occupational Characteristics

The initial work on burnout developed out of the occupational sector of

human services and education, which continues to be the primary

focus of burnout studies. Of particular concern in these occupations

were the emotional challenges of working intensively with other

people in either a caregiving or teaching role. Later research

expanded the focus to occupations that included contact with

people. Although the burnout concept seems to pertain to this wider

range of occupations, there was still the hypothesis that the

emotional stressors of people-work were something uniquely

related to burnout. Earlier research did not find much evidence to

support such a hypothesis; however, new research has focused

explicitly on emotion-work variables and has found that these

18

emotion factors do account for additional variance in burnout

scores over and above job stressors (Zapf et al, 2001).

Another approach has been to look at the prevalence of burnout for

different occupations, as defined by their profiles on the three

dimensions. A recent comparison was made of burnout profiles for

five occupational sectors (teaching, social services, medicine,

mental health, and law enforcement) in two countries (the United

States and Holland), and the results revealed similar occupational

profiles in both nations (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998).

Such profiles suggest that there are important characteristics of these

occupations that affect workers’ experience of burnout. However,

these findings need to be viewed with some caution, as there are

other factors that could be involved. For example, there is a greater

heterogeneity of specific occupations within some sectors than in

others, so the overall profiles might be masking important

differences. Furthermore, there are confounding variables with

some occupations, which need to be taken into account. Despite

these differences in average level, the more noteworthy point is

that the basic patterns of burnout are fairly similar across both

countries.

Organizational Characteristics

The increasing breadth of occupational sectors has required a rethinking

of the situational context for burnout. Prior research has tended to

focus on the immediate context in which work occurs, whether that

is a nurse’s work with patients in a hospital or a teacher’s work

with students in a school. However, this work often takes place

within a larger organization that includes hierarchies, operating

rules, resources, and space distribution. All of these factors can

have a far-reaching and persistent influence, particularly when they

19

violate basic expectations of fairness and equity. Consequently, the

contextual focus has been broadened to include the organizational

and management environment in which work occurs. This focus

has highlighted the importance of the values implicit in

organizational processes and structures, and how these values

shape the emotional and cognitive relationship that people develop

with their work. This research has important implications for

burnout, but because it is still fairly new, a summary of major

patterns in the data is not yet warranted.

The organizational context is also shaped by larger social, cultural, and

economic forces. Recently, this has meant that organizations have

undergone a lot of changes, such as downsizing and mergers,

which have had significant effects on the lives of their employees.

This is perhaps most evident in changes in the psychological

contract --- i.e. the belief in what the employee is obliged to

provide based on perceived promises of reciprocal exchange

(Rousseau, 1995). Now employees are expected to give more in

terms of time, effort, skills, and flexibility, whereas they receive

less in terms of career opportunities, lifetime employment, job

security, and so on. Violation of the psychological contract is likely

to produce burnout because it erodes the notion of reciprocity,

which is crucial in maintaining well-being.

2.2.2.2 Individual Factors

People do not simply respond to the work setting; rather, they bring

unique qualities to the relationship. These personal factors include

demographic variables (such as age and formal education),

enduring personality characteristics, and work-related attitudes.

Several of these individual characteristics have been found to be

related to burnout. However, these relationships are not as great in

20

size as those for burnout and situational factors, which suggests

that burnout is more of a social phenomenon than an individual

one.

Demographic Characteristics

Of all the demographic variables that have been studied, age is the one

that has been most consistently related to burnout. Among younger

employees the level of burnout is reported to be higher than it is

among those over 30 or 40 years old. Age is confounded with work

experience, so burnout appears to be more of a risk earlier in one’s

career. The reasons for such an interpretation have not been studied

very thoroughly. However, these findings should be viewed with

caution because of the problem of survival bias --- i.e. those who

burn out early in their careers are likely to quit their jobs, leaving

behind the survivors who consequently exhibit lower levels of

burnout.

The demographic variable of sex has not been a strong predictor of

burnout (despite some arguments that burnout is more of a female

experience). Some studies show higher burnout for women, some

show higher scores for men, and others find no overall differences.

The one small but consistent sex difference is that males often

score higher on cynicism. There is also a tendency in some studies

for women to score slightly higher on exhaustion. These results

could be related to gender role stereotypes, but they may also

reflect the confounding of sex with occupation (e.g. police officers

are more likely to be male; nurses are more likely to be female).

With regard to marital status, those who are unmarried (especially men)

seem to be more prone to burnout compared with those who are

married. Singles seem to experience even higher burnout levels

than those who are divorced. As for ethnicity, very few studies

21

have assessed this demographic variable, so it is not possible to

summarize any empirical trends.

Some studies have found that those with a higher level of education

report higher levels of burnout than less educated employees. It is

not clear how to interpret this finding, given that education is

confounded with other variables, such as occupation and status. It

is possible that people with higher education have jobs with greater

responsibilities and higher stress. Or it may be that more highly

educated people have higher expectations for their jobs, and are

thus more distressed if these expectations are not realized.

Personality Characteristics

Several personality traits have been studied in an attempt to discover

which types of people may be at greater risk for experiencing

burnout. People who display low levels of hardiness (involvement

in daily activities, a sense of control over events, and openness to

change) have higher burnout scores, particularly on the exhaustion

dimension. Burnout is higher among people who have an external

locus of control (attributing events and achievements to powerful

others or to chance) rather than an internal locus of control

(attributions to one’s own ability and effort). Similar results have

been reported on coping styles and burnout. Those who are burned

out cope with stressful events in a rather passive, defensive way,

whereas active and confrontive coping is associated with less

burnout. In particular, confrontive coping is associated with the

dimension of efficacy. In other research, all three burnout

dimensions have been related to lower self-esteem.

It has been argued that low levels of hardiness, poor self-esteem, an

external locus of control, and an avoidant coping style typically

constitute the profile of a stress-prone individual (Semmer 1996).

22

Obviously, the results from the burnout research confirm this

personality profile.

Research on the Big Five personality dimensions has found that burnout

is linked to the dimension of neuroticism. Neuroticism includes

trait anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, and

vulnerability; neurotic individuals are emotionally unstable and

prone to psychological distress. The exhaustion dimension of

burnout also appears to be linked to Type-A behavior (competition,

time-pressured lifestyle, hostility, and an excessive need for

control). There are also indications that individuals who are

“feeling types” rather than “thinking types” (in terms of a Jungian

analysis) are more prone to burnout, especially to cynicism.

Job Attitudes

People vary in the expectations they bring to their job. In some cases

these expectations are very high, both in terms of the nature of the

work (e.g. exciting, challenging, fun) and the likelihood of

achieving success (e.g. curing patients, getting promoted). Whether

such high expectations are considered to be idealistic or unrealistic,

one hypothesis has been that they are a risk factor for burnout.

Presumably, high expectations lead people to work too hard and do

too much, thus leading to exhaustion and eventual cynicism when

the high effort does not yield the expected results. This hypothesis

has received mixed empirical support --- about half of the studies

find the hypothesized correlation, whereas the rest do not. Once

again, however, this is an instance where a correlation does not

actually test the causal relationship inherent in the hypothesis.

Longitudinal studies with repeated measures will be necessary to

shed light on this issue.

2.3 Outcomes of Burnout

23

The significance of burnout, both for the individual and the workplace,

lies in its links to important outcomes. Most of the outcomes that have been

studied have been related to job performance. There has also been some

attention paid to health outcomes, given that burnout is considered a stress

phenomenon. However, the research findings have to be interpreted with some

caution because of the reliance on self-report measures (rather than other

indices of performance or health) and the relative absence of methodological

designs that permit causal inferences.

2.3.1 Job Performance

Burnout has been associated with various forms of job withdrawal ---

absenteeism, intention to leave the job, and actual turnover. However, for

people who stay on the job, burnout leads to lower productivity and

effectiveness at work. Consequently, it is associated with decreased job

satisfaction and a reduced commitment to the job or the organization.

People who are experiencing burnout can have a negative impact on their

colleagues, both by causing greater personal conflict and by disrupting

job tasks. Thus, burnout can be “contagious” and perpetuate itself

through informal interactions on the job.

There is also some evidence that burnout has a negative “spillover”

effect on people’s home life (Burke & Greenglass 2001). In a study of

142 couples (where one spouse was a police officer), Jackson and

Maslach (1982) found that individuals experiencing burnout tended to

withdraw from their friends and reduced their socializing. In addition, the

police officers reported being unable to shake off the professional role

when they left the job. The spouses reported that the officers, when

dealing with the children, handled them as they were someone in a

professional situation.

2.3.2 Health

The burnout components have been linked with a variety of mental

24

and physical health problems (Burke & Deszca, 1986; Maslach & Pines,

1977). Deterioration of mental health is characterized by decrease in

feelings of self-esteem, depression, irritability, helplessness, or anxiety

(Jackson & Maslach, 1982; Kahill, 1988). Physical health problems

include for example, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, and gastrointestinal

disturbances (Kahill, 1988).

The exhaustion component of burnout is more predictive of stress-

related health outcomes than the other two components. These

physiological correlates mirror those found with other indices of

prolonged stress. Parallel findings have been found for the link between

burnout and various forms of substance abuse.

In terms of mental health, the link with burnout is more complex. As

mentioned earlier, burnout has been linked to the personality dimension

of neuroticism and the psychiatric profile of job-related neurasthenia.

Such data might support the argument that burnout is itself a form of

mental illness. However, a more common assumption has been that

burnout causes mental dysfunction --- that is, it precipitates negative

effects in terms of mental health, such as anxiety, depression, drops in

self-esteem, and so forth. An alternative argument is that people who are

mentally healthy are better able to cope with chronic stressors and thus

less likely to experience burnout. Although not assessing burnout directly,

one study addressed this question by analyzing archival longitudinal data

of people who worked in interpersonally demanding jobs (i.e.

emotionally demanding “helper” roles, or jobs that deal with people in

stressful situations). The results showed that people who were

psychologically healthier in adolescence and early adulthood were more

likely to enter and remain in such jobs, and they showed greater

involvement and satisfaction with their work (Jenkins & Maslach 1994).

Given this longitudinal data set, this study was better able to establish

25

possible causal relationships than typical correlational studies can.

Thus, as the growing body of evidence illustrates, the consequences of

burnout have some very real physical, emotional, interpersonal,

attitudinal, and behavioral implications. Not only does the individual

suffer, but the employee’s family and friends, the organization, and the

people with whom the employee interacts during the work day all bear

the costs of this organizational problem.

2.4 Summary

Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal

stressors on the job, and is defined by the three dimensions of emotional

exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The past

35 years of research has established the complexity of the construct, and places

the individual stress experience within a larger organizational context of

people’s relation to their work. The work on burnout encompasses the concept

of burnout in terms of theory and assessment, the findings for situational factors

and individual factors, and the outcomes of burnout. Recently, the work on

burnout has expanded internationally and has led to new conceptual models.

The social focus of burnout, the solid research basis concerning the syndrome,

and its specific ties to the work domain make a distinct and valuable

contribution to people’s health and well-being.

26

Conceptual Framework for Burnout Propositions

27

Organizational Characteristics: Hierarchies; Operating rules; Resources

Emotional Exhaustion

Depersonalization

Diminished Personal Accomplishment

Demographic Characteristics: Age; Gender; Teaching experience

Burnout

Outcomes of Burnout:Job performance; Health

Job Characteristics: Quantitative job demands: Workload; Role conflict; Role ambiguityJob resources: Social support; support from supervisors; Information and control (feedback)

28

III. Research Methodology

3.1 Research Questions

The present research was to examine the following research questions:

(1) Is there any burnout in English teachers of the chosen vocational

middle school in Beijing? If so, how often?

(2) What are the factors which contribute to their burnout?

3.2 Subject Description

The 27 subjects, who participated in the Maslach Burnout Inventory –

Educators Survey (MBI-ES), are all the English teachers who are working in the

chosen vocational middle school in Beijing. All of them are female, whose age

ranges from 29 to 46. (There were three male English teachers who quitted their

teaching jobs.) All the 27 surveys are valid.

The 4 interviewees, who are all in their late thirties, with 14-to-16-year teaching

experience and senior titles, were chosen from the 27 subjects. These four

interviewees were finally chosen because of the following sound reasons. First

of all, of all the demographic variables that have been studied, age is the one

that has been most consistently related to burnout. Among younger employees

the level of burnout is reported to be higher than it is among those over 30 or 40

years old. Secondly, teachers whose age ranges from 30 to 39, with 11-to-20-

year teaching experience, experience the least burnout (程晓棠，2006). The

four interviewees, who should have experienced the least burnout according to

the research results, would offer us a picture of their real working lives in a

vocational middle school, from which we may infer all the English teachers’

lives there.

3.3 Instruments

3.3.1 Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES)

Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES), of which the

purpose is to discover how educators view their job and the people with

29

whom they work closely, is an adaptation of the original measure for use

with educators. According to Maslach et al. (1996), the MBI-ES is

designed as a diagnostic tool to label individuals as “burned out”. The

instrument is widely accepted among researchers and addresses the three

dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and

personal accomplishment).

The MBI-ES (Maslach, Jackson & Leiter, 1996) is comprised of 22

statements in which participants rate items on a seven-point Likert scale

where responses can range from 0 to 6 (0 = Never, 1 = A few times a year

or less, 2 = Once a month or less, 3 = A few times a month, 4 = Once a

week, 5 = A few times a week, 6 = Every day). And the 22 items are

broken down into three subscales: emotional exhaustion,

depersonalization, and personal accomplishment.

The first subscale, emotional exhaustion, consists of nine questions and

assesses the feelings of being overextended and exhausted in one’s

employment setting. The second subscale, depersonalization, has five

questions and measures impersonal responses toward co-workers and

recipients of services. The third, personal accomplishment, has eight

questions assessing feelings of competence and success in one’s work,

and only this subscale is reverse scored.

The validity and reliability of the MBI-ES was assessed via a series of

analyses. Iwanicki and Schwab (1981) initially reported the Cronbach

alpha estimates of .90 for emotional exhaustion, .76 for

depersonalization, and .76 for personal accomplishment. Gold (1984)

further examined the reliability of the MBI-ES reporting Cronbach alpha

estimates of .88 for emotional exhaustion, .74 for depersonalization,

and .72 for personal accomplishment. Lee and Ashforth (1993) confirmed

the three dimensions through factor analysis.

3.3.2 Interviews

30

In order to obtain sufficient descriptive data for painting a clear and virtual

picture of teachers’ lives in vocational middle school, three interviews

were arranged with the four participants. Based on a pre-prepared outline,

the first interview was a semi-structural one, which involved several

basic questions in order to get to know each other and endeavor to

establish trust between interviewer and interviewees. Then two in-depth

interviews were followed in accordance to four participants’ different

situations. Furthermore, all the interviews were carried out on condition

that the interviewees were unanimous in recording the whole process.

3.4 Procedures

Step 1: Burnout scale: Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey (MBI –

ES)

The burnout scale (Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey) was

carried directly myself to the chosen vocational middle school. Having

given a brief introduction on the research purpose and expressed my

sincere thanks for their time and efforts, the MBI – ES was then handed

out to English teachers working there. In order to avoid ambiguous

understanding of the scale items, a Chinese version of the scale was also

given out to each participant for reference at the same time. I collected all

the scale papers being handed out for further data analysis after they were

totally finished.

Step 2: In-depth interviews

Each interview with the four interviewees working in the chosen vocational

middle school was carried on after they were asked in advance to see if

they were available for the interview. Having obtained their permission,

the first interview was started with a brief self-introduction, some

necessary information on the research they need to know, and certain

questions on their individual experience, just for getting to knowing each

other and making the follow-up interviews smooth. After that, the whole

31

interview focused on their life in school, such as their relationship with

students, co-workers, and superintendents. Furthermore, the content of

each interview was in accordance with each interviewee’s individual life.

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IV. Results and Discussions

4.1 Burnout Scale

Having put all the valid data from Maslach Burnout Inventory –Educators

Survey (MBI-ES) into SPSS 10.0, we can see from Table 1 that respondents in

this study reported a moderate level of emotional exhaustion, a low level of

depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Table 1 reveals that English

teachers in this vocational middle school experienced emotional exhaustion

nearly a few times a month, depersonalization a few times a year, and personal

accomplishment once a month or less.

Table 1

Maslach Burnout Inventory

--- Educators Survey

(MBI - ES)

Vocational Middle

School English

Teachers

(n = 27)

English Teachers from

middle schools all over the

country (n = 290)

Mean

Emotional Exhaustion 2.97 1.99

Depersonalization 1.65 1.28

Personal Accomplishment 2.04 4.55

Another group of data for comparison in Table 1 was from a research

published on Educational Research on Foreign Language & Arts on December

2006. The research, carried out by Professor Cheng Xiaotang from Beijing

Normal University, was entitled English Teachers Burnout Survey (Cheng

Xiaotang, 2006). The respondents in Professor Cheng’s research came from

full-discipline middle schools all over the country and most of them were the

33

backbone of the schools.

Compared to the research data in Professor Cheng’s survey, we can easily

see that English teachers in full-discipline middle schools experienced less

emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, but a much higher level of

personal accomplishment at the same time than those working in the chosen

vocational middle school in Beijing.

What’s noteworthy is that the English teachers in non-vocational middle

schools experienced emotional exhaustion nearly once a month or less, whereas

those in the chosen vocational middle school experienced it a few times a

month. What’s more, the frequency that English teachers experienced the sense

of personal accomplishment in different type of schools was quite a big

difference, for instance, those who work in full-discipline middle schools could

feel the sense of personal accomplishment a few times a week. In a stark

contrast, the English teachers in the vocational middle school could feel much

less sense of personal accomplishment, like once a month or less.

The following three tables, Table 2, 3, and 4, display the statistical data of

the three dimensions of burnout respectively.

The extent to which vocational middle school teachers experienced

emotional exhaustion

The overall mean score on emotional exhaustion for respondents was

2.97 (SD = 8.34), indicating a high degree of emotional exhaustion. Table 2

reveals that the Emotional Exhaustion dimension did happen frequently, nearly

a few times a month, which was the highest frequency among the three

dimensions of burnout.

Table 2

Mean Scores of Respondents on Emotional Exhaustion in Teaching

Item Description Mean SD

I feel used up at the end of the workday.

I feel emotionally drained from my work.

3.81

3.37

9.93

9.20

34

I feel I’m working too hard on my job.

I feel frustrated by my job.

I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning and have to face another

day on the job.

I feel burned out from my work.

Working with people all day is really a strain for me.

I feel like I’m at the end of my rope.

Working directly with people puts too much stress on me.

5.19

3.04

3.96

3.26

0.81

1.96

1.37

19.97

6.92

9.76

8.79

2.37

4.96

3.18

Note: 0 = Never; 1 = A few times a year or less; 2 = Once a month or less; 3 = A few

times a month; 4 = Once a week; 5 = A few times a week; and 6 = Every day.

From Table 2, it can be easily seen the mean scores of respondents on

emotional exhaustion in teaching. Among the nine items of Emotional

Exhaustion dimension, three most frequent feelings the respondents have got at

work were item 1, 3, and 5. The English teachers always felt used up at the end

of the workday or fatigued when they got up in the morning and had to face

another day on the job nearly once a week; and they also felt they were working

too hard on their job a few times a week.

Compared with other items of the Emotional Exhaustion dimension, item

7 and 9 caught much of our attention because of their low frequency, which

happened just a few times a year or less. Despite of the high level of emotional

exhaustion, the vocational middle school teachers don’t always deem that

working with people puts too much stress on them.

The stark contrast between item 7, 9 and the other 7 items should catch

our sufficient attention and efforts to find out the reason why there existed such

a big difference in the same dimension.

The extent to which vocational middle school teachers experienced

depersonalization

The overall mean score on depersonalization for respondents was 1.65

35

(SD = 3.92), indicating a much lower degree of depersonalization compared

with the degree of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. Table 3

reveals that the Depersonalization dimension did not happen frequently, about a

few times a year.

Table 3

Mean Scores of Respondents on Depersonalization at Work

Item Description Mean SD

I feel students blame me for their problems.

I’ve become more callous toward people since I took this job.

I worry that this job is hardening me emotionally.

I don’t really care what happens to some students.

I feel I treat some students as if they were impersonal objects.

2.30

1.15

1.41

1.30

2.07

4.94

2.96

3.12

3.41

5.19

Note: 0 = Never; 1 = A few times a year or less; 2 = Once a month or less; 3 = A few

times a month; 4 = Once a week; 5 = A few times a week; and 6 = Every day.

The extent to which vocational middle school teachers experience

personal accomplishment

The overall mean score for respondents was 2.04 (SD = 4.66), indicating

a relatively high degree of personal accomplishment. Table 4 describes

respondents’ scores on personal accomplishment at work. The English teachers

usually felt a sense of personal accomplishment once a month. We do not see

obvious difference among the eight items’ mean scores.

Table 4

Mean Scores of Respondents on Personal Accomplishment at Work

Item Description Mea

n

SD

I feel exhilarated after working closely with my students.

I feel very energetic.

In my work, I deal with emotional problems very calmly.

I can easily understand how my students feel about things.

2.19

2.93

1.89

1.81

4.47

6.99

4.18

3.97

36

I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job.

I deal very effectively with the problems of my students.

I feel I’m positively influencing other people’s lives through my work.

I can easily create a relaxed atmosphere with my students.

2.41

1.56

1.63

1.93

4.94

4.37

3.38

4.98

Note: 6 = Never; 5 = A few times a year or less; 4 = Once a month or less; 3 = A few

times a month; 2 = Once a week; 1 = A few times a week; and 0 = Every day.

4.2 In-depth Interviews

Having transcribed all the recordings of the interviews, the QSR NVivo

8.0 was utilized for the analysis of the descriptive data. From the four teachers’

interviews, it can be safely concluded that we could consider the vocational

middle school teachers’ burnout from the following perspectives, which are

students, parents, the vocational middle school, and teachers respectively.

Students in the vocational middle school

From the four interviewees’ perspective, we know that there are basically

three types of students by the definition of the teachers working in the chosen

vocational middle school in Beijing.

The first type of students are those who have the desire to learn and do

learn from their teachers although their academic level does stay relatively low

than those students in full-discipline middle schools. Meanwhile, they also

abide by school’s rules and regulations. Basically, they can do what students

should do or what they are expected to do at school.

The second type of students are those who have desire to learn nothing

from nobody, just do things in which they are interested, and do keep silent all

the time in class and will not disturb their classmates or teachers. According to

the interviews, we know from teachers that the majority of this type of students

have got great passion and been engaging in cell phones, like playing games on

cell phones, chatting online, surfing the Internet, etc. They are so dependent on

their phones that many students even think they may not survive without their

37

cell phones according to their own remarks.

The third type of students are those who also have no desire or interest in

learning as some of their peers usually do. Rather than doing whatever they

love in silence, they always choose to kill their time in class by the means of

disturbing or troubling others, like casual chatting with each other as what they

usually do when they stay at home, start something of which the purpose was to

piss their teachers off, or even provoke their classmates which may result in an

in-class fight, etc.

As far as concerned, many teachers in this school share similar

understanding that the second type of students could even fall in the definition

of good students, much less the first type.

From these teachers’ point of view, students here share some characteristics

in common which would be elaborated as follows.

First of all, it is safe to say that nearly all the students in this vocational

middle school do not possess a solid academic foundation and haven’t mastered

sufficient knowledge or information to support their current studies. An English

teacher, who was involved in the interviews, provided us with a series of

statistics, indicating how bad the students’ academic level was.

“Given high-school students’ reading level, most of our students may

know no more than 10 words while offered a 50-word passage. They have no

master of sufficient vocabulary and grammar to help better understand the

reading passages. Furthermore, the unified mid-term and final term

examinations are based on a 150-mark grading system, under which students

who get scores under 90 marks would be flunked. More than 90% of the

students in our school cannot pass their exams with a score above 90 marks.

Only about 30% wouldn’t fail the exams on condition that 60 marks were

considered as the minimum pass mark in an examination under a 150-mark

grading system.”

38

--- From the first interview with Ms. A, in Ms. A’s office, 10.30 am,

Dec. 2, 2010

Secondly, most of the students have got interest in very few things and no

goals for their future lives. What’s much worse is that there are even some of

them who care for nothing, stay interested in nothing, or even think eating or

playing is boring at the same time when most of their classmates have been

obsessed with cell phones, or on-line computer games, or something else

they’ve got their limited interest in. The interviewee Ms. C told me that that’s

really hurtful when some students got angry while being encouraged to learn.

“Many times, I asked those kids who hated studies to my office, and offered

them exercises or other supplementary materials which were more suitable to

their academic level. They always rejected these learning materials and told me

that that’s none of my business and I’d better leave them alone. What’s more,

they always questioned why the teachers were so interested in forcing them to

learn.”

--- From the second interview with Ms. C, in Ms. C’s office, 1.40 pm,

Dec. 6, 2010

Last but not least, many of the students in this school feel nothing at all like

a group of rubber men as teachers here called them for the reason that they

usually feel no pains, no happiness, and no emotions at all. All the four teachers

having been interviewed have got the feeling of being ignored both in class and

after class. We can prove it through certain interview sections.

“The kids at this school have never shown respect or gratitude for the

teachers’ work or efforts. No matter where the students met us, inside or outside

school, they wouldn’t say a word as if we haven’t met before and we were total

strangers.”

39

--- From the first interview with Ms. C in her office, 9.20 am. Dec. 3,

2010

“What these students have done in class, like casual chatting as if no one

else existed, or even humiliating the teachers in front of students, has proven

that well.”

--- From the second interview with Ms. D, in Ms. D’s office, 10.40 am.

Dec. 6, 2010

For their parents who have raised them up all the way, most of students

also don’t have any gratitude. From the interview with Ms. B who has about

six-year working experience as head-teacher of the class, we know that

sometimes they yelled at their parents much more badly than they did to their

teachers. Even some of them offended their parents with abusive language in

front of people. They just don’t think their parents deserve good manners and

nobody deserves that.

According to the teachers being interviewed, the students are not willing

to take part in any school activities like sports meeting. They are also not

willing to take part in any class activities like some cleaning work, or the like.

Teachers usually got a “no” as an answer as they tried to seek help from their

students when coping with problems related to the class in which they have

been staying and studying. There exists no concept of community in their minds

at all. They wouldn’t do anything which is helpful or beneficial to their own

classes.

What’s more, many of the students in this vocational middle school for

case study have difficulty in dealing with emotional problems. It would be a

herculean task to move or inspire them emotionally or spiritually. They also

find it hard to control their emotions, which is not as that hard as it to other kids

at their age. Then it’s natural for these students to become surly teenagers who

40

would definitely do whatever they like, with no regard to anybody or anything.

Students’ parents in the vocational middle school

From the information teachers have got, we are given an impression that

most of parents of the students here in the vocational middle school should have

had several serious thoughts on how to get along with their kids.

Firstly, most of parents spoil their children too much even though we all

know that maybe the child is the family’s only little angel and each family

member cherishes him or her. They give green lights to their kids to do things

they want to do all the way, regardless of whether it is right or not. One of our

interviewees told us some remarks a parent ever said to her.

That parent came to school and asked me, “Would you please do me a

favor and do not require my kid to do the homework because he hasn’t done any

since his primary school. It is okay to just let him stay at school, no homework,

no fight with his classmates would be okay. He has never washed his socks, or

has done his laundry. We are okay with that and would you please just let him

be who he is?”

--- From the third interview with Ms. B, in Ms. B’s office, 9.30 am. Dec.

8, 2010

Another interviewee told us a real story in her class. About three moths

ago before the interviews, a student in her class answered her back with

abusive, insulting and scurrilous remarks when the teacher told him not to chat

with others that loudly. The teacher, in her late thirties, said that she never heard

such dirty language from a high school student. However, the most surprising

thing was the attitude of the student’s parents. During the process of solving the

issue, his parents have warned the teacher quite a few times.

The parents said to me, “Our kid is so emotionally unstable that he may

41

do something bad to hurt you. You’d better just let it go, otherwise we cannot

guarantee your safety once things are out of control.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. D in her office, 10.20 am. Dec. 9,

2010

And the teacher added that no one ever apologized all the time until it’s

eventually closed with no apologies, no positive results, but nothing. If parents

spoil their kids this way, there is no such an education that can help their angels

grow up well.

In addition, the parents would not even spare a minute for the story on the

teachers’ side once their kids conflicted with teachers. They always chose to

believe all that their kids said and didn’t care whether it’s true or not. How can

students possibly know how to draw a line between right and wrong if their

parents cannot do the right thing?

Secondly, many parents have got too low expectations for their children,

which may give rise to their children’s less self-esteem. All the four teachers

who were interviewed had similar experience of being told directly by parents

that they didn’t expect their children to really learn something educational and

informative at school. One reason why they sent their kids to school was that

their children could be well attended here at school, just as what they could be

taken good care of in a nursery. Another reason was that there wouldn’t be any

serious consequences if their children started something bad. But the fact is that

the parents’ little angels are no longer three or four years old, waiting for being

taken care of; they are 16-or-17-year-old grown-ups who should take certain

responsibilities. More importantly, they need to be treated like grown-ups.

Moreover, parents should have more suitable expectations for their already

grown-up kids, who, technically, are not kids any more.

Thirdly, there are also a small proportion of parents who don’t have much

time to spend with their children because they are occupied with work all the

42

time. In their minds, they do believe there is no reason to complain about it

because their children have been living a better life due to their busy work.

However, the truth is that their children don’t get enough attention and love

what they should have got like other kids.

The vocational middle school

From the interviews, we can easily get a holistic impression that the

vocational middle school where the respondents have been working barely

offered necessary support whenever they are in need of it.

Firstly, this vocational middle school has formulated a whole set of rules

and regulations. However, they are just the rules on paper which have barely

been put into actions. Few students who disobeyed the rules have been

punished in a proper way as those regulations state.

During one interview, a teacher let me guess what the most popular

English sentence was. I didn’t expect that it was “I’m sorry.” Later, with the

teacher’s explanation I understand that the best way for the school to cope with

the conflict between teachers and students is just an apology. From the school’s

perspective, all what they need is an apology rather than any sort of punishment

according to the rules and regulations. One interviewee provided us with an

example to support her statement.

One of our school leaders ever said at a meeting, “We teachers should

offer the students another opportunity to correct their wrong behaviors right

after they say sorry, no matter what those students ever did to humiliate our

teachers or stomp on our teachers’ dignity. They are just some immature kids.

So it’s quire unnecessary for our teachers to get angry about some of their

improper behaviors or rude manners. What we teachers should do is to show

them what and how to do things rather than punishing them because any sort of

punishment could solve nothing from the root.”

43

--- From the second interview with Ms. B in her office, 8.30 am. Dec. 6,

2010

Another example is that the school requires the students not to take cell

phone with them, not to mention playing cell phone games in class or chatting

on line through the phones. If anyone doesn’t abide by the rule, the punishment

is to confiscate the phones. However, no cell phones were ever expropriated

from the students, which may explain why it’s so normal to see students playing

on cell phones in class.

Secondly, the school would not listen to the stories of both sides once

there are conflicts between students and teachers. The only story that the school

would rather choose to listen to is the one on students’ side. The school has

been persuading the teachers to give up on their persistence in punishing those

students who deserve it badly because those students, to quote some school

leaders’ words, are just little kids and it is totally unnecessary to fuss about

things little kids ever did to you. Nevertheless, one teacher’s remarks do

virtually make sense. She said,

“It’s the little kids who should learn something about what is right, what

is wrong, what they should do, and what they shouldn’t do. They should learn a

lesson from what they have done wrong and correct it in their future lives. And

proper punishment is an appropriate way for learning the lesson.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. C in her office, 2.40 pm. Dec. 10,

2010

In a word, the school solves all the teacher-student problems on an

entirely students-centered principle. That way, the problems could be dealt with

as simply and easily as possible based on the premise that all the teachers’

dignity or efforts could be sacrificed. But there is no simple thing in education.

Last but not least, the school does not have an appropriate system for

44

evaluating their teachers’ work. Let’s take the work of the head-teacher of the

class for example. While assessing the work of a head-teacher of a class, what

the school emphasizes is the scores that a class has gained from school check on

a daily basis, like the attendance of the students, whether the classroom has

been cleaned or not, etc. But what they have ignored is that students in different

classes are not the same, for instance, the students majoring in machining or

motor-repairs, their academic level is much lower and they are also more

difficult to manage for the head teacher. To manage such a class proves a

herculean task which needs more efforts to devote and more work to do for the

head teacher. Consequently, what they have devoted to their job is not in a

positive proportion with the scores they have got. For these teachers, it appears

that there should be more criteria rather than the only scores to assess their

work.

In addition, something having been mentioned several times by the

teachers should be added here, which is the reward scheme. Teachers are also

normal guys, who usually need incentives to work harder, either material or

spiritual rewards to reinforce their sacrifice for the work. One of the four

interviewees told us,

“Given the average amount of bonus in the city, no school has ever

offered their teachers bonus less than the amount our school has been offering.

It’s not just about the money; it is about the meaning the amount of money

stands for which really matters for us. The school leaders should spend more

time in taking this into consideration or in putting into the real actions the

various kinds of rules, policies which have been stayed on paper with no

meaning.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. D in her office, 10.20 am. Dec. 9,

2010

45

Teachers in the vocational middle school

In the process of the interviews, it’s sad to notice that our teachers in the

vocational middle school have become tired of teaching, and have been feeling

exhausted and used up both physically and emotionally. Their passion and

enthusiasm for work are fading away year by year. If possible, some of them

have strong desire to change a totally different job or at least transfer from the

vocational middle school to a full-discipline middle school. Some of them even

consider their choice of being a teacher in the vocational middle school as the

biggest mistake they have ever made in their lives.

On the other hand, despite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment,

the teachers are still struggling to do well at their job because they have been

possessing the conscience as teachers while standing on the platform, to quote

their words,

“Teachers are teachers after all. How could a teacher possibly disappoint

a kid?”

--- From the first interview with Ms. D in her office, 11.00 am. Dec. 3,

2010

One thing I have to mention here is that the four teachers have been

calling their students “kids” no matter what these “kids” have ever done to

them.

We can tell that it is the contradiction between the teachers’ working

conditions and their conscience that may result in their emotional exhaustion

and all their miseries. The following passages are to elaborate on the factors

which contribute to the burnout of teachers in the vocational middle school, and

their inner concerns for their students due to their conscience as teachers.

4.3 Factors contributing to teachers’ burnout

First of all, compared with teachers working in full-discipline schools,

those who work in the vocational middle school have been undertaking too

46

many responsibilities, which have become a gigantic burden for them to bear.

As having been mentioned, we know there are three types of students in the

vocational middle school. So the teachers have to do different things to get

along with different types of students.

For the first type of students, the teachers have to find out a balance between

the students’ academic level and the unified examinations they have to take

when they prepare for their lectures. Given the students’ current conditions,

they have to make every effort to make the lectures educational and

informative, which in the meanwhile can be accepted by the students more

easily. What they have done for the first type of students occupies most of the

workload of any of a teacher working in a full-discipline middle school.

For the second type of students, the teachers in the vocational middle school

have to figure out a way to arouse their interest in learning, which is much

trickier to accomplish because it needs wisdom as well as patience. Some of

this type of students even has no interest in playing or eating, so could we

imagine how hard that would be?

For the third type of students, the first thing the teachers have to consider is

how to manage the class and keep the rules and disciplines carried out in class.

It is not that easy as it’s said. And the second thing is to try ways to appeal their

attention and passion to the studies. At the same time, the teachers have to

figure out how and what to teach. It is a much more complicated process than

anything we could imagine.

It is not exaggerated at all when we say that working in the vocational

middle school is definitely a herculean task. One interviewee told us that a

teacher from Beijing No. 4 Middle School once worked at this school for a year.

Before he went back to his former school, he delivered some exclamatory

remarks,

“Teaching here is a totally horrible and terrifying thing in my career; and

47

I’m so fortunate that I’m leaving this school right now. Having worked here for

a year, my respect for vocational middle school teachers has increased to a new

level.”

--- From the first interview with Ms. B in her office, 3.30 pm. Dec. 2,

2010

From his remarks, we could paint a picture in our minds of what the

vocational middle school teachers’ work look like and what it would be if a

teacher has been working here for years.

Secondly, it is difficult for the teachers to get positive feedback either from

their students or from the school. It is not frequent to get feedback from the

students because many of them lack basic academic knowledge for better

understanding the teachers’ lectures, not to mention getting any feedback from

those who are interested in nothing. That way, the teachers barely experience

the sense of personal accomplishment from their teaching.

Besides, the school has been taking an unfair evaluation system to assess

teachers’ work. Many of the teachers’ efforts and work cannot be assessed in a

much fairer means which is gradually killing their passion and enthusiasm for

their work. Furthermore, there is no such a reasonable rewarding scheme to

support the teachers from both the material and the spiritual aspects.

Consequently, the teachers’ work and efforts cannot be so acknowledged that

they gain no access to sense any personal accomplishment, which will

definitely escalate level of burnout.

Thirdly, the necessary support from the school or the students’ parents is not

available for the teachers when they badly need it to deal with problems. Once

the conflicts between students and teachers happen, the school has been holding

the entirely-students-centered principle and would not listen to the stories on

the teachers’ side. In addition, the school does offer very few opportunities for

the teachers to update their knowledge system. One of the interviewees told me

48

that she just got only one chance to take part in training after she has been

working here for 15 years. How could the odds be less than that?

Speaking of the parents, they did nothing except for spoiling their children

too much, or communicating with the teachers with bias or prejudice. When the

teachers cannot get the approval and support from their students’ parents, what

they get is all negative feedback. Then there will be no way for the teachers to

experience the delightful and pleasant sense of personal accomplishment once

the negative feedback is reinforced again and again. That is one reason why the

vocational middle school teachers’ burnout is getting worse.

Fourthly, the vocational middle school teachers have little access to

sufficient support and attention from the social context as teachers in non-

vocational middle schools always get. A large number of people treat teachers

in vocational middle schools with bias or prejudice. One interviewee provided

us an example.

“On one occasion when my husband and I had dinner with his boss, we

exchanged pleasantries at the very beginning. And my husband’s boss asked

what I usually do for a living, I told him that I am a teacher. And then it’s

natural to be asked which school I have been working for. However, the

admiration on his face faded and was gradually replaced by a little bit

embarrassment while being told that I work at a vocational middle school. It

still hurts whenever I recall that embarrassing situation.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. A in her office, 2.20 pm. Dec. 8, 2010

4.4 The teachers’ inner concerns for the students

In spite of a variety of difficulties and pressure from inside or outside school,

the four teachers being interviewed still expressed their inner concerns for their

students which firmly convince us that our teachers can definitely rekindle their

passion and enthusiasm for their occupation with the help of appropriate

49

intervention. What’s noteworthy is that the teachers have been calling the

students “kids” during the interviews, which may prove their concerns well.

Take a passage of what one interviewee said as an example to illustrate the

teacher’s concern for their students. She said,

“With the time going by, we all have to admit that the initial passion for

teaching has faded gradually because of all these stuff, like the overload, or

pressure from everywhere. However, we teachers have been still doing what we

should do even though there are no students who would like to listen to us. We

have our own conscience as teachers, and we all know the responsibilities on

our shoulders. Maybe that’s why we bend over backwards to improve the

current conditions at this school, like endeavoring to get to know the kids better

to find out solutions.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. D in her office, 10.20 a.m. Dec. 9,

2010

From all the interviews, it can be easily seen that the teachers care more

about their students’ psychological problems than their academic ones. They

both thought it’s necessary and important to dig deeper to find out what’s in the

students’ minds because psychological issues are so common at this school that

basically nearly half of the students here have been suffering from severe

psychological problems. According to the interviewees, the factors which may

result in the students’ psychological issues will be elaborated in terms of

parents, teachers, and the school.

Parents’ neglect

First of all, the household in which a kid has been raised has been exerted a

far-reaching influence on his or her psychological development as well as

physical development. One interviewee told me that many of the students at this

vocational middle school come from single-parent family or from the family in

50

which the parents leave their children in a state of total neglect. What the

parents do is nothing but to offer their kids money. Then these kids grow up in

an environment with little love and attention which may give rise to their

indifference or apathy to their parents or their surroundings.

Teachers’ neglect

At the age of 3 or 4, the kids went to the kindergarten where three teachers

had to look after 30 to 40 kids in one class, as one interviewee told us. We all

know that it’s nearly impossible to take good care of each child because there

are too much work to do for the only three teachers. Maybe from that time, the

emotional or psychological needs of those kids, who got less care or attention,

started not to be fully satisfied. For example, each child is eager to be

complimented or praised by teachers. That way we could imagine how a kid felt

while never being praised or given care or attention.

With all these unsatisfied psychological needs, they went to the primary

school. There the situation may get worse than that in the kindergarten because

there are other factors besides the number of students in one class. One

interviewee told us,

“My daughter, in Grade 5, keeps telling me that she is so terrified of her

math teacher that she begins to hate math. I asked why, she told me that her

math teacher often humiliated her in front of her classmates just because of her

poor math scores. As far as I’m concerned, many of our primary school

teachers condemned the pupils for their poor scores without any consideration

of the children’s dignity. Furthermore, the language they used is always harsh

and hurtful.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. C in her office, 2.40 p.m. Dec. 10,

2010

We all could imagine that the situation will definitely get much worse in

51

middle school because no one ever noticed or would like to care more about

those students with poor academic scores. Consequently, those students who

have been neglected by their parents and teachers all the time choose the

vocational middle school at the age of 16 or 17. At this point, they have

accumulated too many negative emotions and their psychological needs, like

being praised, cared, loved, or even given a little attention, haven’t been

satisfied all the way from both their parents and teachers. That way it’s pretty

normal for them to have little happy or pleasant feelings towards schools and

teachers. Maybe it can explain what I’ve overheard between a student and a

teacher right before I started one of the interviews with Ms. C in her office. The

students said,

“There is no special reason for the conflict with him (referring to a teacher).

I just don’t like him. I don’t like learning. (While being asked why he doesn’t

like his teacher, he continued to face his teacher with an indifferent and

apathetic look, and answered back) There are no reasons. I don’t know why, I

just don’t like schools and teachers, I don’t like anything, and I don’t like

anybody either. ”

From the student’s remarks, it is not difficult to see that he holds hostility

towards teachers as a whole; he doesn’t take it personally, he just doesn’t have

positive emotions towards teachers whom he has been learning from and

towards schools where he has been staying and studying. This way his behavior

does make sense. For this student, to provoke his teacher is an effective way to

draw the teacher’s attention to himself, giving no thoughts on whether the

attention is active or passive, positive or negative; it is also a good way to let

out his accumulated negative feelings and emotions.

Schools’ neglect

To date, it is safe to say that nearly all schools’ assessment systems are

52

mainly based on academic scores. There are few schools who would like to

spare their attention and efforts to care about whether their students are

psychologically healthy or not. The saddest part is that none of the schools

cares and the whole society doesn’t care either; or maybe they just pretend not

to see it by simply ignoring these severe psychological issues at school,

especially at the vocational middle schools. One interviewee ever posed certain

questions on this point I am trying to make here; exactly speaking, those

questions are more like a serious statement or even an indictment to the current

education system, with deep sadness and disappointment. Now I quote her

questions to illustrate the point. She said,

“Which school has ever had a set of psychological assessment system,

especially for the kids at vocational middle schools, to assess the kids’

psychological or emotional state or conditions? Which school has ever

commented the vocational school students with the words like, this kid is a

psychologically healthy one, an optimistic one, a kind-hearted one, or a brave

one rather than only taking the damn academic scores into account and

utilizing the scores as the only criterion? Which school has ever hired a

psychological counselor to cope with these kids’ psychological issues, rather

than just picking a teacher at random to do the real psychological counseling

as a part-time job? We cannot follow up every kid’s emotional conditions

without the school’s assistance because we are just ordinary people like other

human beings with limited energy and effort. We are not the Superman with

superpower; we cannot improve the things ourselves, so we need help,

assistance and support from everyone, the students, their parents, the school,

and even the whole society. We really need that.”

--- From the third interview with Ms. D in her office, 10.20 a.m. Dec. 9,

2010

53

4.5 Summary

From the statistical data on Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators

Survey (MBI-ES), it is safe to conclude that the chosen vocational middle

school teachers experienced much more burnout than those at regular middle

schools. The data indicated that the teachers experienced the highest degree of

emotional exhaustion and the lowest degree of depersonalization among the

three dimensions of burnout. It revealed that these vocational middle school

teachers felt emotional exhaustion a few times a month. In addition, even

though the level of depersonalization was the lowest, its frequency at the

vocational school was still higher than the frequency at regular schools.

What’s noteworthy was the great difference in sense of personal

accomplishment between these vocational school teachers and those at regular

schools. Compared with regular school teachers, the frequency of which the

vocational school teachers sensed personal accomplishment was less than a

half.

From the qualitative data on the in-depth interviews with four teachers at

this school, we know that the special job characteristics of the vocational

middle school and the organizational characteristics resulted in teachers’

burnout.

First of all, the data in terms of job characteristics revealed that overload and

the absence of job resources, like a lack of social support or feedback, were two

main factors which contributed to burnout, particularly the emotional

exhaustion dimension.

Secondly, it’s easy to see from the interviews that the organizational and

management environment in which work occurs have a far-reaching and

persistent influence, particularly when they violate basic expectations of

fairness and equity. From what the teachers said in the interviews, we should

realize that the institutional suppression is shaping the emotional and cognitive

relationship that these vocational middle school teachers develop with their

work.

54

However, we are happy to see that the teachers haven’t lost all their

conscience and faith as teachers. Their concerns for their students’

psychological issues tell us that they will definitely devote themselves to their

work when the larger organization in which work occurs does do something to

improve the situations at their school. We can totally see that from their words,

or even from their complaints about school or the whole education system.

V. Conclusions

5.1 Major findings

In this part, the major findings will be elaborated in terms of two research

questions.

Research Question One: Is there any burnout in English teachers of

the chosen vocational middle school in Beijing? If so, how often?

The answer to research question one is a definitely yes, there is burnout

in English teachers of the chosen vocational school. Furthermore, these teachers

experienced much more burnout than the regular middle school teachers.

Among the three dimensions of burnout, the teachers experienced the highest

level of emotional exhaustion and the lowest level of depersonalization. Exactly

speaking, these vocational school teachers experienced emotional exhaustion a

few times a month; whereas depersonalization once a month or less. However,

even though the level of depersonalization was the lowest, its frequency was

still higher compared with the one at regular schools, which was about a few

times a year or less.

Another finding which is worth noticing was the great difference in sense of

personal accomplishment. Compared with the regular school teachers, the

teachers working at the vocational middle school felt much less personal

accomplishment, less than a half the regular school teachers did. We could

understand that better with the help of data which displayed that the regular

school teachers sensed personal accomplishment a few times a week; whereas

the vocational school teachers only once a month or less.

55

Research Question Two: What are the major factors which

contribute to their burnout?

Having analyzed the qualitative data on the in-depth interviews with the

four teachers working at the vocational middle school, we know that the job

characteristics and the organization characteristics were the two main factors

which contribute to the teachers’ burnout.

Referring to job characteristics, the overload and the absence of job

resources, like a lack of social support or a lack of feedback, mainly gave rise

to the teachers’ burnout, particularly the emotional exhaustion dimension. Just

as what we have discussed on the vocational school students’ characteristics,

working here means much more responsibilities on the teachers’ shoulder and

much more work to do. And burnout is just a response to the overload. What’s

more, these vocational school teachers got little positive feedback from their

students and the students’ parents. When this situation lasts years, it’s really

hard for the teachers to maintain their passion and faith for the work. In

addition, the whole society has been holding prejudice, bias, or even

discrimination against vocational school teachers rather than offering them

necessary support.

Prior research has tended to focus on the immediate context in which

work occurs, whether that’s a nurse’s work with patients in a hospital or a

teacher’s work with students in a school. However, this work often takes

place within a larger organization that includes hierarchies, operating rules,

resources and space distribution. All of these factors can have a far-reaching

and persistent influence, particularly when they violate basic expectations of

fairness and equity.

When the teachers have always been gaining little or no access to fair and

equal treatment as what the regular school teachers have got, when the teachers

have been suffering from the institutional suppression, their implicit values as

regular school teachers’ changed, and the changed values began to re-shape the

emotional and cognitive relationship that people develop with their work.

56

Compared with the overload, the institutional suppression deserves more

attention.

5.2 Other findings

Although these vocational middle school teachers are experiencing much

more burnout than those in regular schools, they still held their sincere concerns

for students, their faith for teaching, and their conscience as teachers. The

teachers have been trying to find out the factors which may give rise to

the vocational middle school students’ psychological issues, such as parents’

neglect, teachers’ neglect or schools’ neglect, as they have mentioned in the

interviews again and again. From the interviews, we can easily see that the

teachers working in the vocational middle school are looking forward to the

powerful actions or effective measures, which will lead the students to the right

way.

5.3 Implications

First of all, the organizational and management environment in which

work occurs deserve more attention than they’ve got right now because the

values implicit in organizational processes and structures are so important that

they will shape the emotional and cognitive relationship that people develop

with their work. The first thing that the education system or even the whole

society should do is to offer necessary and sufficient support to the vocational

school teachers as what they’ve been doing to regular school teachers, and to

establish a system in which these teachers can be guaranteed to get fair and

equal treatments as regular school teachers have got. This way the vocational

middle school teachers can gradually find their identity as teachers. Education

equality is not only for the students, but also for all the teachers.

Secondly, we should pay much more attention to teenagers’ psychological

Problems, especially the psychological issues of the vocational middle school

students. As one interviewee ever advised, an actual psychological counselor

may help a lot.

5.4 Limitations of the present study

57

Firstly, the size of sample population is too small, which may make it

difficult for the results and conclusions to be generalized. 27 English teachers in

one vocational middle school cannot stand for all the English teachers in all

vocational middle schools.

Secondly, just three interviews with each interviewee cannot provide us

with sufficient opportunities to know what’s actually happening in the teachers’

lives. Without thorough and deep data, it’s hard to offer the most accurate and

authentic first-hand materials to policymakers or educational administrators for

figuring out a way to improve the current situations in vocational middle

schools.

5.5 Suggestions for further research

Firstly, researchers should enlarge the size of the sample population if

possible, like surveying all the teachers in a vocational middle school,

irrespective of subjects, through the instrument --- the Maslach Burnout

Inventory – Educators Survey (MBI-ES).

Secondly, try to analyze the demographic characteristics of vocational

middle school teaches in terms of age, gender, titles, marital status to see if

there is consistency with results in regular schools.

Thirdly, in order to get the most accurate and authentic first-hand

materials, researchers should immerse themselves totally in these teachers’ lives

and their work, like working together with them for a year or a longer period to

get to know better their actual working conditions and their students.

Meanwhile, to get to know how educational administrators operate the system

is also important and helpful for knowing how the values implicit in

organizational processes and structures shape the teachers’ emotional and

cognitive relationship. This research will definitely have implications for

burnout.

58

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Appendix I: Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey

Frequency Item Description

Never A few times a year or less

Once a month or less

A few times a month

Once a week

A few times a week

Every day

1. I feel used up at the end of the workday. 2. I feel emotionally drained from my work.3. I feel I’m working too hard on my job.4. I feel exhilarated after working closely with my students. 5. I feel students blame me for their problems.

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6. I feel frustrated by my job. 7. I feel very energetic. 8. I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning and have to face another day on the job. 9. In my work, I deal with emotional problems very calmly. 10. I’ve become more callous toward people since I took this job. 11. I worry that this job is hardening me emotionally. 12. I can easily understand how my students feel about things. 13. I feel burned out from my work. 14. Working with people all day is really a strain for me.15. I don’t really care what happens to some students. 16. I feel like I’m at the end of my rope. 17. I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job. 18. I deal very effectively with the problems of my students.

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19. I feel I’m positively influencing other people’s lives through my work. 20. Working directly with people puts too much stress on me. 21. I can easily create a relaxed atmosphere with my students. 22. I feel I treat some students as if they were impersonal objects.

Note: 0 = Never; 1 = A few times a year or less; 2 = Once a month or less; 3 = A few times a

month; 4 = Once a week; 5 = A few times a week; and 6 = every day.

玛勒诗倦怠量表 --- 教育工作者量表

频率

题目

从不

出现

一 年 出

现 几 次

或 者 更

少

一个月

出现一

次或者

更少

一 个

月 出

现 几

次

一周

出现

一次

一周

出现

几次

每 天

都 出

现

1. 工作结束后，我感

到筋疲力尽。

2. 我的工作让我感到

情绪疲惫。

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3. 我觉得我高度努力

工作。

4. 和学生紧密合作让

我感到很高兴。

5. 我感觉学生把他们

的问题归咎于我。

6. 我的工作使我有挫

败感。

7. 我感觉精力充沛。

8.每天早晨一起床，

我又不得不面对新一

天工作的时候，我感

到疲倦。

9. 工作中，我能冷静

处理情绪问题。

10. 从事这份工作

后，我觉得我对人变

得更加冷漠了。

11. 我担心这份工作

正在让我的心变硬。

12. 我能很容易理解

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学生对事物的感受。

13. 我的工作让我感

到倦怠。

14.和其他人合作让我

感到很紧张。

15. 对发生在某些学

生身上的事，我并不

关心。

16. 我感到好像智穷

力竭了。

17. 在这份工作中，

我已经完成了很多有

意义的事情。

18. 我能有效地处理

学生的问题。

19. 我觉得通过我的

工作，我能给其他人

的生活带来积极的影

响。

20. 直接和人打交道

给我很大压力。

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21. 和学生在一起，

我能很容易地创设一

种轻松的氛围。

22. 我觉得我把某些

学生看做是无生命的

物体。

注：0 = 从不出现；1 = 一年中出现几次或者更少；2 = 一个月出现一次或者更

少；3 = 一个月出现几次；4 = 一周出现一次；5 = 一周出现几次；6 = 每天都出

现。

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Appendix II Interview Outline

The whole set of in-depth interview, which is a semi-structural one, constitutes

three interviews with each interviewee. The following questions are basic ones for the

first interview. The rest of interviews would adjust to each interviewee’s

characteristics and different situations.

Basic questions for the first interview:

1. Why did you choose teaching as your occupation at the very beginning?

2. How do you think of teaching?

3. Do you have any different feelings about teaching compared with the

feelings you ever got when you began to work?

4. Do you think your job ever brought any inconvenience or pressure to your

life?

5. Have you ever been physically or emotionally exhausted? If so, could you

illustrate your point? What factors do you think caused that?

6. Have you ever experienced any sense of personal accomplishment from

your career?

7. Have you always been patient with your students?

8. Have you ever been offered opportunities to update your knowledge or

information system in time?

9. Do you think there exist conflicts between your job and your family life?

10. How do you think of your school’s administrative system?

…

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Acknowledgement

First of all, I want to give my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Professor Zhao

for her patient and inspiring guidance all the way from my graduation thesis’

preparation work to the research proposal till the full completion of it. Not only did

Professor Zhao give me valuable academic advice, she also taught me how to be a

good teacher.

Secondly, I want to give my thanks from the bottom of heart to the four teachers

who accepted my request for interviews and all the 27 English teachers from the

chosen vocational middle school in Beijing who spent their precious time on the

Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey. Thank all of them for their efforts

and support for my research.

Thirdly, I will give my thanks to my dearest parents who offered me a quiet and

warm environment to finish my graduation paper. Thank them for their great love and

sufficient attention all the time.

At last, I want to convey my eternal gratitude to all the people mentioned above

for their encouragement, support and advice which have helped me a lot.

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