Burnout syndrome in teachers due to

the recent pandemic.

Aguilera Vazquez Mariana

Alcocer Aguilar Daniel Alan
Reyes Contreras Casandra Yarelly

Responsible teacher: M.C. Nallely Garza Rodríguez

 Introduction
Currently, as we all are aware, there is a global pandemic halting and limiting the
world as we normally know it. It is known that both students and teachers have had to change
the style and pace of teaching and learning, all this brought different consequences, including
the controversy of whether or not teachers are doing their job properly.
In this study we are going to talk about the struggles teachers have due the recent
pandemic, especially, the burnout syndrome which is the result of chronic work stress.

Problem statement
The burnout syndrome is a problem that is now common between teachers as a result of
exhausting hours of work . If the teacher is having a difficult time because of the working
conditions, they are now able to develop issues regarding their personal life. This situation
brings a lot of problems. This syndrome again begins to decrease the workers competence and
along to this, they begin to feel emotionally exhausted which eventually will lead to have an
emotional or mental issue.
 Research design
Narrative research is a term that subsumes a group of approaches that in turn rely
on the written or spoken words or visual representation of individuals. These
approaches typically focus on the lives of individuals as told through their own
stories

The Handbook of narrative inquiry (2007) offers the following description of narrative
research:

What narrative researchers hold in common is the study of stories or narratives or

descriptions of a series of events. These researchers usually embrace the assumption
that the story is one if not the fundamental unit that accounts for human experience.
But what counts as stories, the kinds of stories they choose to study, or the methods
they use for study vary

In this research we decided to use this method since it goes according to what we
want to find. Experiences and stories from people who have been through the
problem we are exposing.
 Purpose statement
The purpose of this research is to describe the burnout syndrome effects in the lives
of Language Science teachers form the FFYL. As well as this, this research aims to identify
the main causes that contribute to the development of this syndrome based on teachers’
experiences and how they have coped up with the challenges.

Significance of the study

The importance of this research is to point out the problems and the causes of
burnout syndrome in teachers, and with that data propose a solution to the problem.
With nowadays; the online classes only, without the face to face interaction, it is
difficult to know the effects this may cause to online learning and teaching, the gathering
and interpretation of data this research is going to collect, is helping out the people stuck
in this situation and the psychological effects this may have in a person.
It will also prevent teachers from stressing out in their work, and have a more calm
approach to their jobs and a way to find more joy in they work.
 General research question

✘ What are FFYL teachers’ feelings towards their profession

during the new teaching modality?
✘ How does the new teaching modality have affected FFYL
teachers' professional life and responsibilities?
✘ How the recent Pandemic has caused exhaustion and
burnout syndrome on teachers?
 General objective

This research is trying to remark the problems that burnout might cause in
teachers and how it affects their whole routine. And the objective is to look at the
source of what is causing burnout syndrome and present a way to prevent it in
teachers of FF&L of UANL. This problem may escalate into a more serious
mental problem, and this may affect the students of these teachers. So this
research is trying to achieve a solution to prevent burnout syndrome in
teachers.
 Justification
This research has a qualitative approach. Creswell (2007, pp. 37-39) mentions some characteristics of
qualitative research such as:

• A natural setting: Qualitative researchers tend to collect data in the field at the site where
participants' experience the issue or problem under study.
• The researchers as the key instrument: They do not use instruments developed by others.
• Inductive data analysis: Qualitative researchers build their patterns, categories, and themes
from the "bottom-up," by organizing the data into increasingly more abstract units of
information.
• Participants’ meanings: the researchers keep a focus on learning the meaning that the
participants hold about the problem.
• Interpretative inquiry: The researchers make an interpretation of what they see, hear, and
understand.
 Theoretical background
Burnout
Burnout as a result of prolonged stress related to work intensity; the person cannot be found in the business
function effectively. This inability to deal with the negative stress conditions can be considered as the last stage of
the process. People must work and to have a job in order to survive. If the person is having difficulty because of
the working conditions, he will remain a difficult process in their life. This situation brings a lot of problems.
Individuals against people working with depersonalization, and personal accomplishment and competence to feel
emotionally exhausted will lead to a decrease in feelings. Thus, all the life of an individual adversely affected
(Maraşlı, 2005).
Teachers burnout
Teacher stress is a growing problem in many western countries (Clunies-Ross et al., 2008),
The two main sources of stress are the pressure of work and the undisciplined behavior of the pupils (Griffith et
al., 1999; Cooper & Kelly, 1993; Kyriacou, 1998).
Such factors have been evolving and increasing throughout the time, while these days the teachers community
has developed the so called burnout syndrome, this, due to the drastic modality change, having to go from
teaching in a classroom, to go and teach through a computer.
 Theoretical background
Burnout stages
Burn out a suppresses that undergoes several stages from one set to a recognized climax models of burnout
progression described in the literature are mostly on a directional models of progression comprising three
distinguishable phases the emergence of stress the emergence of stress-included experiences, and finally the
emergence of reactions to distress induced experience. Friedman(1996)
According to Veninga and Spradley's (1981) very helpful model of stages of job burnout which are:
● Honeymoon Phase. When we undertake a new task, we often start by experiencing high job satisfaction,
commitment, energy, and creativity. ...
● Balancing Act : as opposed to the unbridled optimism and positiveness of Stage 1, you now are clearly aware
that some days are better than others regarding how well you are handling the stress on the job.
● Chronic stress: chronic exhaustion physical illness (remember that stress is a risk factor in many
diseases)anger, depression
● Crisis -- the symptoms become critica physical symptoms intensify and/or increase in number obsessing
about work frustration, pessimism and self-doubt dominate thinking
● Enmeshment -- The symtoms of burnout are so embedded in your life that you are more likely to be labeled
as having some significant physical or emotional problem than you are to be called a burnout case
 Methodology description
The research instrument we decided to use is a questionnaire; is a research
instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts that aims to collect
information from a respondent. The main characteristic of this instrument is the open
question.
There are 8 open questions, where we ask about the experience teaching online. Since we
are looking for detailed answers, the questions are focused on the feelings the teachers
developed during the pandemic, their difficulties and their improvements right during
these hard times.

We choose this instrument since we are taking a narrative approach, we are looking
for an anecdote-like answer where the teacher can give their experiences, and share their
feelings so we can give to our research a more human point of view that takes into account
the respondents.
 Population and sample/ instrument for
collecting data
The population were the FFYL teachers at UANL, however, we decided to work the sample with 15
teachers; also the Maximal Variation Sampling was used, as the population has different perspectives
about the classes online in this recent pandemic
 Population and sample/ instrument for
collecting data
1-Your first reaction about teaching
online classes.
2-Your expectations when you
were told that you were going to
teach through a computer.
3-Your complications at the
beginning of this modality and
your way of overcoming such
complications..
4-The effects of online teaching on
you as a teacher and as a person.
5-The hardest situation you had to
overcome while teaching online.
6-Your feelings while teaching in
the middle of the pandemic.
7-The technological issues you
faced while teaching online.
8-Your development through the
pandemic
The process we followed to collect the data was simple. We contacted the
teachers via whatsapp where we asked them for their participation. Then
the instrument was made and sent to the teachers via email. We waited a
couple days and since we got little response, we sent it to more teachers.
One of those teachers helped out by sending the questionnaire to some of
her colleagues which was really helpful since this led us to get more
answers. The participants gave us detailed answers mostly, while some of
them gave shorter ones.
 Preliminary results
1) What are FFyL teachers’ feelings towards their profession
during the new teaching modality?
According to some of the answers the feelings are related directly with the
internet connection and technology: “ Sometimes unmotivated” ; “ I was really
nervous so I was going to spend a Lot of time in front of the computer” ; “Getting
stressed because I did not understand many things on the use of Teams”; for the
similarities of the answers, however, we cannot state they’re the same.
2) How does the new teaching modality have affected FFyL
teachers’ professional life and responsibilities?
The technological issues as the professors mentioned the distress these
situations cause them in their life as the Participant 6 said: “I guess the first issue
was my lack of experience in preparing online activities” and the Participant 2
mentioned: “Getting to know all the technological tools”. The teachers described
their frustration with adapting to this new teaching modality.
3) How the recent pandemic has caused exhaustion and burnout
syndrome on teachers?
The other reason, the pandemic, as the Participant 8 mentioned: “I felt
overwhelmed, I was scared” also as the Participant 5 said: “At first I was
enthusiastic and felt safe at home”. described, also as in the new teaching modality,
distress, and also fear towards the recent pandemic.
 Conclusion
With the results obtained, we could correlate most of the teachers are going
through the different Veninga and Spradley's (1981) steps of the burnout
syndrome, some of the professors appeared to be between the crisis and the
balancing step, where some of them appear to be positive , but still appearing to
be stressed and frustrated, and others appeared to have physical illness
manifested like headaches and anxiety symptoms of the crisis step.
So we can conclude, that the adaptation of these new teaching modality in a
pandemic can have a negative toll in the professors; so the teachers should be
aware of their mental health in these complicating times. And if a professor feels
any of symptoms of burnout syndrome, they should seek professional help.
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