Teacher burnout and participation in professional learning activities: Perspectives from university English language instructors in Turkey

OpenAlex İngilizce

Over the past decades, teacher burnout has attracted teacher education scholars worldwide as regards to its causes, effects, and amelioration. Although the burnout phenomenon is not new, the research on teacher burnout in Turkey is still relatively recent. Providing a perspective from Turkey, in this study, we investigated burnout and participation in professional learning activities among Turkish EFL (English as a foreign language) instructors at university English preparatory programs, a rarely researched group in this area. Quantitative data were collected from 224 Turkish EFL instructors through a questionnaire consisting three sections, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators. Our analysis revealed that state university instructors (SUEPPI) and private university instructors (PUEPPI) significantly differ in terms of the levels of sense of personal accomplishment and participation in professional learning activities. Our findings suggest that, SUEPPI did not feel as accomplished and did not participate in professional learning activities as frequently as PUEPPI, and instructors’ sense of personal accomplishment is positively correlated with their increased participation in professional learning activities.