Teacher self-efficacy and resilience as predictors of burnout among Iranian EFL teachers: A structural equation modelling analysis

As the individual and psychological constructs of teachers have gained momentum recently, a growing number of empirical studies have been carried out to investigate the relationships among teacher-related variables. In order to further explore the associations between teacher variables in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, this research explored the significance of teachers’ sense of efficacy and their resilience in predicting teacher burnout among Iranian EFL teachers. To this end, a total number of 213 male and female practicing teachers filled out a battery of three measuring instruments for these constructs. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the structural model of the constructs. The results demonstrated that teacher self-efficacy represented 20.1% of the burnout variance while teacher resilience explained 11.7% of the variance in teacher burnout. It was found that although either of the two variables had a unique contribution to burnout, teacher self-efficacy appeared to be a more powerful predictor of burnout than teacher resilience. The findings have significant implications for teacher education programs.