EFL Teachers’ Burnout during the Covid-۱۹ Pandemic: Can Teaching Context Make a Difference?

The present study aimed to examine the differences between Iranian EFL teachers’ burnout in online classes during the Covid-۱۹ pandemic in public schools (PSs) and private language institutes (PLIs). It also investigated the causes of teacher burnout in the two contexts. The participants included ۲۶۸ Iranian EFL teachers (۱۰۸ teaching at PSs and ۱۶۰ teaching at PLIs). The study employed a mixed-method design. In the quantitative phase, ۲۶۸ EFL teachers were asked to answer Maslach et al.’s (۱۹۹۶) Burnout Inventory and in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ۲۰ EFL teachers (۱۰ from PSs and ۱۰ from PLIs). The results of the first phase of the study indicated a significant difference between the two groups in the two dimensions of burnout including “Emotional Exhaustion”, and “Personal Accomplishment”. However, the difference between the “Depersonalization” aspect of burnout was not significant. The results of the second phase of the study indicated that factors such as challenges of online teaching, concerns about teaching effectiveness, lack of collegiality and principal/manager support, financial concerns and low wages, lack of job security, students’ misbehavior and lack of motivation, lack of teacher autonomy, heavy workload, as well as school/institute policies were conducive to teacher burnout.

Keywords:

COVID-۱۹ Pandemic , EFL teachers , Online teaching , Teacher burnout