An Analysis of Relationship between Iranian Teachers Burnout Dimensions and some of their Demographic Variables with a Focus on Gender

The teaching profession is one of the most visible professions in the world, even though it has significant improvements in students’ future achievements. Therefore, society continues to expect more from its teachers. As the gap widens between the public’s expectations of education and the teachers’ ability to deliver that education, burnout will continue to be a concern. With this respect, the purpose of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between some demographic variables and the three successive burnout dimensions; Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP), and Personal Accomplishment (PA) in Iranian male and female teachers. This study was conducted with descriptive survey model and 300 high school teachers and university professors from Tabriz and Zanjan in 2013-2014 academic year participated in the present study. A demographic questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the individual characteristics (e.g., marital status, number of children, age, and etc.) and organizational factors (e.g., teaching level and workload). The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator Survey (MBI-ES) (Maslach, Jackson, and Schwab, 1986) was also employed to collect the data concerning the burnout levels of the teachers. The gathered data was analyzed by SPSS 18 through running Pearson Product-Moment Correlations and Independent Sample t-tests. At the end of the study, it was found that male and female teachers’ burnout levels differ in terms of their demographic features such as salary satisfaction, and somehow teaching experience while both of them were affected by teaching hours. On the other hand, it was revealed that teaching level was not an influential factor in accordance to the Iranian teachers’ burnout.

Key Words: burnout levels, Iranian teachers, demographic variables, focusing on gender