Selected Factors Contributing to Teacher Burnout in Public Secondary Schools in Mathira Division of Nyeri North District, Kenya

Abstract

Recent studies of teacher stress in Kenya have shown that teacher burnout has increased since the 1990s and apart from having severe adverse effects on teachers themselves, it has significantly disadvantaged students growth and learning capacity. Burnout is loss of enthusiasm in ones job. In teachers, it manifests itself through poor preparation for work, little attention to individual students class work, tardiness, absenteeism and frequent sick offs. Periodic changes in educational administration and the increased requirements for accountability and the competitiveness of schools have made it timely to look at school work environments that contribute to this debilitating condition of burnout. The purpose of this study was to investigate selected factors contributing to teacher burnout in public secondary schools Mathira division of Nyeri North District. The factors investigated in this study were; levels of burnout experienced by teachers in the division, student discipline, interpersonal relationships, teacher workload and student under-achievement and the school physical environment. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a target population of 496 teachers in 32 schools and a sample size of 200 teachers. Teachers from each institution were selected through simple random sampling. The Maslach Burnout inventory (MBI) was used to identify levels of burnout experienced by teachers. Other data was collected by the use of a questionnaire and an observation checklist. Piloting was conducted in order to make the necessary adjustments and establish the validity and reliability of the research instruments. The chi-square was used to test the significance of the relationship between the dependent variable (burnout) and the independent variables. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare simultaneously the different variables to determine if there were significant differences in burnout levels of teachers according to the category of school. The tests were done at a significance level of ot= 0.05. Percentages and frequency tables were used to present the information obtained. The study confirmed teachers in the division experienced burnout with noticeable differences between low and high in schools in terms of their administrative, social and physical environments. Student discipline was most frequently mentioned as the highest cause of burnout in teachers, followed by workload and student underachievement, then interpersonal problems. The least mentioned cause of burnout was the school physical environment. It is recommended that teacher burnout be seen not only as an individual problem but also an organizational one and that effective strategies on administrative, social and physical levels must be put in place in order to maintain healthy, low burnout school environments.