Outcomes and Antecedents of Teacher Depersonalization: A Longitudinal Field Study

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Wellness, Burnout, and Teaching: Relations to Motivation in Academic Contexts

Abstract

This research reports on two longitudinal studies exploring the outcomes of antecedents of teacher depersonalization. In study 1, multilevel analyses of data from 73 teacher-class pairs (1,792 students) showed that teacher depersonalization at the beginning of school year predicted both students’ and teachers’ reports of classroom disruption at the end of the school year, mediated by teacher enthusiasm. In study 2, results of hierarchical regression of data from 530 teachers showed autonomous motivation for teaching moderated the relations between Time 1 organizational variables (principals’ support and sense of community) and Time 2 depersonalization. Therefore, only to the extent that teachers’ autonomous motivation was high, did principals’ support and sense of community predict Time 2 depersonalization.

Authors

• Moti Benita, University of Haifa

• Ruth Butler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem