Talk of Teacher Burnout Among Student Teachers

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Dreams, Hopes, and Concerns in Preparing Future Teachers

Abstract

Student teachers recurrently and spontaneously talk of burnout when considering coping with future teacher duties. The following paper aims to investigate how student teachers relate to the concept of burnout before starting to teach. In this qualitative constructivist grounded theory, data material from four focus groups and 52 semi-structured interviews (N=67) were analyzed. Findings reveal that student teachers use the concepts of burnout as the ultimate and potential risk of not being able to cope with future teacher duties. In using this talk of teachers as prone to suffer burnout, student teachers portrayed the work of teaching as negotiations of individual boundaries to protect against work demands. The student teachers saw these negotiations as part of future teaching endeavors.

Authors

• Henrik Lindqvist, Linköping University

• Maria Weurlander, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

• Annika Wernerson, Karolinska Institutet

• Robert Thornberg, Linköping University