Isolation, Burnout, and Intention to Leave: A Study of Elementary Teachers

• In Event: Leadership Perspectives on Teacher Retention, Agency, and Intentions

Abstract

This study uses SEM to analyze the extent to which teachers’ feeling isolated and burned out are predictive of their likelihood of leaving their positions. Specifically, we investigate the explanatory role of isolation and burnout experienced by elementary school teachers in a model that relates collective efficacy, commitment, and job satisfaction as mediating variables predicting intention to leave. We find that isolation has no direct relationship to intention to leave, but its total effect is statistically meaningful as a predictor of intention to stay/leave. Burnout has both a statistically significant direct effect and a particularly potent total effect on intention to leave, larger even than the impact of job satisfaction, efficacy, or commitment (which all have statistically significant effects).

Authors

• Scott C. Bauer, University of Colorado - Denver

• Robert D. Thelen, Douglas County Public Schools