One of our research group leaders, Kirsi Pyhältö, presented a keynote in the Sino-Finnish Education Forum 2022 Seminar on School Burnout (Online) 27.5.2022.
Teacher burnout has become a global epidemic, Finland included. Depending on the country of origin and grade taught, between 5 and 29 percent of teachers, have suggested they had suffered from burnout at some stage of their teaching career. Burnout has serious consequences both for the individual teacher, such as depression, insomnia, and health issues, and for the school community, including early retirement, career turnover, and reduced teaching quality. Accordingly, it is no surprise that finding means to prevent teacher burnout has become one of the top priories of school administrators in many countries.
In her presentation, Kirsi summarized the core findings of studies on Finnish in- and pre-service teacher burnout and means to prevent it, we have conducted over past ten years, in order to identify and reflect potential means to buffer teacher burnout.
She summarized the findings into five key lessons:
- Pedagogical wellbeing
- Teacher occupational wellbeing is highly socially embedded
- Pro-active strategy use can buffer in- and pre-service teacher burnout symptoms
- Teacher learning can reduce risk for developing burnout
- Teacher burnout may cross-over within classroom and in the professional community
Click here for the materials of the presentation and the references to the studies!