A Comparative Study of Contextual and Personal Factors Associated with Burnout and Its Consequences: A Case of EFL Teachers in Public Schools and Private Institutes

The roles and responsibilities of teachers have undergone massive changes and teachers have been inundated with constant transition and workload. Consequently, the boundaries between work and home have been blurred and teachers are highly required to devote more and more time to their work. Such high expectations could contribute to high levels of stress which, in turn, lead to teachers’ occupational burnout. Despite a plethora of research that has investigated the relationship between burnout and various teachers’ variables, less is known about how Iranian English teachers at both public high schools and private language institutes perceive the sources and consequences of burnout in their work lives. To bridge the gap, the present phenomenological mixed-methods research was conducted. Questionnaires, interviews, and observations were used for data collection. First, the Maslach Burnout Inventory was distributed to identify burned-out English teachers. Afterward, 62 burned-out English teachers (23 school and 29 institute teachers) were invited for interviews. To triangulate the data, classroom observations were also conducted. The results revealed that although school and institute teachers reported lots of similar sources and consequences for their stress and burnout, several substantial differences were observed due to the varying contexts. Moreover, it was found that both contextual and personal factors led to English teachers’ stress and burnout.