Burnout among Turkish high school teachers working in Turkey and abroad: A comparative study

Abstract

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to examine perceived levels of burnout among Turkish high school teachers working in Turkey and abroad.Method. A total of 255 Turkish teachers working at public schools in Germany (n=78), Cyprus (n=94) and Turkey (n=83) comprised our study group. In Germany and Cyprus, the participants were selected from different public high schools in different cities where Turkish teachers taught the Turkish language. In Turkey, the participants were all teachers in one public high school. Participation was voluntary. Participants filled out questionnaires anonymously. Burnout was measured using the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure.Results. Eighty point eight percent of participants from Germany, 84.0% from Cyprus and 81.9% from Turkey were satisfied with their workplace. The mean burnout scores were 2.78 +/- 0.98, 3.22 +/- 1.03 and 2.67 +/- 1.07 for participants from Germany, Cyprus and Turkey, respectively. Variance analysis showed no difference regarding burnout among teachers working in Germany and Turkey, but those working in Cyprus had higher burnout scores. Among the teachers working in Turkey, demographic factors were not found to affect burnout. For the participants from Turkey and Cyprus, depression was found to be an important factor in burnout, whereas for the participants from Germany, job satisfaction had greater significance.Discussion. We found that burnout is a common problem among Turkish teachers working both in Turkey and abroad. According to their mean burnout scores, we did not find significant differences between teachers working in Turkey and Germany, but those working in Cyprus had significantly higher scores.