Role Stress, Burnout and Resilience in Core and Non-Core Teachers

Background/Purpose: Teaching has long been considered a stressful profession and may becoming even more stressful due to recent changes in state- and national-level educational policies that govern K-12 education. Due to differences in reward and accountability systems, teachers of core subjects (e.g., mathematics, English, science) likely experience this stress differently than those who teach non-core subjects (e.g., physical education, art, music). However, few studies have examined differences in the ways in which core and non-core subject teachers experience their work. Using role theory, the purpose of this study was to develop an in-depth, qualitative understanding of role stress, burnout, and resilience among core and non-core subject teachers.

Method: Participants included 13 core subject teachers (4 male, 9 female) and 15 non-core subject teachers (7 male, 8 female). Teachers’ years of experience ranged from 1 to 39 years, with the average teacher having spent 19.98 years in the classroom (SD=11.19). The majority of the participants (86%) identified as Caucasian. Data were collected through one semi-structured individual interview (45-90 minutes) conducted with each teacher. Interview questions focused on role stress, burnout, and resilience as well as teachers’ satisfaction with their teaching position.

Analysis/Results: To facilitate a comparison of core and non-core teachers, data were analyzed separately for each group using analytic induction and constant comparison. Emergent themes for core and non-core teachers were compared and synthesized into four themes. In the first theme, workload and stress, core teachers articulated more role stress and a heavier workload than non-core teachers. Core teachers also felt more pressure related to student and teacher accountability than non-core teachers. Both groups talked about the need to juggle role-related responsibilities, but core teachers reported bringing grading home more often than non-core teachers. While both groups reported feelings of stress and burnout, interactions with children made their work worthwhile and helped build resilience. Most teachers indicated that, despite the stress, they were satisfied with their career choice.

Conclusions: Results of this study suggest that there are numerous qualitative differences in the ways that core and non-core teachers experience their work. Core teachers reported heavier workloads, more pressure related to accountability requirements, and the need to juggle a wider variety of responsibilities than non-core teachers. Despite differences in the teachers’ experiences, both group articulated some stress and burnout, but persevered because of relationships developed with children. This study contributes to understanding the differences between core and non-core teachers’ lived experiences.