An exploratory study on the relationship between teacher burnout and teacher self-efficacy among English language instructors

This present study aims to investigate the burnout levels and self-efficacy beliefs of English instructors who are currently teaching at Karabuk University School of Foreign Languages, and the relationship between instructors' self-efficacy beliefs and burnout levels and examine to what extent self-efficacy beliefs differ in instructors experiencing burnout. In the present study, a mixed methods research design was adopted. While the quantitative data was gathered through the application of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach and Jackson 1981, 1986) and a TEBS-Self (Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs System- Self) (Dellinger, Bobbett, Oliver, and Ellett, 2008) with the participation of 59 instructors, a focus group interview with 5 participants was carried out for the qualitative part of the research. The quantitative data was examined through statistical analyses via SPSS 22. The results of the study indicated that the instructors have moderate levels of burnout in terms of Emotional Exhaustion and Personal Accomplishment and high levels of burnout in terms of Depersonalization dimension of burnout. Besides, age and gender didn't play an important role in predicting burnout, whereas workload is a significant predictor of Emotional Exhaustion dimension of burnout. Moreover, the results showed that instructors have almost high levels of self-efficacy. The results of the correlation analysis showed there is a moderate and negative correlation between instructors' self-efficacy beliefs and their burnout levels, which highlights that enhancing teachers' self-efficacy tends to have a positive influence on diminishing teachers' burnout.