Examining the burnout levels of teachers employed in the special education schools with some variables (The sample of Adana)

The aim of this study is to establish the burnout levels among the special education teachers employed in Adana province and to observe whether the burnout scores vary in view of some demographic and occupationals variables. This study was participated by 68 teachers serving in schools where the blind, mental and auditory disability children are educated, affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in central district of Adana during the 2006-2007 education and training term. As being suitable for this study?s purpose three schools in Adana set the universe of the research and no sampling has been obtained for reseach the whole universe was included within the scope of the reseach. ?Maslach Burnout Inventory? and ?Personal Informatin From? have been used to idenfity the burnout levels. The arithmetical averages and the standard deviations of the scores obtained from the ?Maslach Burnout Inventory? were also estimated. In order to identify whether there is a significant difference among the groups independent t- Samples in groups of two, one-way ANOVA analysis in multiple groups were applied and Scheffe F test was used to find out the origin of any difference. As a result of the analysis performed, it was detected that the burnout levels of the special education teachers who participated in the study varied at the sub-dimension of emotional burnout according to the variables of duty type, selection of occupation with will, deeming the job appropriate for oneself, being appreciated by the administrators for the job performed; at the sub-dimension of insensitivity according to variables of duty type, selection of occupation with will, deeming the job appropriate for oneself, being appreciated by the administrators for the job performed; at the subdimension of personal accomplishment according to variables of age, type of school, duty duration, deeming the job appropriate for oneself. On the other hand, significant differences were no found with gender, marital statüs, receiving the support of colleagues on the jop and graduated program. Key Words: Special education, Teacher, Burnout, Emotional Exhaustion, Personal Accomplishment, Depersonalizasyon.