Examination of professional burnout of religious culture and ethics teachers

The aim of this study is to examine the professional burnout status of DKAB teachers and to put forward suggestions. The case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of 24 DKAB teachers working in public and private schools in Adana. The obtained data were collected using the interview technique and semi-structured interview form. By analyzing the data, themes and codes were created and reported. According to the findings obtained in the research, DKAB teachers generally have positive thoughts about their profession and the reasons for choosing their profession. However, they find the development of the students and the salary they receive insufficient in return for their efforts. They think that the prestige of the teaching profession in the society has decreased and that it will lose even more value in the future. The society's approach and expectations towards DKAB teachers affect teachers negatively. In terms of social relations, their profession has positive and negative effects. There are DKAB teachers who are considering changing their profession or branch. In general, some situations within the scope of the profession create a workload; COVID-19 negatively affects education and training; school administrators exhibit negative approaches; negative parent approaches; co-workers have negative attitudes; students are indifferent to the DKAB course; It is thought that one cannot act freely in his professional life. After starting the profession, there are positive and negative changes in teachers' attitudes towards students. 20 (83.33%) of DKAB teachers think that they experience professional burnout. In the case of occupational burnout, psychological, physical and behavioral symptoms occur. Student attitudes are most effective in experiencing this feeling. In general, they react to this feeling by moving away from the work environment. They struggle with this feeling using various methods. They receive social support, especially from their colleagues. The improvement in students enables DKAB teachers to be more professionally motivated.