Investigation of the relationship between the burnout levels and perceptions of organizational climate of preschool teachers

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between the burnout levels of preschool teachers working in independent kindergartens and elementary schools' preschool classrooms which affiliated to Turkish Republic Ministry of National Education and their perceptions of organizational climate. In this study, the mixed method in which quantitative and qualitative methods are used together, was preferred. The universe of the research consists of 1532 preschool teachers working in Mersin in the 2019-2020 academic year. The quantitative data of the study was collected from 464 preschool teachers determined by the appropriate sampling method, and the qualitative data from 16 preschool teachers determined by the criterion sampling method. As data collection tools for quantitative research method in this study; Personal Information Form, Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator Form, Organizational Climate Scale, semi-structured interview form for qualitative method were used. One-Way Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was chosen to determine whether pre-school teachers' burnout levels and perceptions of organizational climate made a significant difference with the variables of school type, age, seniority and class size. Multiple Regression analysis was used to determine whether perceptions of organizational climate predicted their burnout levels. On the other hand, qualitative data was analyzed with the descriptive analysis method. It was concluded that the preschool teachers who participated in the study experienced low level of depersonalization and personal accomplishment and moderate level of emotional exhaustion. A significant difference was found between the school type in which preschool teachers worked and their burnout levels. Teachers working in independent kindergartens stated that they were compared by the school administrators and they complained about the high workload, they had difficulties in acting jointly with their colleagues, there was competition in the school environment because they were from the same branch, and there was discrimination from time to time. It has been concluded that teachers working in elementary schools' preschool classrooms are ignored by the school administration, they can't communicate with other teachers because they don't have breathing opportunities, parents see themselves as caregivers, there aren't enough materials and staff who deal with the kindergarten, physical facilities are insufficient. A significant relationship was found between the class size variable and burnout. When asked to understand the relationship between class size and feeling burnout, preschool teachers answered that it had a direct effect. There was no significant difference between age and seniority variable and burnout levels. In the interviews, preschool teachers stated that age and seniority factors are not effective in feeling burnout. A significant difference was found between the school type variable and the perceptions of organizational climate. There was no significant difference between age and class size variables and perceptions of organizational climate. There was no difference was found between the seniority variable and the perceptions of organizational climate except for disengaged teacher behavior. A significant relationship was found between preschools' perceptions of organizational climate and their burnout levels. Supportive principal behavior and intimate teacher behavior were significant predictors of depersonalization of preschool teachers, supportive principal behavior, restrictive principal behavior and disengaged teacher behavior were predictors of emotional exhaustion, restrictive principal behavior and collegial teacher behavior were found to be significant. In the interviews, it is seen that the school climate is much more effective than the factors such as physical inadequacies, workload and parents' perspective on the profession in teachers' feeling burnout. It was concluded that the positive or negative communication with the administrators and colleagues in the school environment affects directly their professions, teachers who are supported by their administrators, who are made to be with them, who exchange ideas with their colleagues do their jobs more willingly and adopt the environment in which they work more. Keywords: Organizational climate, burnout, preschool teacher, administrator, behavio