Examination of the loneliness of class teachers in the workplace

This study was conducted to examine whether the loneliness situations experienced by classroom teachers working in primary schools differ significantly according to various variables. The sample of this study, in which the descriptive scanning model was used, consists of 220 classroom teachers working in various schools in the central districts of Adana (Çukurova, Sarıçam, Seyhan, Yüreğir) in the 2018-2019 academic year. In the study, the "Personal Information Form" was developed by Wright, Burt, and Strongman (2006) in order to determine the demographic characteristics of classroom teachers, and the validity and reliability study of the Turkish form was prepared by Doğan, Çetin, and Sungur (2009). The "Workplace Loneliness Scale" consisting of 16 items was used. In the analysis of the data, the demographic characteristics of the teachers were examined using descriptive statistical techniques. Nonparametric Mann Whitney U-test and Kruskal Wallis H-test were used for the groups that did not show normal distribution in the analysis using the SPSS package program. The significance level was taken as .05. As a result of the study, it was seen that the loneliness situations experienced by the classroom teachers in the workplace did not show statistically significant difference according to gender, age, marital status, seniority, class level they teach, the frequency of spending time with television, computer, etc., and the frequency of spending time for personal development activities. In the social friendship sub-dimension according to the variable of having a child, it was observed that classroom teachers who did not have children experienced more loneliness. It was observed that as the level of satisfaction with the social environment at the school where they work, their relationships with their class and their relationships with their administrators decreased, they experienced more loneliness. As the satisfaction levels of classroom teachers with their relationships with their parents decreased in the social friendship sub-dimension, their loneliness increased; It was observed that as the level of satisfaction with relationships with students decreased in the emotional deprivation sub-dimension, their loneliness increased. While there was no statistically significant difference between the frequency of encountering problem behaviors in the classroom and loneliness among classroom teachers, it was observed that their loneliness increased with the decrease in their belief that they could cope with problem behaviors. Keywords: Classroom teacher, loneliness at workplace