Burning Out or Burning Up? : What Happens When Educators Fly Too Close to the Flame?

ISBN-13: 9783639118117 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 188 str.

Beth Robinson

Opis

Public school educators spend a significant amount of time in the life of a child, and in some cases, their daily contact may even exceed that of the primary caregiver. As families continue to be besieged by financial challenges, mental and physical health issues, and intrapersonal and interpersonal difficulties, their distress and dysfunction will continue to spill over into the school system. Educators will be challenged to maintain a healthy degree of engagement with students, students families, and colleagues. This study was undertaken to explore the concept of a continuum of career engagement in the field of education. Assessed levels of career satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue served as respective indicators of healthy career engagement, disengagement, and overengagement. Although educator burnout has been studied quite extensively, research examining primary and secondary trauma in the lives of school personnel has been conspicuously absent. This study sought to determine whether today s educators are burning out or burning up, with the latter resulting from ''flying too close to the flame''.

O autorze

Beth C. Robinson, PhD, pursued studies in Education, Educational
Psychology and Measurement, Counseling, Negotiation and Conflict
Management, and Counseling Psychology. She currently works with
a psychology team in the public school system in Nova Scotia,
Canada.