BURNOUT: THE DEVASTATING IMPACT ON A NEW TEACHER

This autoethnographical study was conducted to add teacher voice and perspective in the topic of new teacher burnout, which has been linked to beginning teachers’ historically high attrition rates within the first five years of their careers. The study was centered on a burned out new teacher who faced cognitive dissonance through attempting to implement critical pedagogy in the context of standards-based reform.
Data was gathered through field notes and artifacts encompassing the first five years of the teacher’s career, which spanned two schools and six grade levels in a large, low socioeconomic, southern school district. The data underwent multiple levels of analysis and classifications to allow for emergent themes. This data was then displayed as narrative vignettes, giving a representative sample of the field notes that detailed the experience of new teacher burnout.
The data from this study found similarities with the current research on burnout in identifying significant contributors to new teacher burnout. Findings suggested that contributors to burnout work simultaneously and have consistent and pervasive effects. This made every contributor to burnout impactful, as the teacher was constantly suffering from negative health effects of the constant state of burnout.