A Typology of Burnout Among Korean Teachers

Abstract

The current study aims to identify a typology of burnout in Korean school teachers and also examines the discriminant variables that contribute to burnout group's differences. A total of 345 Korean school teachers in middle and high school participated in this study. Each participant filled out a Korean version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator Survey and Mini-Markers, which is a simplified version of the Goldberg Unipolar big-five questionnaire. First, cluster analysis was performed to identify the types of Korean teacher burnout using the SPSS software. Three types of burnout were identified among the Korean teachers, these being; (a) the "Laissez-Faire" teacher, (b) the "Well-Adjusted" teachers, and (c) the "Distressed" teachers. Next, descriptive discriminant analysis was performed to examine the discriminant variables differentiating the burnout groups. The results indicated that the "Well-Adjusted" group of teachers obtained higher scores on particular factors, such as extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness than the "Laissez-faire" group and the "Distressed" group of teachers. In addition, the "Distressed" group of teachers obtained lower scores on the emotional stability factor than the "Well-Adjusted" group as well as the "Laissez-Faire" group of teachers. We conclude our study with both the implications and a few notes about the limitations.