Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Natalie Costa

Abstract

Teachers are the stability of the classroom where students are learning, making connections with peers, and preparing for their future. Teachers who are burnt out could make this difficult for some students. This qualitative, narrative study addressed the problem of discovering how teacher burnout behaviors impact social and emotional development among six public high school students through student retrospective stories. The theoretical foundation for this research was Bandura’s reciprocal determinism. Data were gathered through six semi-structured interviews and analyzed by thematic analysis, which provided four themes: 1) Variability in the impact of teacher burnout behavior, 2) The ways teacher burnout behavior affects students, 3) Approaches to address negative classroom experiences and circumstances, and 4) The specific ways students identify teacher burnout behaviors. These findings revealed ongoing mental health concerns due to direct and indirect teacher burnout behaviors. Additionally, participants reported circumstances surrounding teacher burnout behavior in high school had produced a barrier in social relationships. Implications for positive social change include the understanding of how the behaviors affect high school students’ social and emotional development and the long-term impacts that these actions on teacher burnout behaviors, which can better equip teachers to be more productive in the classroom, reduce teacher burnout, and provide the community school districts with a decrease in teacher turnover. Furthermore, the student’s interpretation of burnout behaviors that teachers display allows for an adequate, more comprehensive definition of burnout that can help identify and prevent lasting impacts on students.

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