Teachers on fire: existential phenomenological analysis of teachers' burnout in Israel

The term ‘burnout’ was coined almost forty years ago, and since then, the phenomenon of burnout in general and teachers’ burnout in particular has become an extensively investigated area. It seems, however, that in the sea of data, figures and inventories, the voice of the individual teacher, the one who faces the daily challenges, is often lost. The current piece of research is an existential phenomenological exploration intent on voicing the subjective experiences of eight Israeli women who chose to become teachers in Israeli public schools, but chose to leave the teaching profession shortly thereafter, of their own accord. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the semi-structured interviews were analysed and the participants’ accounts of their experiences were clustered around four superordinate themes reflecting four existential dimensions (physical, social, psychological and spiritual). The findings shed light on daily encounters with ontological givens, such as uncertainty, loneliness and isolation, freedom and meaninglessness. Examining the experience of burnout through the lens of the existential phenomenological approach may help to open a new avenue for helping teachers, as well as other professionals, who face daily existential challenges which lead to burnout. Further existential-phenomenological studies of this phenomenon are recommended.

Doctorate in Professional Studies in Psychotherapy and Counselling