Document Type : Research Paper
Abstract
Covid-19 started in China in 2019, and due to its high contagion power, it quickly spread throughout the world, and infected all the countries of the world in almost a short period of time (less than four months). This epidemic virus has led to the infection and death of many people; Research has reported stressors related to Covid-19, were prolonged quarantine, fear of infection, frustration, boredom, insufficient resources, insufficient information, and financial loss. Teachers of intellectually disabled children may experience psychological problems caused by these stressors. More than 10% of the world's children are children with disabilities, so educating these children is one of the most difficult tasks, and teachers who work with these students are exposed to a wide range of emotional challenges. During the outbreak of Covid-19, teachers have experienced many stresses, such as anxiety related to Covid-19, anxiety about educational demands, communication with parents, and problems with administrative support.
Job burnout is a syndrome associated with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and deterioration of personal performance, and it can appear among people who have some kind of job or responsibilities related to others. Burnout in special education teachers is a significant concern; because they tend to experience higher burnout than other teachers, and the role of administrative support has played a significant role in that. Research in Iran has shown that 39% of special education teachers who have left this field reported burnout and fatigue as the reason. Therefore, it can be said that factors such as high work pressure, conflict with students, professional responsibilities, and issues related to the administrative system are major job stressors for teachers of disabled students, which can affect their job burnout, especially in quarantine conditions such as Covid-19.
Nevertheless, social support, student-teacher interaction, and workplace spirituality are among the variables that can play a role in the burnout of teachers of children with intellectual disabilities. Objective and tangible support has been introduced as one of the main factors affecting the job burnout of special teachers. Also, a negative relationship has been obtained between social support and teacher burnout. The results of a review showed that appropriate teacher-student relationships keep teachers away from emotional burnout; because they can increase the amount of enthusiasm and reduce the amount of fatigue. Research has shown that spiritual well-being has a negative relationship with depersonalization, emotional burnout, and academic success. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of job burnout among teachers of mentally disabled children in the outbreak of covid-19 and the role of social support, child-teacher relationship and workplace spirituality in predicting it.
The method of this research was correlation. The statistical population of the present study included all teachers of mentally disabled children in Hamedan province in 2020 (N=160). In Malayer and Hamedan cities, 93 teachers of children with special disabilities participated in the research. In addition, 40 other teachers from other cities of Hamedan province participated in the research in a virtual and purposeful way with the colleagues of Hamedan province education department; finally, the sample size was 133 teachers. Job burnout, social support, child-teacher interaction, and workplace spirituality scales were used to collect the data. Data were analyzed with SPSS-26 software and using Pearson correlation tests and multivariate regression with stepwise method.
The results showed that 19.55% of teachers of intellectually disabled children had job burnout in the outbreak of Covid-19. This result is in line with the previous findings during the Covid-19 outbreak, which investigated burnout among teachers; It can be said that teachers have suffered a lot of stressors in the Covid-19 outbreak, which has been mentioned in previous researches; The uncertainty about the consequences of the epidemic, work overload, inappropriate work environment, bad working conditions, and lack of physical contact with students were the stressors mentioned by the teachers in the outbreak of Covid-19. It can cause burnout of teachers of mentally disabled students.
Considering the significant role of social support, student-teacher interaction (closeness and conflict) in predicting the job burnout of teachers of mentally disabled children, it can be said that these results are in line with previous findings. Lack of social support at work may contribute to burnout in teachers of intellectually disabled students in the outbreak of Covid-19; Because during this period, due to the quarantine conditions and the fatality of the disease, the opportunities to benefit from positive and healthy social contacts with others are reduced; Especially in the nature of special education, which often involves intense emotional experiences. In addition, communication and positive feelings between teachers and mentally retarded children during the outbreak of covid-19 and the quarantine conditions that have separated them physically will most likely cause the teachers of these children who report less desire and indifference towards their job (emotional fatigue) and reduce negative responses (depersonalization) towards the children who receive educational services from them and feel competent in their job, and avoid negative evaluation about themselves (deterioration of personal performance). However, if teachers have conflicts with students with special disabilities, it is likely that they will develop negative feelings towards themselves and their jobs; because negative emotions, including teachers' anger, along with a decrease in their enjoyment, are related to an increase in the level of emotional exhaustion
One of the limitations of this research is the use of self-report questionnaires, which can lead to biased information; therefore, it is suggested to use other data collection methods, including interviews, in future researches. Another limitation of the research was the sample (teachers of special-disabled children), which makes the generalization of the results to all teachers with cautious and highlights the need for research in this field among all teachers. Another limitation is the impossibility of completing all the questionnaires in person, and this has led to the use of the virtual method to collect the questionnaires. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to the method of collecting information completely in person. Considering these limitations, the results confirmed the negative relationship between social support, close teacher-student interaction, the spirituality of the work environment, and the positive relationship between teacher-student conflict and burnout of teachers of disabled children; also, the stepwise regression confirmed the role of social support, teacher-student close interaction and teacher-student conflict in predicting teachers' burnout. Therefore, strengthen the social support among teachers through in-service training and the implementation of practical and educational solutions to improve the positive teacher-student interaction and the level of spirituality in the work among teachers of special disabled children through short-term and intensive workshops were recommended to reduce job burnout.
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