Is There Hope for Teacher Burnout?

The nation’s educational system is faced with an ongoing issue as teachers are choosing to leave the profession in staggering numbers. Teacher attrition affects not only teachers who have already left the field and those currently still in it but also those who would potentially enter the teacher pipeline and students in the care of these teachers. While several factors are at fault for this phenomenon, one of the most pressing contributors to teacher attrition is teacher burnout, as teachers are exposed to exhaustion, cynicism, and decreasing self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between the dimensions of teacher burnout and the cognitive constructs of hope and to understand the mediating role hope plays between teacher burnout and their intention to leave either their current role or the teaching profession altogether. While the existing literature addresses the relationships between hope and burnout in other areas, little has been published addressing these phenomena in the teaching profession. The strategy of inquiry for the study was quantitative, using a path analysis to determine if there was a relationship between burnout and hope and burnout and the intention to leave the teaching profession. Participants in the study included 95 teachers registered on the Performance-Based Academic Coaching Teams database. Data were collected using an online survey instrument and analyzed in IBM SPSS 25 Software using correlational analysis, multiple regression, and path analysis to analyze data. The results of this study indicated that there were statistically significant correlations between the dimensions of burnout and hope, and although it was a predictor for intention to leave, hope did not play a mediating role between burnout and intention to leave. Because of these relationships between hope, burnout, and intention to leave, school leaders have new alternatives to explore in initiating change and empowering and retaining teachers. Keywords: burnout, intention to leave, hope, attrition, turnove