Exploring burnout and participation in professional learning activities among university prep Turkish EFL instructors

Abstract

This thesis aims at investigating burnout and participation in professional learning activities among Turkish EFL instructors currently working at university English prep programs in Istanbul. The relationship between the two variables is also explored in the study. The quantitative data were collected from 224 Turkish EFL instructors through a questionnaire consisting of (a) multiple-choice questions for demographic information and information on working environment, (b) Turkish version of Maslach Burnout Inventory Educators Survey and (c) the adapted version of Kwakman̕s (2003) inventory for the participation in professional learning activities. The qualitative data were collected from 22 instructors through semi-structured interviews either face-to-face or through email. The quantitative data were analysed through independent samples t-test and the Mann Whitney U Test for the variables where the data were not normally distributed. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and coefficient of determination were calculated to analyse the relationship between the two dependent variables. The qualitative data were analysed following content analysis procedures. The results showed that State University English Prep Program Instructors (SUEPPI) had significantly lower sense of personal accomplishment and lower levels of participation in professional learning activities compared to Private University English Prep Program Instructors (PUEPPI); and there is positive correlation between personal accomplishment and participation in professional learning activities with a 13 % shared variance. Those results were supported by the findings of the qualitative data. The results are interpreted in terms of their relation and contribution to the existing literature. Finally, the limitations of the study are presented and suggestions for further research are provided at the end of the study.