Teacher burnout: Construct equivalence and the role of union membership

Abstract

The objective in this study was to investigate its structure and validate the Maslach Burnout Inventory for educators in the Goldfields region of the northern Free State province of South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was used, where a sample of educators was drawn from the total population (N=468). An adapted version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a biographical questionnaire were administered. Exploratory factor analysis with target rotations confirmed construct equivalence of burnout dimensions for an Afrikaans and English subgroup and an African Languages subgroup. Burnout is described as consisting of exhaustion, cynicism, depersonalisation, and professional efficacy. However, the depersonalisation construct showed better fit across language groups than the cynicism construct. Item bias analysis was carried out for the cynicism items. For biographical differences, it was found that union membership presented an important distinction in educators ' experience of burn out.

South African Journal of Education Vol. 26 (4) 2006: pp. 541-551