The role of supervision in the occurrence of burnout in educational counsellors

Session Information

01 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Exhibition

General Poster Session during Lunch

Time:
2012-09-19
12:30-14:00
Room:
FCEE - Poster Exhibition Area
Chair:

Contribution

Counselling is a very broad and complex area and is thus dependent on emotional distress which can consequently be the cause of stress. In their professional work counsellors in schools and other educational institutions are in constant contact with students, parents, teachers and administrative workers that are under stress caused by different situations and are thus simultaneously experiencing stress themselves. If educational counsellors are stressed for longer periods of time, burnout can occur in forms of decreased feeling of personal fulfilment, emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. It is therefore important that appropriate methods and strategies for dealing with stress which can prevent the burnout phenomenon are made available to educational counsellors. In this paper an important method for dealing with stress and the consequent burnout in educational counsellors is presented – namely supervision. The focus is set on results of a systematic scientific research dealing with burnout of educational counsellors, where the impact of supervision on burnout phenomenon of educational counsellors in primary schools is emphasized.

Method

The research was based on descriptive and causal non-experimental methods of empirical pedagogical research. Methodologically speaking, the research combines the traditional empirical-analytical and interpretational research (mixed methods research). The method was chosen on the basis of the fact that the quantitative and the qualitative procedures supplement each other, thus making up for the imperfections of one or the other type of pedagogical research. The sample of the research consists of 88 educational counsellors in primary schools. It includes a group of educational counsellors who participated in supervision (experimental group) and a group of educational counsellors in primary schools who did not (control group). Main goal of the research was to examine the effectiveness of supervision in the experimental and in the control group; in the latter the focus was set on the burnout phenomenon. In the research an anonymous questionnaire composed of seven levels of the descriptive evaluation scale was used.

Expected Outcomes

This paper consists of two parts. In the first part the theoretical basis was presented and focus was set on the concept of burnout in educational counsellors as well as the meaning of supervision. In the second, the empirical part, the research problem was defined in detail substantially and methodologically. This part also contains results of the empirical research carried out in December 2011 in the course of which burnout of educational counsellors in primary schools was determined and the effectiveness of individual supervision was experimentally examined. Main finding of the research was that burnout (feeling of personal unfulfillment, emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation) was decreased in educational counsellors in primary schools who participated in the experimentally tested model of supervision. The research also proved that there are differences in burnout with regards to the type of education, age and duration of employment of educational workers in primary schools.

References

Daniel, J. in Schuller, I. S. (2002). Burnout in teachers profession: age, years of practice and some disorder, Study Psychology, št. 1-2, 33-41. Edelwich, J. in Brodsky, A. (1980). Burn-Out. Stages of disillusionment in the helping professions. New York, NY: Human Science Press. Gold, Y. in Roth, R.A.. (1993). Teachers Managing Stress and Preventing Burnout. Washington: The Falmer Press. Jackson, S. E., Schwab, R. L. in Schuler, R. S. (1986). Toward an understanding of the burnout phenomena. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71,(4), 630-640. Lazarus, R. (1996). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGrawh-Hill. Leiter, M. P. in Maslach, C. (2005). Banishing burnout: Six strategies for improving your relationship with work. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Maslach, C. in Leiter, M. P. (2002). Resnica o izgorevanju na delovnem mestu. Kako organizacije povzročajo osebni stres in kako ga preprečiti. Ljubljana: Educy. Moos, R. (1992). Stress and coping theory and evaluation research: An integrated perspective. Evaluation Review, 16, 534-553. Savicki, V. in Cooley, E. J. (1982). Implications of burnout research and theory for counselor educators. Personal and Guidance Journal, 60(7), 415-419. Schaufeli, W. in Enzmann, D. (1998). The burnout companion to study and practice: a critical analysis. London: Taylor & Francis. Veninga, R. L. in Spradley, J. P. (1981). The work stress connection: How to cope with job burnout. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

Author Information

Marija Javornik Krečič (presenting / submitting)
University of MAribor, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia
University of MAribor, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia

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