Psychological Burnout in Early Childhood Teachers : Levels and Reasons

The primary education plays an important role in the life of an individual as well as the nation as a whole. This study aims at investigating the level of psychological burnout in early childhood female teachers at public and private kindergarten schools. It also aims to prove whether these burnout levels differ according to the type of school, academic specialization, social status, and age. This study aims to identify the major causes of psychological burnouts from the teachers’ perspectives. The researchers used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. In addition, the study sample consisted of 96 female teachers from all the kindergarten schools in Al-Salt educational directorate. The researchers were applied Maslach quantitative scale. Consequently, 8 female private kindergarten school teachers were interviewed. The main results showed that moderate to high levels of psychological burnouts are present. Thus, this is accompanied with statistical differences according to the type of kindergarten school and social status. No statistical differences recorded regarding academic specialization and age. The results also showed that work pressure, low income, and the management relationship with the parents are some of the main causes of psychological burnouts. The researchers recommended conducting more studies in order to reduce the reasons leading to psychological burnouts among teachers in general.


Introduction
Paying attention to childhood is not a recent matter.All religions attention to children and honored them.In addition, various childhood educators such as Comenius were one of the first educators to establish schools for children.However, his photo-illustrated book entitled "World of Pictures" was the first schoolbook specialized in children education.Then, Rousseau clarified his thoughts about children education in his book entitled "Emile."In this book, he emphasized on the importance of educating the body and the senses.In 1789, Pestalozzi established an orphanage in Stans in Switzerland to teach the children and to study their behaviors.His educational process based on the principle "Teaching is best when it is connected to work, activity and observational teaching."Subsequently, children education linked to Froebel's name as he established the first kindergarten in Germany in the year 1827.From here, kindergarten employed for teaching institutions that are concerned with children between the ages of 3-6 years old.He saw that children are creative and innovative by nature if given the suitable environment, freedom, and activities.The first children educational institution in America was established in 1855 in Water Town.Thus, German was the language of teaching.Since 1880, children educational institutions have been considered as a part of the American educational system.Maria Montessori first established children educational institutions in Italy in 1907.However, this aimed at providing children with an environment of self-learning methods.
In the Arab world, attention towards early childhood education evolved because of many factors.These factors include working women, studying, the change in family's nature from wide to narrow especially in the cities, and the development in the communications and social networks, which have led to paying more attention towards early childhood education.
In Jordan, early childhood educational level started gradually.In the 1950s, various private educational institutions and charities established the first kindergartens in the country.Only 7% of the children within the ages of 3-5, years were registered in these institutions in the year 1966/1967.Directed and obvious care of early childhood officially began after the educational development conference in 1987.During this conference, educational law number was 27 for the year 1987.Thus, this was set according to the regulations and objectives for this stage.In addition, the upcoming stages agreed upon and the early childhood teachers first introduced in Jordan in the year 1991/1992.However, the first application of this law was in 1993.Jordanian ministry of education established Kindergarten School according to its educational philosophy, educational policies principles, and the recommendation of the first educational development conference in 1987.Recently, Jordanian educational system has been paying more attention and care for the early childhood level that takes place before the child were officially registered in kindergarten school.Hence, this level is crucial in developing and preparing the children's personalities.
This was proven by establishing many Kindergarten School institutions on both governmental and private sectors with a domination of private sector Kindergarten School.Researchers in Jordan have conducted many studies regarding Kindergarten School and the practices of the Kindergarten School female teacher.Some of these researches aimed to identify the vocabulary of the Jordanian child when they registered in Kindergarten School.Others were concerned about identifying motional and linguistic developmental patterns for children between the ages of (3-6) years old.Other researches focused on the impact of Kindergarten School teachers' practices and orientations.Few studies concentrated on female teachers' psychological burnouts.Considering the fact that most of the Kindergarten School teachers are females with different psychological and social circumstances, this study aims to assess and identify psychological burnouts of female teachers and their relation to some variables.These variables include the type of Kindergarten School, academic specialization, age, and the social status.Workers in Kindergarten School institutions considered vulnerable to psychological burnouts.This is because most of the factors leading to these burnouts are present in the teaching process in general and the Kindergarten School teaching specifically.

Problem Statement
This study aims to identify psychological burnouts for Kindergarten School female teachers.It also identifies if these burnouts differ according to the type of Kindergarten School, academic specialization, and the age of female teachers.Consequently, this study will try to answer the following questions: 1) What are the levels of psychological burnouts for Kindergarten School female teachers?
2) Does the level of psychological burnouts for Kindergarten females differ according to school type?
3) Does the level of psychological burnouts for Kindergarten School females differ according to academic specialization?
4) Does the level of psychological burnouts for Kindergarten School females differ according to social status?
5) Does the level of psychological burnouts for Kindergarten School females differ according to the teacher's age?
6) What are the main reasons for female teachers' psychological burnouts according to the teacher's own perspective?

Importance of the Study
Pre-school level considered a vital stage in the child's life.However, it represents the first educational institution in which most of the character and abilities characteristics are shaped and developed by the means of physical, mental, perceptual, emotional, social, spiritual, and health aspects.This category of children has to possess high levels of mental, emotional, and social intelligence.Branscombe, Castle, Dorsey, Surbeck, and Taylor (2000) emphasized that pre-school level needs qualified female teachers in the fields of education basics, childhood psychology, children health, physical education and art, handcrafting, and computer skills.Therefore, this requires an excellent level of university education and preparation to enable these teachers to fulfill the requirements of their work.In addition, it enables them to gain assurance of the desired outcomes.It also requires teachers to obtain low levels of anxiety, tension, and psychological burnouts.This is because these factors pose negative impact on the children's psychological, social, and emotional growth along with their academic performance.This also has a negative effect on the knowledge needed for their next educational levels.Psychological burnout has been the focus of many researches on both local and regional scales due to its negative impact on people in a work environment.Therefore, this dangerous phenomenon acts as a major barrier that prevents the workers from performing his duties as required.In turn, this affects the work regime as a whole.This study aims to evaluate female teachers' psychological burnout levels and their causes from the perspectives of female teachers.In addition, this study aims to present recommendations that will aid in decreasing Kindergarten School female teachers' psychological burnout levels.

Literature Review
Recently, early childhood educational level considered as a part of the educational process, in general, in many countries.At this level, children usually acquire a lot of skills and experiences.Developed countries have increased their attention to this educational level.Therefore, they believed it has a major impact on the future of the children and the following educational levels (Hewitt, 2000).Recent decades of the Twentieth century are considered to be the decades of rapid knowledge evolution.Here, the focus of the educational systems involves searching for the best methods to improve children capabilities and enable them to understand the knowledge of the century.As a result of the developing educational and cultural awareness regarding the importance of early childhood learning and the rapid change of life aspects, the need to develop early childhood education became very necessary.Hence, this would assist in having developed kindergartens and a better generation.
The nature of kindergarten school teaching and the resulting pressure lead to psychological burnouts.This is because female teachers conduct various overlapping roles that require many skills in various fields that are hard to identify.Kindergarten school female teacher is responsible for everything that a child learns.They are also directing children's development process during this vital stage of their lives.Teachers' role today is not the same as their role in the past because of the change in the educational process.This occurs due to knowledge evolution and development.This has posed new challenges facing teachers in general and kindergarten school female teachers in specific.Thus, they are responsible for preparing a new generation capable of facing the growing world development.These challenges forced teachers to keep updated with the growing knowledge and their personal, scientific, and career expertise development.Having these intercalated roles and duties, female kindergarten school teachers face various challenges such as; number of duties requested, activities planning and performing, experience, low financial accreditation, low salaries, high number of classes per day, high number of students per class, and low social respect towards female teacher.These factors along with others have led to increasing challenges and psychological problems.However, this has made female teachers to suffer from frustration and psychological burnouts.
Psychological burnout identified by many researchers due to its impact on the level of accomplishment for a working person.Maslach is one of the most important researchers in this field.He identified it as a group of mental stress, emotional alert, and personal insensitivity or unsatisfied feeling towards personal accomplishments and performance (Maslach, 1981).It also represents psychological symptoms such as; emotional and psychological exhaustion, creating negative thoughts towards work, and also losing attention to coworkers.Consequently, the person feels exhausted and emotionally drained which makes him lose his attention towards accomplishment.In addition, it also creates negative orientations towards his coworkers (Maslach, 1997).Roth & Gold (1994) identified it as a feeling that results from the person's feeling that his needs and expectations were not met.This resulted to a disappointment accompanied with physical and mental symptoms that will finally cause low self-esteem.Psychological burnout considered as a case that affects one's work accomplishment levels and that leads to tiredness and exhaustion.Subsequently, this results with the feeling of unpleasant and pointless work (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001).Being a teacher offering human and educational services for students is one of the main jobs that may result to psychological burnouts, especially for kindergarten school teachers (Maslach et al., 1996;Richardson & Watt, 2006).These burnouts may cause teachers to experience sleeping problems, anxiety, depression, tiredness, depersonalization, sarcasm, emotional distance, carelessness, absence, frustration, and failure (Ripamonti & Clerici, 2008).Furthermore, work pressure can be considered as a vital cause of psychological burnouts, but it is not the main cause (Burisch, 2006).Usually, there are some misconceptions regarding the identification of psychological burnout and its relation to psychological pressures, as these two terms are close in meaning.Psychological burnout results from work psychological pressures because of roles conflict and the increase in work regimes.Therefore, it usually affects those who look for perfect work performance.In addition, it is also related to the duties that a worker cannot accomplish (Collings, John, & Philip, 1996).Pressuring careers, especially teaching, causes intensive long-term tensional feelings.Thus, this eventually leads to loss of attention and commitment.Consequently, this can be illustrated in three forms below: -Emotional Exhaustion: When emotions drained, teachers cannot fulfill their job requirements as before.These emotions comprise intensive stress and tension and the feeling that the teacher has nothing left to give psychologically (Maslach & Jackson, 1984;Cokluk, 2000).
-Depersonalization: It clarifies negative orientations towards the teacher's coworkers.These emotions can be sarcastic without actual representation of the teacher's personal characteristics.This psychological burnout form represents a sarcastic feeling towards students and parents that can be seen in insulting the teachers and the loss of confidence in their opinions towards students (Pines & Maslach, 1977;Maslach & Jackson, 1984;Leiter & Maslach, 1988).
-Reduced Personal Accomplishment: This form happens when teachers begin to negatively evaluate themselves (Maslach, 2003).This happens when they lose their enthusiasm to accomplish, when they feel that they are not competent anymore, and when that they cannot fulfill their duties (Maslach & Jackson, 1984;Cokluk, 2000).
Psychological burnout related to a case of physical and mental tiredness and exhaustion because of increasing pressures.Therefore, it can be illustrated as a group of negative appearances such as: tiredness, exhaustion, incompetent, losing attention to others, losing attention to work, sarcasm, depression, doubting the value of life and social relations, and negativity (Wood & McCarthy, 2002).It also includes psychological depression (Grayson & Alvarez, 2008), less support from others (Özdemir, 2007), the feel of work failure (Luk, Chan, Cheong, & Ko, , 2010), and teachers' orientation towards teaching in a way that will not ensure having the desired outcomes (E.Skaalvik & S. Skaalvik, 2009).Haberman (2004) reported that 0.20 of psychologically burnout teachers tend to drink alcohol, while 0.15 of them became alcoholics in a way to escape work reality.
Educational experts agree that these manifestations affect teachers' overall teaching quality.Experts also agree that teachers who are committed and devoted are more vulnerable to psychological burnouts (Sajid, 2014).Able & Sewell (1999) pointed out that bad work environment for teachers, stresses resulting from students' behavior, time pressure, bad economic situation, and bad relations among workers are proofs of teachers' psychological burnout (Borg & Riding, 1991).
Therefore, identifying kindergarten school teachers' psychological burnout levels helps in increasing their mental and functional performance.This will be positively reflected on the students' overall performance.In addition, it will also help in preparing qualified teachers who are able to satisfy students' needs during this vital educational stage.

Methodology
The researchers applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer the study questions.The first four questions were quantitatively answered, while the fifth question was answered qualitatively using semi-structured interviews method on a sample of female pre-school teachers.

Sample
The researchers chose a sample of 96 female teachers working in public and private pre-schools all over Al Salt governorate for the academic year 2015/2016.Thus, 8 Female teachers interviewed to answer the fifth question.

Instrumentation
The researchers were used MBI scale (Maslach Burnout Inventory, 1981) which includes 22 items.This used to identify the study sample psychological burnout levels.The scale distributed into three main approaches: 1) Burnout: This includes 7 items that evaluate emotional problem, physical problem, and sleeping disorders for female teachers.
2) Depersonalization: This includes 7 items that evaluate emotional problem, physical problems, and sleeping disorders for female teachers.
3) Personal Achievement: This includes 8 items that evaluate a person's negative work performance, his feeling of inability to improve his work status, and his doubts in his personal capabilities.
Burnout scale is a 6 answers scale.The answers are in the range of "Never" to "Every day."Maslach identified performance standards as follows: Burnout: The scores in this approach are as follows: -The score 17 or less than, reflects a low level of burnout.
-The score between 17-29, reflects a moderate level of burnout.
-The score 30 or more than, reflects high levels of burnout.
Depersonalization: The scores in this approach are as follows: -The score 5 or less than, reflects a low level of burnout.
-The score between 6-11, reflects a moderate level of burnout.
-The score between 12 or more than, reflects high levels of burnout.
Personal Achievement: The scores in this approach are as follows: -The score 33 or less than, reflects a high level of burnout.
-The score between 34-39, reflects a moderate level of burnout.
-The score 40 or more than, reflects low levels of burnout.
By considering that, the items of burnout and depersonalization were negative.The researchers inverted the scores for personal achievement approach to have it in the same way like the first two approaches.Accordingly, the respondent who obtains high scores in all three approaches classified to be having high level of burnout.On the other hand, low scores are proofs for low burnout level.It is worthy of mentioning here that Maslach scale does not classify the respondent as burnout or not.However, it classifies the scores into three levels according to the score results.
Furthermore, this scale is one of the most globally used scales for evaluating burnout (Barnes, 2008;Brouwers, Evers, & Tomic, 1999).This scale translated into Arabic and applied in the Arabian environment (Bataineh & Jawarneh, 2004).
However, psychometric properties assessed for validity and reliability as follows: -Validity: The items were presented for 6 experts in the field of psychology and guidance, and psychological health to be evaluated.These experts suggested some corrections.Construction validity performed by finding relations between each item and the total score for each approach (Table 2).

Results
To answer the first question: "What are the levels of psychological burnouts for early childhood female teachers?" the mean and standard deviation values calculated for each item as listed in Tables 4-6.Furthermore, Table 4 shows that the study sample was in the range of moderate burnout.Here, the total score for female teachers' performance in this approach is 27.89.Table 5 shows that the study sample performance was high.Here, the total score of early childhood female teachers is 29.09.Table 6 shows that the study sample performance was high.Here, the total score of this approach was 38.96, reflecting high personal accomplishment.
To answer the second question: "Does the levels of psychological burnouts for kindergarten school females differ according to school type?" two Sample t.Test used as listed in Table 7. Table 7 shows that there are statistical differences in burnout levels between female teachers in private and public early childhood schools.However, the results were in favor of private kindergarten school where T = 3.23.
Regarding the third question: "Does the levels of psychological burnouts for kindergarten school females differ according to academic specialization?"two Sample t.Test used as listed in Table 8.Table 8 proves that there are no statistical differences in burnout levels according to academic specialization, where T= 0.23.
In order to answer the fourth question: "Does the levels of psychological burnouts for kindergarten school females differ according to social status?" two Sample t.Test was also used as listed in Table 9.Table 9 indicates statistically different values that were in favor of married female teachers, in which T= 3.40.
In the fifth question; "Does the levels of psychological burnouts for kindergarten school female differ according to teacher's age?", One-Way ANOVA test was used as shown in Table 10.Table 10 shows that there are no statistical differences for this question, where F= 2.08.
To answer the final question: "What are the main reasons for female teachers' psychological burnouts according to the teachers own perspective?"Semi-Structured Interview method was used.Furthermore, (8) private schools female teachers were interviewed.The main questions addressed.Then, the researchers calculated sub-questions accordingly as described below.

Choosing the Location and Participants of the Study
Five schools were chosen by researchers.Therefore, this made it easier for them to conduct the interviews and perform data collection.These schools visited, during which, principals and early childhood female teachers interviewed.The school facilities were also visited and teaching techniques evaluated.In addition, the researchers explained the reasons behind these visits and took the approval for cooperation to conduct this study.8 female teachers were chosen in cooperation between the researchers and the principals by considering their own willingness to participate and to withdraw whenever they want.

Data Collection
The researchers used Semi-Structured Interviews method to collect data.This method is one of the methods used to collect qualitative data in many researches.The advantages of this method include understanding the participants' perception about the study; monitoring the emotional side for the participants; and it helps in the collection of a large number of data within a short period.The researchers prepared interview questions after reviewing educational literature concerned with conducting interviews and their types while considering the objectives of these interviews and questions.Questions were written as 15 preliminary ones.Then, these questions were presented to 3 experts in the fields of measurement and evaluation to insure reliability and assess their relation to the objectives of the research and the interviews.Some questions deleted.In addition, some edited and organized according to the research objectives.During the study period, some questions were corrected to come out with 8 questions.However, this begins from the main question that states: "From your own perspective, what are the main reasons leading to psychological burnout for early childhood female teachers?"

Interviews Procedure
The interviews conducted as follows: -The researchers conducting the interview made use of a questionnaires and recording sets.Then, they sat opposite the interviewed teacher.
-The researchers introduced themselves, explained that they will take some of the teacher's time to obtain accurate and subjective data, and asked them of their willingness to participate in another interview.
-The researchers pointed out that the interviews' data are a major source of information and that they will be included in the data sources.The researchers also informed the participants that they will use a recorder to record the session and obtained their approval.The researcher also clarified that they want the participants' opinion and what they think about psychological burnout.They also made the participants to understand that they are not testing them.In addition, they provided participants with the proof that these data will be classified.
The researchers then started the interview while giving the participants enough time to answer without any interruptions.They interfered in times to clarify the vague information.
-The researchers corrected the questions according to the information given by the participants.The researcher did not literally follow the pre-prepared questions.As a result, some questions overlooked, while others focused on.
-Interviews recorded as two sessions for each female teacher over a period of 2 weeks.Then, the information copied and analyzed as shown in the figure below: Figure 1.Psychological burnout resources according to teachers' perspectives Figure 1 shows that the main resources of burnout are concentrated around work pressure related problems.Consequently, they were classified into 3 main groups, namely: monthly income, relation to management, and relation with parents.Thus, this is a clear indicator that there are resources of burnout that these teachers are trying to overcome to perform better.

Discussion
The results of this study showed that burnout levels among female teachers are high, especially for depersonalization and personal achievement approaches.This highly proves that female teachers are continuously suffering from problems that may lead to burnouts.The researcher believes that teachers' incapability to perform well, especially in private schools, might be the most important reason leading to burnouts.This can be deduced from the fact that they have long working hours, more students in each class, and they are fulfilling the needs and desires of the school management and parents.However, this is in addition to the requirements of this job that may require working late and the fact that teachers will still think about school problems even in their homes.The researcher also believes that high unemployment rates may force these teachers to handle the stresses in order to be able to live in an acceptable way.The management thoughtlessness regarding the type of teacher or the teacher's efforts also poses more pressures, which may eventually lead to burnouts.The results of the study also proved that there are statistical differences in burnout levels according to school type.Here, teachers in private sector are under more pressure than those in public sector.Therefore, this increases the probability of the teachers to face burnouts.The researchers also believe that the ministry of Education bad monitoring over private sector, the lack of having an authority in private schools to monitor the educational process, and the obvious dominancy of the owners of these schools over teachers are the main reasons leading to burnouts.The results also indicated that burnout levels among married female teachers were higher than single teachers.This is because of the need to conduct more duties at home by the married female teachers.The researcher also points out that married female teachers must suffer high levels of burnout due to their commitment to their families, various social events, performing some duties at home, and short time that poses more stresses.As a result, teachers will not be able to go through a regular day.
The results also showed that there are statistical differences for the academic specialization and age approaches.
The researcher believes that this result is reasonable, as work especially in private sectors are required to accomplish certain duties regardless of their academic specialization and age.Additionally, the researcher also proposes that this result is reasonable as the work depends mainly on fulfilling the duties without considering age or specialization, especially in private sector where profit is the main concern.
The study also identified that female teachers' burnout has many causes.One of the most important causes is financial stresses.The researchers noted that the monthly income is less than 200 JD for many female teachers.Hence, this salary cannot even meet their less demanding needs in the Jordanian community.In addition, female teachers are under the influence of a psychological conflict regarding quitting their job and the financial stresses they are facing.Thus, this leads to an increase in burnout levels for private sector female teachers.Furthermore, the bad relationship between teachers and management is also another reason for burnouts.The huge work duties, the high number of classes per day, and the high number of students in classrooms have a negative effect on the teacher's performance, especially in private sector.The researchers again believe that pressure practiced by the management in the private sector is a direct reason for burnouts.Stresses generated from the need to fulfill parents' expectations without considering the situations of the teacher can also lead to more psychological stresses, which in turn increases burnouts potentiality.

Recommendations
1) More qualitative studies aiming to identify and assess extra reasons that can trigger burnouts.
2) The researchers recommend working on enhancing the teachers income and connecting achievements with financial rewards.
3) Increase the number of female teachers in private sector to rationalize the ability to fulfill the job requirements.
4) Provide psychological and social experts at schools in order to help teachers overcome work problems that may lead to burnouts.

Summary and Conclusion
In conclusion, Female teacher's burnout is a destructive force in today's educational establishment, and its effects should not be trivialized.Characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and decreased teacher efficacy; burnout threatens educational quality by leading to early attrition and loss of productivity.The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the psychological burnout levels for early childhood level female teachers at public and private schools.It also tried to prove whether these burnout levels differs according to the type of school, academic specialization, social status, and age at the Female teacher's in Jordan.Therefore, this involves a variety of activities.We reviewed the relevant literature; asked working professionals and consulted experts; and we statistically tested the scale.In addition, we interviewed 8 female teachers to know the main reasons of female teachers' psychological burnouts according to the teacher's own perspective.
Subsequently, content and construction validity evidenced in the MBI scale.Correlation coefficients used to evaluate the stability of the scale.Piloting the scales suggests that it is easy to administer instruments and it is understandable.Therefore, they are expected to have high response rate.

Table 1 .
Table 1 lists the study sample and its categories.Sample of the study according to type of kindergarten school, specialization, social status and teachers age variables

Table 2 .
Item correlation coefficients with total dimension score

Table 3 .
Cronbach's Alpha based on standardized items for scale dimensions

Table 4 .
Means and standard deviation for burnout dimension

Table 5 .
Means and standard deviation for depersonalization dimension

Table 6 .
Means and standard deviation for personal achievement dimension

Table 7 .
Deferent of burnout according to type of kindergarten school

Table 8 .
Deferent of burnout according to specialization

Table 9 .
Deferent of burnout according to social status

Table 10 .
Deferent of burnout according to teachers' age