Burning Out or Burning Up?

Public school educators spend a significant amount
of time in the life of a child, and in some cases,
their daily contact may even exceed that of the
primary caregiver. As families continue to be
besieged by financial challenges, mental and
physical health issues, and intrapersonal and
interpersonal difficulties, their distress and
dysfunction will continue to spill over into the
school system. Educators will be challenged to
maintain a healthy degree of engagement with
students, students families, and colleagues. This
study was undertaken to explore the concept of a
continuum of career engagement in the field of
education. Assessed levels of career satisfaction,
burnout, and compassion fatigue served as respective
indicators of healthy career engagement,
disengagement, and overengagement. Although educator
burnout has been studied quite extensively, research
examining primary and secondary trauma in the lives
of school personnel has been conspicuously absent.
This study sought to determine whether today s
educators are burning out or burning up, with the
latter resulting from ''flying too close to the
flame''.

Autorentext
Beth C. Robinson, PhD, pursued studies in Education, Educational Psychology and Measurement, Counseling, Negotiation and Conflict Management, and Counseling Psychology. She currently works with a psychology team in the public school system in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Klappentext
Public school educators spend a significant amount of time in the life of a child, and in some cases, their daily contact may even exceed that of the primary caregiver. As families continue to be besieged by financial challenges, mental and physical health issues, and intrapersonal and interpersonal difficulties, their distress and dysfunction will continue to spill over into the school system. Educators will be challenged to maintain a healthy degree of engagement with students, students' families, and colleagues. This study was undertaken to explore the concept of a continuum of career engagement in the field of education. Assessed levels of career satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue served as respective indicators of healthy career engagement, disengagement, and overengagement. Although educator burnout has been studied quite extensively, research examining primary and secondary trauma in the lives of school personnel has been conspicuously absent. This study sought to determine whether today's educators are burning out or burning up, with the latter resulting from 'flying too close to the flame'.