A Narrative Inquiry On Burnout Of Two Female English Teachers In Rural Area

The importance of English education has been rising together with the increase of culture input and output these years.However,a well-acknowledged fact is that there is indeed a huge gap between English education in Chinese rural areas and that in urban areas.A lot of studies attribute the reasons to gap between rural and urban English teachers,and there has been abundant studies on such gaps.However,despite the abundance of researches on rural English teachers,most of them are quantitative researches providing a holistic view on their living conditions and mental state,while qualitative researches,especially,narrative inquiries,are few.What’s more,although females are dominant in the rural English teacher group,researches on rural English teachers rarely focus specifically on female teachers.Therefore,the current study takes 2 female English teachers in a rural secondary school as participants to study on their burnout.The reason for this dimension is out of researcher’s previous experience accepting English education in the school and the impression formed on female English teachers there.The research puzzles are:(1)Are Fen and Ping suffering from burnout?If yes,what is the level of their burnout?(2)As female English teachers in a rural school,what are the characteristics of burnout of Fen and Ping?(3)What are the reasons for their burnout?Data were collected mainly by conversational interview and field observation.Through unpacking of data(stories),the result shows that both Fen and Ping are going through burnout,and the characteristics of their burnout include:First,mild in depersonalization;second,strong in emotional exhaustion,and third,strong in sense of low personal achievement.Their burnout is formed together by the following 5 aspects:First,the inconsistence between job choice and job intention;second,unsatisfactory students’ behavior and academic performance;third,peer pressure;fourth,excessive tendency on attribution,and fifth,the stereotype of "rural woman" forced on them.Implications from the current research include:First,the society,school,and family should work together on getting rid of the stereotype of "rural woman" forced on female English teachers in rural schools.They should be respected as independent women;second,training system for rural English teachers,especially novice English teachers,should be more systematic and effective;third,the competition system for professional title ranking should be more scientific.For example,quota assigned for rural English teachers should be increased,and the proportion of academic performance taken in title competition should be lowered;fourth,there should be enough importance attached to primary school English education to avoid extra burden on middle school teachers.