Overcoming Teacher Burnout: Can Mindfulness and Other Relaxation Strategies Reduce Stress that Leads to Teacher Burnout?

For years, researchers have been vocal about teacher burnout; however, to date, no legislation is in place to reduce or curtail burnout of the people responsible for shaping this world's future. While we would agree that we sometimes need good stress or "eustress" to push us to our maximum potential, it is a concern that bad stress or "distress" is prevalent and can result in teacher burnout. With this concern in mind, it is imperative that we look at strategies that would curtail or reduce burnout among our nation's educators. The research question that guided this qualitative phenomenological research was "Can mindfulness or other relaxation strategies reduce stress that leads to teacher burnout?" The researcher enlisted 16 K-12 teachers who are currently teaching or have previously taught in the United States to understand their experiences using mindfulness and other relaxation strategies to reduce stress and help them cope with their daily professional routines. Each participant had 1 to 15+ years of teaching experience and used a form of mindfulness or other relaxation strategies. The researcher interviewed participants through Zoom using an unstructured interview with open-ended questions, an interview protocol, and instructions to follow standard procedures. The researcher used a random sample of participants to validate the findings and utilized a deductive approach. The data analysis revealed a list of expected themes based on the research question. To delve deeply into the data analysis and extrapolate as much information as possible, the researcher utilized line-by-line coding and combined Braun and Clarke's (2020) Phases of Reflexive Thematic Analysis and Creswell's (2009) Six Steps to Data Analysis in Qualitative Research. The findings indicated that K-12 teachers benefited from mindfulness and other relaxation strategies throughout the academic year which prevented stress and reduced burnout. However, it was evident in the results that school-building leaders need to emphasize the importance of providing mindfulness and other relaxation strategies to teachers. Nonetheless, the results also indicated that using mindfulness and other relaxation strategies reduced stress levels among educators. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]