Diversity-related burnout among teachers

Diversity-related burnout is put forward as a concept that can add to our understanding of the negative impact of the daily coping with culturally diverse students on teachers. A Principal Component Analysis, based on the responses of 280 teachers working at 30 Israeli schools, showed that diversity-related burnout is empirically distinguishable from, albeit correlated with, the more traditional notion of teacher burnout. Results also revealed that diversity-related burnout is predicted by variables related to the teacher's background (grade level and job role), to the degree,of school cultural heterogeneity, and to aspects of the school organizational culture related to multiculturalism as perceived by the teacher. The highest levels of diversity-related burnout were found among teachers categorized as assimilationists and who work in schools perceived by them also to be assimilationist. Proactive and reactive approaches for preventing and reducing diversity-related burnout are suggested. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.