How Teachers Feel Good: The Role of Teachers’ Mindfulness, Self-efficacy and Implicit Attitudes towards Ethnic Minority Students in Their Feelings of Burnout

Abstract

COME GLI INSEGNANTI SI SENTONO BENE: IL RUOLO DELLA MINDFULNESS, DELL’AUTOEFFICACIA E DEGLI ATTEGGIAMENTI IMPLICITI DEGLI INSEGNANTI VERSO GLI STUDENTI CON BACKGROUND ETNICO MINORITARIO, NELLA LORO SENSAZIONE DI BURNOUT Abstract Burnout is a complex syndrome, and decades of research have established that teaching is a stressful profession. New evidence suggests that teachers’ ethnic prejudice and attitudes might help to explain teachers’ burnout related to ethnic diversity. On the other hand, factors such as self-efficacy and mindfulness are known to play a protective role for burnout, but to date it is not known how they are related to implicit attitudes and prejudice as well. In this study, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism underlying the development of burnout in teachers and pre-service teachers, investigating the role of ethnic prejudice, implicit ethnic attitudes, perceived self-efficacy and mindfulness. Our results show that self-efficacy and mindfulness are negatively correlated with teacher burnout and that mindfulness moderates the relationship between implicit ethnic attitudes and burnout. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords

• implicit attitudes
• mindfulness
• teacher burnout
• teacher self-efficacy
• atteggiamenti impliciti
• autoefficacia