Situational Factors of Job Burnout in Polytechnic EGP Teachers: A Diary-Based Case Study in the Chinese Context

Job burnout is a synthetic syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. It has a time-linked and situation-specific nature by developing gradually and fluctuating with changes of environmental contributors. In this study, four related diary entries were analyzed narratively, written by a polytechnic teacher teaching English for General Purposes (EGP) in a semester, to verify the possible work-related situational factors causing job burnout of EGP teachers in the Chinese context. The results revealed ten environmental burnout elements, including overload, severity of students’ problem, lacking supervisors’ support, limited job autonomy, a stern hierarchical organizational system, and opaque operating rules. We interpreted the results in terms of teacher professional development and proposed that enhancing EGP teachers’ professional identity and revaluing the EGP course in polytechnics were the basic ways to mitigate burnout and improve English teachers’ professional development.