Recruiting Participants from Kappa Delta Pi

Author: Emerson Talbot | Major: Childhood Education | Semester: Fall 2022

My name is Emerson Talbot, and I am a senior in the Childhood Education M.A.T. Program in the College of Education and Health Professions. This semester, I worked with Dr. Kaitlin Gallagher, an associate professor in the Education department as well as the Health, Human Performance, and Recreation department. With the help of my mentor, I created a survey through the Qualtrics survey platform that I used to collect data this Fall from COEHP students in education programs about burnout. Next semester, I plan to interview select participants to gain more insight on their experiences of feeling the symptoms of burnout in their intern or observation placement and then analyze my data to complete my Honors Thesis project.

Burnout is a term that is commonly understood in college and in the workplace, and teacher burnout is a type of burnout that is becoming more and more prevalent following the pandemic. It is a process that includes the elements of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. While many students are familiar with these feelings of burnout, true burnout takes time to develop. So why are so many first and second year teachers already becoming burnt out? As a senior starting my internship (student teaching) year in August 2023, this data worries me. For my project, I plan to look at education students at the University of Arkansas, find how they perceive teacher burnout, and see if they have experiences feeling symptoms of burnout. By researching this topic at just the University of Arkansas, I hope to publish research regarding the early indications of teacher burnout that could help researchers around the world address this growing issue.

I became interested in the topic of burnout when Dr. Gallagher, my mentor, reached out to COEHP students looking for assistance with an existing teacher burnout study being done at the UofA. I decided this was a great way to gain research experience and get a head start on my Honor’s Thesis project. During this time, I helped read through interviews from Arkansas teachers about how they felt in their profession following the pandemic. While reading, I coded statements from the teachers based on the three elements of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment).

During this time, I learned a lot about burnout, specifically how teachers experience it. It was heartbreaking reading the responses teachers gave during the interviews regarding how their feelings about education had changed from mostly positive to now mostly negative. I always knew that burnout affected a lot of people in the workplace but reading about it from teachers experiencing it firsthand made me want to learn more. Teacher burnout is a condition that affects both the health of the teacher and the success of their students. As a future teacher, these are things I care about greatly thus resulting in choosing this topic for my Honor’s Thesis.

This semester, I focused on data collection in the form of a survey. Dr. Gallagher and I worked together during the first part of the Fall semester to create my survey on the Qualtrics survey platform. During this time, I learned a lot about this platform as well as the science behind surveys. I did not know that the order you put the questions in or the way you structured the survey looks-wise were as important as I learned they were.

A small challenge I faced this semester with my survey was related to the characteristics of the participants I chose to survey. Initially, my plan was to only survey students that were in their internship this semester. However, after we created the survey geared toward only this small group of students, I decided I also wanted to include participants that were observing in schools as well. By expanding the group of participants, I was able to collect more data and now have the option to analyze different aspects of my study if I choose to do so.

Overall, this really has been a super survey semester! With the help of my mentor, Dr. Kaitlin Gallagher, my education professors, and Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honors Society in Education at the UofA, I was able to successfully share my survey, recruit participants, and prepare for my final semester.