Burnout and Extension Educators: Where We Are and Implications for Future Research

Abstract

Burnout is identified as an individual work-related outcome that plagues educators within Cooperative Extension. Extension educators are particularly susceptible to burnout due to the unique set of demands and stressors they face, including geographic isolation, long work hours, prolonged driving times, and emotionally demanding interactions with clients, peers, local government, and administration. This review examines the literature relevant to Extension and burnout, discusses predictors and outcomes of burnout, and examines theories that have been used to investigate burnout. While studies have shed light on burnout within Extension from discipline and individual state perspectives, this review identifies the need for an updated examination of burnout with a regional or national scope. Additionally, job demands-resources theory is identified as a lens to better understand and explain burnout among Extension educators. As a prevalent issue that requires deeper understanding, the job demands-resources theory comprises principles from work motivation, job design, and job stress literatures and has been used to understand, explain, and make predictions about job burnout. At a time when issues related to Extension are front and center in academe and mainstream media, understanding burnout can help support the continued success of Extension. Other implications are also discussed.

Lessons from the field. A day in the life of a full‐time parenting educator

“…Consistent with the job posting, parenting educators in this study were involved in several activities in addition to their teaching duties, with substantial time spent traveling, recruiting, and tending to administrative duties. The multifaceted nature of related community education positions has long been a concern of supervisors and administrators, especially in terms of work overload, potential employee burnout and turnover, and work‐life balance (Russell et al, 2019; Russell et al, 2018). A potential threat stemming from work overload could be that the strain from attempting to balance multiple activities could prevent parenting educators from reaching more participants or delivering high‐quality programs.…”

“…The current study attempted to provide a reference point by tracking the day‐to‐day activities of full‐time parenting educators hired by a university to implement a curricula‐based, fatherhood education program. A long‐standing concern in the outreach literature has centered on the ability of educators to manage multiple duties, while still being able to deliver quality programming (Bradley et al, 2012; Peters et al, 2008; Russell et al, 2019; Russell et al, 2018). Individuals seeking careers as parenting educators, with or without formal family life education training, may assume they will spend the majority of time teaching program content.…”

Influence Model of Job Demand and Job Resources Through Work Engagment on Organizational Commitment of Nurses in Hospital

“…As revealed by Schaufeli and Bakker, (2004) that work engagement plays an important role in the motivating process which is supported by the availability of job resources. Job demand and job resources play an important role in job engagement (Russell et al, 2020). Meanwhile Bakker, (2009) states that job resources are better at predicting work engagement than job demands.…”