“It Felt Like I Had Air Back in My Lungs”: Eleanor’s Journey Back From Burnout

Abstract

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to explore the story of a secondary ensemble teacher who experienced burnout and chose to remain in the profession. Eleanor and I met for three semistructured interviews and two observations. I used Clandinin and Connelly’s three-dimensional inquiry space as a framework for this study. Narrative analysis revealed that Eleanor experienced symptoms of burnout during a first teaching position that was a poor fit for her. Her passion and enthusiasm for teaching were reignited during a period of long-term music substitute teaching in a successful program surrounded by a supportive community. The importance of recognizing burnout, finding support systems, and identifying hegemonic assumptions about teaching emerged as critical points in Eleanor’s narrative. This arc became visible through narratively coding the field texts, and thoroughly reviewing data obtained from interviews and observations.