Teacher Burnout and Supporting Teachers of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

This article will provide a brief reflection on Garwood’s summary of research on special education teacher burnout and fidelity of implementation in delivery of evidence-based behavioral interventions. Subsequently, we provide a conceptual and empirical summary of key issues for supporting teachers of and students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) through the lens of BEST in CLASS (a Tier 2 intervention supporting teacher’s use of evidence-based practices with students with or at-risk for EBD). This summary will (a) outline the theoretical structure that supports how BEST in CLASS may improve teacher–student relationships and reduce teacher burnout, (b) demonstrate the influence of BEST in CLASS on teacher burnout in a sample of elementary school teachers and discuss findings, (c) propose that researchers consider burnout within the context of dynamic classroom systems, and (d) link these suggestions to theoretical frameworks. We conclude with a discussion of Garwood’s call to action and implications for future research.

The Relation Between Classroom Adversity and Students’ Problem Behavior as a Function of Teachers’ Emotional Support

“…Furthermore, teachers may require connections to resources beyond program specific efforts. To illustrate, teachers may connect to mental health resources through conversations with their coach or seek support for implementing practices outside of the targeted program (Granger et al, 2023). Finally, school administrators can play an important, protective role in the organization of classrooms to help support the learning environment by ensuring particularly challenging, potentially external factors, are evenly distributed.…”

“…Granger et al (2021) reported that high levels of classroom adversity increased the likelihood of negative teacher-student interactions with elementary students with and at risk of EBD. Finally, Granger et al (2023) reported a positive relation between teachers' efficacy in instructional strategies and classroom organization quality at low levels of classroom adversity. However, there was a negative relation between teachers' efficacy in instructional strategies and classroom organization quality at high and average levels of classroom adversity.…”

“…A growing body of work has recently signaled that classroom adversity, a collective classroom characteristic, contributes to student outcomes, teaching processes, and teacher well-being (Abry et al, 2017(Abry et al, , 2018Granger et al, 2021Granger et al, , 2023McLean, Abry, et al, 2020). Classroom adversity is a measure of risk exposure and hardship (i.e., ecological risk) in classrooms that impacts the academic and socio-emotional outcomes of individual students.…”