Dear Collegiate Member,

I hope your November is full of music, fun, and delicious food!

This month’s feature article offers insight on how to combat “burnout” by understanding the psychological and physical symptoms as a beginning music educator.

Enjoy reading, “Collaboration and Preparation Are Key!” on how to enhance your college training by attending the Conn-Selmer Institute at Notre Dame. 

Also, learn how to connect with other collegiate members around the world by joining MENC's new Collegiate facebook group, "MENC Collegiate Headquarters."

As always, if you have comments, questions, or would like to share your chapter’s activities or recruitment strategies with us for publication in a future issue, e-mail shaunal@menc.org.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shauna Leavitt, Student Programs Manager

Burnout and the Beginning Music Educator

Gene Bechen, Ph.D.
Department Chair, Associate Professor of Music, Director of Bands
St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa

It was a sunny day in April 1986, and I had just signed my first contract as a 5-12 band director in a small town in southwest Iowa. “I’m a band director!” I said to myself as I drove out of town that day. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get started. I now had my very own high school marching band, concert band, jazz band, junior high band, and 5th-grade band, along with a private lesson program that would allow me to help my students grow into successful musicians. There would be so much teaching to do! The program was well established, competitive in nature, and yet there were a lot of ways I could see myself improving the program. I had so many ideas to implement with my new program and students. Making my mentors proud was also very important, and I was determined to show them that I would be a success.

Being single, dedicated, enthusiastic, energetic, hard-working, and in a small town with little to do, I often found myself working 12-14 hour days, seven days a week, making the program the best that it could be. I enhanced existing programs, implemented new programs, and constantly strove to give my students the best educational experiences possible. I was totally immersed in the job and loving every minute of it!

Months grew into years, but by my third year, I began to realize that there were more responsibilities involved in the position than I had originally realized. What was once a fun and exciting job was now full of tasks and activities that were causing me a great deal of stress. My attitude toward the position was changing, and after a few years of dealing with the pressure of running a competitive program, I began to realize that I was in over my head. There was already plenty to do in the position before I took the job, and now I had added a lot to it. What will I do? How will I keep up this pace? How will I continue to have this year be better than the previous year? How will I keep all of these plates spinning? I became reactive, and my temper became more volatile in rehearsals. One day in marching band rehearsal, I lost my temper, threw my bullhorn and clipboard, and began yelling at my students, feeling the pressure of keeping a long streak of first-place finishes in tact. “Straighten that line, dammit!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. My principal called me into his office the next day after some phone calls from parents about the incident. While the school and community liked me and the success I brought to the program, they were frustrated with my new “approach” to rehearsals. From that day on I realized that I was not being myself, and I had to change. I had to learn more about why I was feeling so much pressure in my job. An opportunity arose for me to go to grad school to work on my Master’s Degree. I took the opportunity and began to take a look at how music educators are affected by stress.

I learned that burnout is the result of long-term stress and that certain personality types are more prone to burnout. I also learned that music educators, who are often the most productive, dedicated, and committed to their fields, are frequently most affected by burnout. As a beginning music educator, you can help yourself a great deal by becoming more aware of the symptoms of burnout and how to prevent it in the early stages of your career.

What is Burnout?

Christina Maslach (1996), a leading psychologist in the area of educator burnout defines burnout as: “A phenomenon related to job stress where individuals spend considerable time in close encounters with others under conditions of chronic tension and stress” (p. 4). Many music educators are profoundly affected by burnout without really knowing what it is or how they might combat it. When people use the term “burnout,” they describe themselves as being consumed, empty, alienated, wasted, letdown, and even used up.

Burnout and Personality Type

Rosenman and Friedman (1983) believe that burnout is more likely associated with individuals who display personality traits known as Type A behaviors. Type A behavior is characterized by 23 traits and includes behaviors such as aggressiveness, hostility, ambitiousness, competitiveness, tenseness, impatience, inability to relax away from work, suppressed hostility, orientation toward achievement, and denial of failure. This is in contrast to individuals with Type B personalities, in which easy-going personality traits predominate. Type A individuals often feel pressured, are engaged in multiple activities, are overly conscious of time, are influenced by criticisms, and are in need of constant social approval.

Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Burnout

Hamann, Daugherty, and Mills (1987) investigated burnout symptoms in public school music educators, focusing on the physical and psychological symptoms of burnout. The more serious physical symptoms of burnout include peptic ulcers, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, rise in cholesterol level, chronic back pain, and migraine headaches. Less serious physical symptoms of burnout are minor weight loss or gain, inability to get rid of colds, and fatigue. Psychological symptoms of burnout include detachment, boredom, cynicism, a sense of impotence, paranoia, disorientation, psychosomatic complaints, depression, denial of feelings, frustration, irritability, impatience, and worry (p. 129).

Burnout and the Music Educator

A summary of studies by Hamann, Daugherty, and Mills (1987) drew the following conclusions concerning burnout among music educators:

• Public school music educators have higher burnout levels than public school general classroom teachers.
• Younger music teachers have higher burnout levels than older music teachers.
• Music teachers with few years of experience have higher levels of burnout than do teachers with high total years of teaching experience.
• Music teachers who work 40–50 hours or more per week have significantly higher burnout levels than teachers who work 39 or fewer hours per week.
• Single or divorced teachers have higher levels of burnout than married teachers. (p. 130-131)

Additionally, several factors were found to significantly contribute to music teacher burnout levels:

• Lack of recognition by administration, other teachers, peers, parents, and students.
• Unclear goals from general administration, music administration, and fellow music teachers.
• Lack of coordination between levels in the curriculum.
• Lack of goals in personal planning.
• Lack of cooperation among music teachers in the district and building.
• Too much work and not enough salary, time to do it, equipment, room, or budget. (p. 131)

Conclusion

If you’re a beginning music educator, reading this article is just the beginning of your journey toward understanding stress and burnout. It is important for you to continue to learn about how stress affects your life. Your stress level is determined by your beliefs about events and how you react to them. Your resistance to stress is increased by your openness to change those reactions, your willingness to commit to change, and developing an appreciation that you can control your life.

Although a career in music education can be stressful, it also can be a most rewarding professional life. By becoming aware of stressors and stress managing strategies, you can prevent burnout. Constant self-monitoring and a healthy lifestyle will help the music educator to have a long and successful career.

References

Hamann, D., Daugherty, E., & Mills, C. (1987). An investigation of burnout assessment and potential job related variables among public school educators. Psychology of Music, 15 (2), 128-140.

Maslach, C., Jackson, S., & Leiter, M. (1996). Maslach burnout inventory manual (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, California: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.

Rosenman, R. H., & Friedman, M. (1983). Relationship of Type A behavior pattern to coronary heart disease. In Seyle's guide to stress research, vol. 2, H. Seyle (ed.). New York: Scientific and Academic Editions.