Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 5, No. 1, 2022 90 Influencing Factors and Intervention Strategies of Teachers' Job Burnout in Rural Primary and Secondary Schools Xiaoping Xi1, Hongxiu Tan2, * 1Shixing Grace Middle School, Shaoguan, Guangdong, China 2Teacher Education College, Shaoguan University, Shaoguan, Guangdong, China *Corresponding Author, lshow@163.com Abstract: In recent years, the job burnout rate of teachers in China has been on the rise. After reviewing the literature and combining the actual situation of rural primary and secondary school teachers in Shaoguan, it is found that the main factors affecting the job burnout of primary and secondary school teachers are: the pressure brought by the new curriculum reform, teachers' mental health, social expectations and the evaluation mechanism. To effectively alleviate the problem of job burnout of rural teachers, it is necessary to propose targeted solutions. In this regard, schools should pay attention to teachers' needs, provide teachers with social support, improve school management, and carry out mental health education for teachers. Teachers should also learn to self-regulate and maintain their mental health. Keywords: Rural primary and secondary schools, Teachers, Job burnout, Influencing factors, Intervention strategies. 1. Introduction The term job burnout was first proposed by American psychiatrist Freudenberger (1974) in the 1970s to describe the negative emotions experienced by individuals at work, such as emotional exhaustion, physical and mental fatigue, decreased work engagement, and decreased sense of work achievement. Status[1]. Maslach and Jackson (1981, 1986) first used a three-dimensional model to define job burnout: in the occupational field where people serve as the object, the individual's response to long-term exposure to emotional and interpersonal tension sources is mainly manifested as emotional exhaustion, Symptoms such as dehumanization and loss of personal fulfillment are a psychological syndrome [2]. Teacher burnout is an extreme reaction of teachers' inability to cope with work pressure smoothly, and is a state of exhaustion of teachers' emotions, attitudes and behaviors under long-term stress experience. Typical symptoms are low job satisfaction, loss of work enthusiasm and interest, and Emotional alienation and apathy [3]. As a special occupation, teachers are a group of people with a high incidence of job burnout. In the state of long-term exhaustion, they will have low job satisfaction, loss of work enthusiasm, emotional alienation and indifference, which affect their physical and mental health, education and teaching quality and The healthy growth of students will also have certain negative effects. Studies have shown that primary and secondary school teachers in my country are under greater psychological pressure, and they have shown obvious symptoms of job burnout, which have had a negative impact on teaching, students and even schools [4-8]. Due to the unbalanced economic and regional development in Chinese urban and rural areas, the social status and economic benefits of rural teachers are relatively low, and the working environment and interpersonal atmosphere are relatively poor, resulting in unstable teachers' professional beliefs and hindering the development of teachers' individual development and educational career. In recent years, due to the country's great investment in rural education, the teaching environment of rural primary and secondary schools has been greatly improved, and the salary of rural teachers has also been improved to a certain extent. However, teacher burnout is still a major problem that plagues the construction of rural teachers. . Shaoguan is located in the mountainous area of northern Guangdong, and its economy is relatively backward. Research on job burnout of rural primary and secondary school teachers is of great significance for effectively improving rural primary and secondary school teachers' work enthusiasm and improving rural primary and secondary school teachers' professional well-being. 2. Influencing Factors of Job Burnout of Primary and Secondary School Teachers Foreign studies have explored the causes of teacher burnout from the perspective of situational and individual factors [2], and some studies have explored the causes of job burnout from social, organizational and personal roots [9]. There are also domestic studies to explore the causes of job burnout from the perspectives of social expectations, work pressure, the particularity of educational objects, and unhealthy individual factors [10]. Combined with the actual situation of rural primary and secondary education in Shaoguan City, the influencing factors of current rural primary and secondary teachers' job burnout can be analyzed from the following aspects. 2.1. Many Pressures Brought About by The Reform of Education and Teaching Many pressures brought about by education and teaching reform In the context of the information age, all teachers are facing new challenges. With the deepening of education reform, teachers have greater work pressure than in the past. With the deepening of my country's education reform, the 91 work pressure of teachers is increasing, and work pressure is everywhere. Heavy non-teaching work has brought greater work pressure. With the deepening of education reform, social expectations continue to increase, and teachers' workload continues to increase, which to a large extent affects teachers' physical and mental health, school development, and education and teaching quality. 1. Role conflict and role ambiguity The new concepts in the curriculum reform of basic education have brought great challenges to teachers' ideology and teaching practice. It is expected that teachers can become facilitators of students' learning, developers of courses, and researchers, forcing teachers to take the traditional role of teachers. To re-understand [11]. In addition, teachers play a variety of social roles: practitioners of social morality, builders of human civilization, parents, children, imparters of knowledge, managers of classroom discipline, leaders of class collectives, coordinators of interpersonal relationships and students Defenders of mental health, etc. However, teachers often cannot play every role well, and role conflicts inevitably arise. At the same time, teachers will also lack a clear and consistent understanding of their occupations and feel incompetent for their jobs, resulting in vague roles. However, role conflict and role ambiguity have a moderate or high degree of correlation with job burnout [2]. 2. Knowledge exhaustion Some studies have found that the job burnout of Chinese teachers includes four dimensions: emotional exhaustion, interpersonal alienation, work meaninglessness and knowledge exhaustion. The first three dimensions are consistent with Maslach's three-dimensional model. The sense of exhaustion of teachers' knowledge is named as knowledge exhaustion, which refers to teachers' inability to adapt to the rapid changes in society and the rapid updating of knowledge, difficulty in coping with students' problems, and poor ability to continue learning. Experience a sense of intellectual exhaustion [12]. Due to the development of society, the amount of knowledge of students has greatly increased. At the same time, the new curriculum reform has put forward higher requirements for the quality of teachers - updating educational ideas and concepts, and reforming teaching methods and teaching methods, so that teachers often feel powerless and unable to do well complete teaching tasks. Especially for rural teachers, due to the unbalanced economic development, the channels for receiving new information are not smooth, and there is a lack of opportunities for training at all levels, which makes them even more depleted of knowledge and eventually leads to job burnout. 3. Workload Studies have shown that there is a significant positive correlation between workload and job burnout, and the greater the workload, the higher the degree of teacher burnout [13]. Workload includes both quantity and quality. Overload of work quantity refers to too many requirements and too little time. Overload of work quality is related to the complexity of the work, and it is difficult to complete the work satisfactorily. In a wide range of rural primary and secondary schools, teachers are "work machines" who can walk, talk, and think. Many people have to arrive at school before 7:00 in the morning and can go home after 10:00 in the evening. A survey in Sichuan found that most rural teachers have prominent problems such as "overwork, low income, low quality of continuing education, and dissatisfaction with the status quo", and more than 70% of rural teachers feel overworked. More than 60% of teachers feel that it is difficult to work, and 64.6% of teachers are dissatisfied with their income [14]. 2.2. Teachers' Mental Health Teachers' mental health is directly related to teacher burnout. The software and hardware facilities of vocational learning in rural areas and the limitations of interpersonal communication at work make it impossible for rural teachers to meet their emotional and social needs, respect and understanding needs, and the spiritual world of teachers is empty, which also leads to varying degrees of “job burnout” in rural teachers. ". The National Primary and Secondary School Mental Health Education Research Group surveyed 2,292 teachers from 168 urban and rural primary and secondary schools in 14 cities in Liaoning Province. The results showed that 51.23% of primary and secondary school teachers had psychological problems. Among them, 32.18% of teachers belong to "mild psychological disorder", 16.56% of teachers belong to "moderate psychological disorder", and 2.49% of teachers constitute "mental disorder" [15]. The low level of teachers' mental health will affect their efficiency in coping with the pressure on education and teaching, and ultimately affect the level of teacher burnout. 2.3. Social Expectation and Evaluation Mechanism The society's expectations for teachers are quite high. Teachers should not only inherit knowledge and culture and cultivate all kinds of qualified talents, but also teach by words and deeds, become role models for students, be competent in various roles, and promote students' all-round development. Teachers not only feel exhausted at work, but also feel that their efforts have not received due results and rewards, and feel that their abilities are insufficient, which leads to low self- efficacy and job burnout. While the society has high expectations for teachers, what the society gives is: low social status, poor wages, and high labor intensity. Teachers often do not experience self-esteem and humanistic care in society, and their low social status and salary often make teachers feel that there is a great contrast with their hard work, which leads to a blow to teachers' work enthusiasm and career burnout. At present, the teacher evaluation system lacks due flexibility. There are few middle and senior professional titles and more junior professional titles. Rural primary and secondary school teachers who fail in the professional title evaluation are likely to have a sense of job burnout. The singleness of teachers' job evaluation is the core factor that induces their job burnout. The implementation of quality education still cannot change the whole society's pursuit of the rate of admission to higher education. Students line up according to their grades, which is essentially the order of teachers' seats, and the students who take the test are essentially the teachers. Therefore, preparing for the exam has become the primary goal of teachers' work. In addition, the one-size-fits-all education evaluation mechanism puts pressure on rural primary and secondary school teachers. The current evaluation system is based on students' test scores, and uses a unified standard to measure and evaluate the teaching quality of similar schools at all levels in cities, counties, and villages. Whether in urban or rural areas, regardless of whether the conditions are good or bad, the higher authorities use uniform standards such as average grade, excellent rate, pass rate, and enrollment rate to evaluate 92 the teaching performance of schools and teachers. Compared with urban teachers, teachers in rural areas have to work harder to achieve the same grades, which inevitably puts more pressure on them and makes them feel unfair. 3. Intervention Strategies for Job Burnout of Rural Primary and Secondary School Teachers Studies have shown that situational and organizational factors play a more important role in job burnout than individual factors, and individual interventions (developing effective coping skills or learning deep relaxation methods) may help individuals relieve emotional exhaustion, but It cannot really solve the two difficult problems of dehumanization and loss of personal fulfillment [2]. Therefore, while emphasizing the change of individuals, social and organizational factors should be integrated to intervene comprehensively on the job burnout of rural teachers. 3.1. Pay Attention to Teachers' Needs and Provide Social Support The professional development needs of rural teachers need more attention than the salary and remuneration. They have a large teaching workload and rarely get training opportunities. Teachers' professional development lags behind, and job burnout is obvious. Therefore, paying attention to the professional development needs of rural teachers, it is recommended to encourage them to carry out self- professional improvement, and promote the professional development of local teachers by simplifying management and empowering them to increase training. The deepening of curriculum reform has brought new challenges to teachers. In the face of challenges, many teachers will doubt their ability to work, and their teaching efficacy will be reduced. Therefore, purposefully allowing teachers to participate in advanced studies and conducting targeted training for teachers on a regular basis will help to strengthen teachers' confidence in their own profession and improve teachers' teaching effectiveness. Strengthening the support of the social external system is the fundamental measure to eliminate the job burnout of teachers in rural areas. Recently, the central and provincial finance have strengthened the strength of education transfer payments in poor areas, and the optimization of public opinion has created a relaxed public opinion environment for teachers to develop independently. The government should take measures to improve the social status and economic treatment of teachers, and to respect teachers. Teaching is implemented, changing the single appraisal teacher evaluation model based on student performance, and establishing a multi-level teacher self-participation evaluation system. 3.2. Improve School Management Maslach's research shows that support from work superiors is more important than support from colleagues. The support and emotional support from school leaders have a positive effect on reducing teachers' emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and improving teachers' personal sense of achievement. As a leader, on the one hand, we should respect and care for teachers, and truly establish the concept of "school development, teacher-oriented" from the bottom of our hearts. A thought to guide their management behavior. On the other hand, it is necessary to respect the humanity of teachers, pay attention to their needs, treat teachers in a democratic management way, reduce the heavy workload of teachers, and support their needs for improvement and development. When teachers feel that the school has a set of incentives and punishments for teachers, they can feel freedom and autonomy in their work, and they feel that they can participate in school decision-making. Teacher burnout will be reduced. In school management, let teachers participate in the formulation of school management and development plans, and at the same time reform the top-down evaluation system that lacks teachers' self-involvement, emphasize process evaluation, and give full play to the guiding and encouraging functions of the evaluation system. 3.3. Carry out Mental Health Education Mental health education for rural primary and secondary school teachers can help relieve the psychological pressure of teachers and prevent the occurrence of job burnout. First of all, it is necessary to create a psychological environment that is conducive to teachers' self-development. This environment can enhance teachers' sense of pride and self-esteem, meet the needs of teachers' growth and development, and effectively promote teachers' mental health. Secondly, the mental health education of rural primary and secondary school teachers should organize and plan some psychological tests and investigations for teachers, carry out psychological counseling and psychological counseling, improve teachers' psychological quality, promote teachers' psychological growth, and prevent teachers' job burnout. produce. Finally, in the course of continuing education for teachers, set up relevant compulsory courses so that teachers can master the necessary knowledge and skills to maintain mental health. 3.4. Teachers Themselves Learn to Self- regulate Alleviating the job burnout of teachers requires the improvement of external conditions and the efforts of all sectors of the society, but the most fundamental thing is the teachers themselves. Only by improving the teachers' initiative consciousness and self-regulation ability can they achieve the purpose of curing the root cause. First, it is necessary to correctly understand that teacher burnout is only an individual's response to stress, and it is one of the processes of individual occupational imbalance. It can be regarded as a self-protection mechanism of the body. Occupational "balance". Second, take action to meet the challenge. Only action can help people get rid of psychological distress. To learn to communicate, teachers have busy tasks, and their roles are changeable and complex. They should communicate with family members, colleagues, and leaders in a timely manner, vent rationally, seek understanding, and get out of psychological confusion; they must keep pace with the times and change teaching concepts, Actively carry out teaching reform, accept new knowledge and ideas, and better improve their teaching ability. Third, pay attention to self-adjustment and learn to relax. Teachers' work is regular and heavy. Learning to relax so that the body and spirit can be properly relaxed is important for maintaining a good mood, enhancing stress tolerance, and eliminating burnout. When there is pressure in work and life, 93 you can talk to your family, friends, colleagues and leaders, ask relevant experts for advice, etc. to vent your bad emotions. It can also enhance the ability of self-adjustment through the relaxation of the body, and insisting on physical exercise is a very effective method. 4. Epilogue In conclusion, the job burnout of rural primary and secondary school teachers is related to the pressure brought by the new curriculum reform, teachers' mental health, social expectations and evaluation mechanism. To effectively alleviate the problem of job burnout of rural teachers, it is necessary to propose targeted solutions. In this regard, schools should pay attention to teachers' needs, provide teachers with social support, improve school management, and carry out mental health education for teachers. Teachers should also learn to self-regulate and maintain their mental health. Only by combining multiple parties can the job burnout of rural primary and secondary school teachers be effectively alleviated. Acknowledgment This work was financially supported by Fund Project: Shaoguan College UGS Normal Students Collaborative Training Education Reform Project "Study on Influencing Factors and Interventions of Teachers' Burnout in Rural Middle Schools in Shaoguan City" ( SYUGS201922). References [1] Freudenberger HJ. The staff burnout syndrome in alternative institutions[J]. Psychother: Theory, Research Practice, 1975, 12:72-83. [2] Maslach C, Schaufeli WB, Leiter MP. Job burnout[J]. Annual Review of Psychol, 2001, 52:397-422. [3] Byrne BM. 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