STM Article Repository

Occupational stress of school teachers occupied scholars in the second half of the 20th century, mainly due to its impact on their mental and physical health, aiming at its effective management. It was stressed that since teachers have taken on a humanitarian profession, they experience stressful situations ending up in work exhaustion. The purpose of the research was to examine the perceptions of primary education teachers on what causes the burnout syndrome, as well as the steps taken by the principal to cope it. The objective of the research was to examine the teachers' perceptions concerning both their burnout level and their principal's attitude as well as his/her leadership contribution to school effectiveness. The research was carried out between February 2019 and April 2019 using an anonymous self-completing questionnaire. All teachers working in school units, regardless of their specialty, were selected from the schools belonging to the Regional Unit of Kavala in Greece. A random number was assigned to each unit, which was then recorded in a statistical table. From this particular table, thirty numbers were randomly selected representing thirty different schools, irrespective of their location and organisation. The sample of the research consists of 324 Primary Education teachers. The findings revealed that teachers do not feel professionally or emotionally exhausted due to their profession, but instead they feel creative, believe that their goals are achieved and are willing to carry out their educational work - duty. Furthermore, as far as the feeling of personal achievement and satisfaction that teachers feel is concerned, both the attitude of the principal and his/her contribution to the effectiveness of the educational leadership seem to play an important role.