Date of Award
Spring 5-20-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MAE - Master of Arts in Expressive Therapies
Department
Expressive Therapies
Advisor
Laura Wood
Abstract
The public school system in the United States is experiencing an increasing crisis in teacher retention and effectiveness due, in part, to the effects of burnout on teaching staff. Teachers often face significant stressors such as tense parent-teacher relationships, state and federal mandates on testing, low financial compensation and limited benefits, and negative sociocultural stereotypes about their roles and responsibilities as educators (Westervelt, 2016; von der Embse et al., 2019). These stressors, if not managed effectively on an individual and systemic level, can lead to burnout (Maslach, 2001). This condition involves symptoms such as emotional and physical exhaustion, disinvestment from responsibilities, and a sense of inadequacy or ineffectiveness in one’s performance. This literature review examines current research into how burnout develops as well as how it may be addressed with individual teachers and through the public school systems in which they work, with interventions such as psychoeducation, mindfulness, and narrative therapy. Then, it considers literature relating to drama therapy and its use in school settings and suggests that narradrama, may be another approach to treating burnout in teachers.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Carroll, Heather, "Re-Storying Teaching: Using Narradrama to Address Burnout in Public School Teachers" (2023). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 522.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/522
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
