Secondary World Language Teachers: Empowerment, Job Satisfaction, Burnout, and Intent to Quit

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of teacher empowerment and teacher job satisfaction in burnout and intent to quit in high school world language teachers in the United States. The researcher employed a variety of quantitative analysis methods (i.e., descriptive analysis, simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, moderation analysis, mediation analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance) to investigate the overall reported levels of each construct, the relationships between them, and differences in their levels based on personal, teacher, and school characteristics of participants. Findings suggest that teacher attrition and teacher burnout are continuing issues for high school world language teachers, and that teacher empowerment and teacher job satisfaction do affect both constructs. Differences in these four constructs also surfaced based on demographic factors (i.e., personal characteristics, teacher characteristics, and school characteristics. Recommendations for future practice and research are included to help alleviate attrition and burnout in this population.