Professional burnout syndrome in physical education teachers: a study in Porto Alegre's municipal school system

Abstract

The purpose of this manuscript is to comprehend the process of "abandonment" of the teaching career by physical education teachers of Porto Alegre.s Municipal School System (PAMSS). The bibliographic review allowed that the expression of that phenomenon was unified as .Professional Burnout Syndrome. (PBS). The central research problem is translated into the following question: How do physical education teachers of Porto Alegre.s Municipal School System (PAMSS) "abandon" their teaching job, and which are the most significant elements in this process? The present research has a qualitative nature and comprehends 15 physical education teachers of PAMSS who, between January 2000 and July 2002, took a medical leave due to stress, anxiety, and depression. We conducted semistructured interviews, kept records on a field diary, and analyzed some documents. The teaching job has showed to these teachers as a professional practice marked by negative feelings that compromise the quality of their job, thus accumulating, as time goes by, physical and emotional reactions. For most collaborate teachers, these accumulated subjective experiences of physical and emotional burnout in their job were translated into feelings of depression and of chronic fatigue, composing an animic state denominated Professional Burnout Syndrome.