TEACHERS
WITH A HEARING IMPAIRMENT: POSSIBLE
CONNECTIONS
BETWEEN THEIR IMPAIRMENT AND BURNOUT
L.
Genuth, G. Avissar
Employment of
people with disabilities in Israel
recently in several
reports. The Israeli Commission for Equal Rights of
Persons with
Disabilities reported that in 2007 the participation rate of
people with
disabilities in the job market was only 38%. Teaching is
one of the areas
where we are less likely to find them even though
there is general
agreement among researchers that it is important to
place teachers with
disabilities in the education system as they are
more likely to
sympathize and emphasize with their students. This
presentation
reports the results of content analysis of personal
narratives
of three teachers. All three have a hearing impairment and
they teach in
different educational settings: a special school and a
mainstream school.
The objectives of the study were to identify
causes for feelings
of burnout of teachers with hearing impairment in
different school
settings and to look for similarities or differences as
they relate to the
school setting: a special school or a mainstream
school Data was
gathered using semi-structured in-depth interviews.
Data analysis
revealed similar characteristics with regard to feelings of
burnout. All three
teachers expressed internal characteristics of
burnout as well as
external ones. This is no different than any teacher.
A unique finding
was the fatigue reported as a result of the noisy
school environments
and a feeling of treated as a 'charity case' rather
than as a worthy
professional. Implications for employing persons with
a hearing
disability in the teaching profession will be discussed.
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