Exploring Teacher Leadership’s Effect on Teacher Burnout: Does School Rurality Make a Difference?

Abstract

In literature, both teacher leadership and teacher burnout have been heavily studied. However, it is unknown to what extent teacher leadership makes a difference in teacher burnout, and whether school rurality makes a difference in between. This study fills the research gaps by conceptualising teacher leadership from both instructional and non-instructional dimensions and applying a quantitative method to large-scale national data. Findings revealed that (a) rural teachers presented higher levels of teacher leadership practices; (b) rural and non-rural teachers presented the same levels of burnout; and (c) both instructional and non-instructional dimensions of teacher leadership practices helped reduce teacher burnout in general, but rurality moderated the two effects differently, where instructional teacher leadership had a larger effect in non-rural schools while non-instructional teacher leadership presented a larger effect in rural schools. Discussion and recommendations for further research of teacher leadership and teacher burnout in rural schools are presented.