Investigating fixed and growth teaching mindsets and self-efficacy as predictors of language teachers’ burnout and professional identity

Learning about the factors that play a positive or negative role in language teachers’ dissatisfaction, stress and exhaustion, and challenge their identity as a teacher might provide teaching programs with suggestions on how to prevent teacher burnout. This study investigated whether teachers’ mindsets about stability or malleability of teaching ability (fixed and growth mindsets) and self-efficacy predicted their burnout and professional identity beliefs. The participants of the present study were 166 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. The teachers completed self-report scales on teaching mindsets, burnout, professional identity, and self-efficacy. The results of path analysis showed that fixed teaching mindsets productively predicted emotional exhaustion and depersonalization while growth teaching mindsets and teacher self-efficacy positively predicted personal accomplishment and teacher professional identity. The implications for future research in the field are presented.