Characteristics of Emotional Burnout of Teachers Who Work With Children With Special Educational Needs

The article is devoted to an empirical study of the characteristics of emotional burnout of teachers who work with children with special educational needs. The problem is exacerbated by the need to meet high professional and personal standards, to provide educational services at a high level, to maintain their own mental health and the course of activities in special pedagogical conditions. All the selected factors of influence and compliance put the modern special educator in new conditions that significantly complicate his/her already intense activities. High stress of pedagogical activity creates risks of formation of emotional burnout. The conducted empirical research revealed the features of emotional burnout of teachers who work with children with special educational needs; it also identified areas of positive manifestations through the activation of which it is possible to carry out psychoprophylactic actions. It was found that a special role in the formation of emotional burnout belongs to resistance, which can perform the function of "psychological resistance" of the teacher to the conditions and specifics of his/her professional life; it allows him/her to perform professional duties. In the structure of emotional burnout of teachers who work with children with special educational needs, it is resistance that plays a leading role, allows without leaving the profession to carry out a complex procedure of psychological and pedagogical support of special children. The special role in prevention of emotional burnout of age and pedagogical experience of the specialist is shown. Life experience, personal maturity and stability of the value sphere contribute to greater resistance to the negative factors of intense psycho-emotional activity of the teacher; they eliminate the manifestations of many indicators of emotional burnout. Prospects for further research are to clarify and verify the identified trends, in particular, the empirical study of those features of emotional burnout of teachers who work with children with special educational needs related to professional experience, but may be "masked" by age.