Introduction and Summary
Teacher turnover is often caused by increased stress and burnout. Therefore, addressing workplace burnout among teachers can be a viable strategy to improve teacher retention rates in both public and private schools. In the article titled “Spirituality and prayer on teacher stress and burnout in an Italian cohort: A pilot, before-after controlled study,” Chirico et al. (2020) describe an intervention that has the potential to decrease teacher burnout and stress, which can positively impact teacher retention. Chirico et al. (2020) propose that Christian prayers and prayer reflection in focus groups can reduce burnout and stress symptoms. The present paper aims at analyzing the research article by Chirico et al. (2020), revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the research design.
The research conducted by Chirico et al. (2020) is an experimental pilot study aimed at confirming the hypothesis that prayer intervention has a positive impact on teachers’ emotional and psychological well-being. In order to achieve the desired goal, researchers recruited 50 participants and randomly assigned them into a control group and an intervention group (25 people each). The intervention group was provided with 30-minute training sessions every week for two months. The training sessions aimed at helping teachers to use prayers and prayer reflection to deal with stress. The researchers used the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure symptoms of burnout, General Health Questionnaire to measure stress level, and Warr, Cook, and Wall’s Job Satisfaction Scale to measure workplace satisfaction. The measurements were taken before and after the intervention. The results were compared using a series of Student’s t-tests. The research revealed that interventions based on Christian prayers could promote employee retention by decreasing stress and burnout in teaching and possibly other professions.
Critical Analysis
The credentials of the authors of the article are appropriate for the scope of the article and its purpose. Francesco Chirico is a professor in the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Italy (Loop, 2020). He is also a medical doctor with a postgraduate specialization in occupational medicine and radiation protection (Loop, 2020). He has almost a hundred publications with nearly 3,000 reads that focus on occupational health, including psychological well-being (Loop, 2020). The co-authors are also experts in occupational health and human resource management from Italy and the US that have numerous publications in their sphere of expertise. Even though the authors of the article do not specialize in educational research, their work should be considered a reputable source of information since they are experts in occupational health, which can influence turnover rates of teachers.
The article is structured coherently; however, it lacks a designated literature review section. The article’s intended audience is human resource managers, administrative personnel, and occupational healthcare professionals interested in reducing stress and burnout among employees. The introduction to the article provides background information on the topic and briefly overviews existing literature on the subject of interest. In particular, Chirico et al. (2020) describe existing interventions for treating burnouts syndrome (BOS). However, the researchers fail to identify the purpose of the research, explains its importance, articulate the research questions, and formulate the hypotheses. In other words, the authors omit essential parts of the introduction of quantitative research mentioned by Creswell (2012), making it difficult to understand the rationale behind the research design. However, the study clearly identifies the gap in knowledge as a lack of validated research that tested prayer as a BOS prevention strategy. Therefore, it can be concluded that the purpose of the research was to close this gap in knowledge.
The research design is almost flawless; however, some weaknesses should be mentioned. The researchers used validated tools that generate reliable data for future analysis. Chirico et al. (2020) utilize data analysis methods appropriate for the experimental design. According to Creswell (2012), experimental studies take measurements before and after an intervention and compare the results using t-tests, ANOVA, or chi-square analysis. The results of the study are discussed in detail without jumping to conclusions and making inappropriate generalizations. The implications to practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided. Among the flaws of the research design, only the characteristics of the cohort can be mentioned. The number of participants is comparatively small and does not support the generalizability of findings. However, the authors state that the article describes a pilot study, and future research is required to confirm the findings.
Conclusion
Stress and burnout can negatively affect teacher retention rates, and affective preventive strategies are needed to reduce turnover. My experience confirms that teachers often experience stress due to increased workload and lack of work-life balance. Moreover, young teachers are often overly emotive, which can lead to emotional burnout. However, I learned that my religious colleagues are less likely to experience stress at work as they spend much time in prayers that help them to relieve tension. Therefore, my experience supports the findings of research conducted by Chirico (2020). The article can be cited in my future research paper as it explains the methods for addressing teacher turnover.
References
Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Pearson.
Chirico, F., Sharma, M., Zaffina, S., & Magnavita, N. (2020). Spirituality and prayer on teacher stress and burnout in an Italian cohort: A pilot, before-after controlled study. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02933.
Loop. (2020). Francesco Chirico.