Teacher Burnout Revisited: Introducing Positive Intervention Approaches Based on Gratitude and Forgiveness

The recent positive psychology movement has given a new impetus to revisiting the perennial problem of teacher burnout, suggesting that intervention efforts could be more productively shifted from coping with symptoms or components of burnout to promoting or enhancing the antithesis of burnout. It is argued that the components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of personal accomplishment) are diametrically opposites of the good life (the pleasant life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life), which is led or lived by people who build and cultivate positive character strengths. Based on the review on the connection of well-being with forgiveness and gratitude, it is further suggested that strength-based interventions based on forgiveness and gratitude are effective and could be integrated into the positive approaches to combating burnout.