The Importance Of Compassion Fatigue In Education

Educators can be exposed to several stresses because of their role in supporting students and their eventual exposure to the experiences of the students with crises, traumas and violence. Too much focus is on the mental health of the students. Neglected was the mental health of the personnel directly in communication with the students, particularly, the teachers. The teachers may manifest emotional exhaustion and this may lead to poor performance. Beside stresses from students, there could be other factors that impair their functions as teachers, such as: more workload, underpay, poor workplace, family matters, support from superiors and administration. These stresses could lead to compassion fatigue. The term compassion fatigue was initially

Compassion fatigue and burnout have a synergistic relationship (Gentry, et al, 2002). Burnout originally described by Freudenberger (1975) occurs when a person becomes both physically and mentally exhausted due to continually experiencing high demand and stressful situations. The symptoms and presentation of this condition varies from person to person (Freudenberger, 1975). Burnout is related to the work environment, with chronic occupational stress resulting in diminished job satisfaction. Burnout usually involve general work stress (long hours, high caseloads) but which however can result in exhaustion and decreased sense of accomplishment at work (Hyden, et al, 2015) Hence, burnout plays a major role in the development of and can directly contribute to a person’s overall compassion

In a study conducted, it was shown that the most important factor that affected student achievement was the teacher (Wright, Horn, & Sanders, 1997). Teaching effectiveness "involves a complex set of knowledges, abilities, and personal attributes in dynamic interplay, ...[which] cannot be captured by standardized paper-and-pencil tests" (Davey, 1991, p.121). Determination of the factors that may lead to compassion fatigue may prevent the teaching force from over exposure and from other disorders that may affect the teacher’s performance. It is for this reason that the researcher consider it necessary to find out the factors associated with compassion fatigue among faculty members that affects their teaching performance. Hence, the purpose of the study is to know how compassion fatigue can manifest in teachers and how it affects their teaching performance. Through this study, the teachers as well as the school will have a baseline data on how to address the compassion fatigue of teachers and to prevent the possible negative impact on their teaching