Exploring Relationships of Job Satisfaction and Burnout with Turnover Intention Among Chinese English Language Teachers

Teachers’ psychological condition is important to both their professional well-being and their students’ learning. Among various psychological factors, turnover intention is a major concern for school leaders and policymakers. While some effects of burnout and job satisfaction on turnover intention have been reported, little is known about the associations between different types of turnover intention and job satisfaction and burnout, especially among English language teachers in China. Informed by the literature on teachers’ psychology and education policy in China, this study differentiates three types of turnover intention—intention to leave the current school, intention to leave junior high school, and intention to quit the teaching profession—and then examines their relationships with job satisfaction and burnout among Chinese English language teachers in junior high school. Data on English language teachers’ psychological condition in junior high schools were elicited from a public database, the China Education Panel Survey. Multiple regression analysis revealed that: (a) satisfaction with salary and students’ behavior affected their intention to leave junior high school teaching; (b) general job satisfaction and satisfaction with school management were related to organizational turnover intention; and (c) professional turnover intention was positively influenced by teachers’ burnout. These findings suggest that job satisfaction and burnout have different effects on turnover intention, which enriches our understanding of English language teachers’ turnover intention and may provide insights for policymakers and school leaders in reducing their turnover intention.