This study conceptualizes teacher burnout as a structural and processual phenomenon embedded in institutional and sociocultural contexts rather than as an individual deficit. Using grounded theory methodology, in-depth interviews with 24 South Korean elementary teachers were analyzed. The findings reveal that burnout emerges through the interaction of structural pressures, organizational contexts, and intervening conditions within schools. Teachers' responses to these conditions took diverse forms across career stages and were shaped by relational and institutional dynamics. These processes often resulted in emotional exhaustion, erosion of professional values, and considerations of leaving the profession. Overall, the study demonstrates that teacher burnout is produced through cumulative and interactive processes rather than isolated personal factors. The findings suggest that policy responses should move beyond individual resilience-focused approaches and instead address institutional conditions, organizational practices, and relational support structures that shape teachers’ professional work contexts. • Teacher burnout differs by career stage and is a structural, process-based issue. • Key causes include student misbehavior, parent pressure, leaders' avoidance, low status, and law. • Coping, peer support, and new settings ease burnout, while weak systems and few options worsen it. • Teachers use strategies such as defensive responses, peer support, confrontation, avoidance, and endurance. • Burnout leads to loss of teacher identity, reduced teaching quality, and weaker school culture.
Jiyoung Moon (2026) studied this question.