External and internal accountabilities and emotional labor are possible factors triggering teacher burnout, but the relationships between the constructs have not been fully addressed. Thus, this study aimed to construct and test a chain mediation model to demonstrate the relationships between external accountability and burnout, mediated by internal accountability and emotional labor sequentially. By surveying 814 teachers (years of teaching: M = 13.42, SD = 10.97) from 10 provinces in China, it shows: (1) external and internal accountabilities are both negatively related to burnout; (2) internal accountability, deep acting, and expression of naturally felt emotions mediate the relationship between external accountability and burnout; (3) internal accountability and surface acting sequentially play a chain mediating role between external accountability and burnout; and (4) internal accountability and expression of naturally felt emotions sequentially play a chain mediating role between external accountability and teacher burnout.

Burnout is a common syndrome among teachers across the globe in the recent two decades. Although teacher burnout may be related to years of teaching experiences and emotional labor (surface acting, deep acting, and expression of naturally felt emotions), there is no consensus on the mechanisms of how teaching experience affects burnout. Thus, the study aims to examine how teaching experience and emotional labor are associated with teacher burnout. By surveying 417 teachers in China, the study finds that teaching burnout is negative associated with teaching experiences and the expression of naturally felt emotions, while positively associated with surface acting. Moreover, a further analysis suggests surface acting and the expression of naturally felt emotions are mediating roles in the relationship between teacher burnout and teaching experiences respectively.