Teachers’ Experiences on Stress during COVID-19: A South African Case Study

Abstract

COVID-19 posed an obstacle to many teachers as they tried to master online teaching. This study sought to investigate teachers stress experiences in primary schools in South Africa during COVID-19. The study adopted the interpretivism paradigm in which thematically analysed data was collected through interviews. Fifteen (15) participants were selected purposely from primary schools of Chris Hani East District in South Africa for the interview. In the study, teachers attributed their stress to the lack of protective resources, lack of proper plans for remote teaching, and lack of skills. Students were not co-operating with the teachers during online lessons. The study recommends that the necessary protective resources be provided by the Department of Education to protect teachers from being infected with Covid-19 and provide teaching assistants so that teachers can find it easier to teach with less burden. Schools must be equipped with digital technology and train teachers on how to use digital technology to ease the burden on them. It is important for teachers and motivational speakers to meet with students to raise students’ interest and curiosity about learning and in the same vein boosting the students’self-confidence. Keywords: anxiety, burnout, COVID-19, frustration, pressures, stress, and workload