Time to flock: time together strengthens relationships and enhances trust to teach despite challenges

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study applies an Afrocentric theory (Relationship-Resourced Resilience [RRR]) to analyze teacher resilience in a less-researched context in the Global South. The Isithebe-intervention study in South African schools investigated how time together to strengthen relationships promotes teacher resilience despite structural disparities. Teachers were conveniently sampled, and South African schools were purposively sampled using concurrent mixed-methods triangulation. Based on Ubuntu social-connectedness principles, the intervention gave teachers monthly art-based time to communicate and build relationships. Pre- and post-intervention measurements included teacher-reported surveys (ENTREE and REPSSI SC subscales) and participatory reflection and action conversations (verbatim transcriptions and visual data). Inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data and showed that time together increases resilience, social connectedness, and trust. Qualitative results show time spent together promoted a sense of belonging, safety, and trust in supporting one another by sharing ideas for informal professional development or caring for children, families, and friends who depend on such help to withstand ongoing challenges. Few teacher resilience studies exist in Global South and South Africa. Structured time to build relationships capitalizes on dominant but marginalized Afrocentric belief systems favoring interdependent, collective resilience values, beliefs, and practices and encourages instructors to teach countering deficit notions of structurally disparate contexts.