Perceptions of occupational stress regarding female primary school educators in socio-economically deprived Johannesburg schools.

Abstract

This research aimed to explore perceptions of occupational stress regarding female primary school educators in socio–economically deprived Johannesburg Schools. This was achieved by conducting a qualitative exploratory study that employed a structured questionnaire as the mode of data collection and thematic content analysis as the mode of analysis. The participants were 30 female, South African primary school educators, ranging between the ages of 25 – 60 years, who were selected via non–probability, purposive sampling using female primary school teachers who have had more than three years teaching experience. The questionnaires were analysed to extract the perceptions of female primary school educators regarding occupational stress. The analysis revealed nine central categories: socio–economic deprivation, language barriers, lack of pupil discipline (from home) which highlighted perceived lack of control as a sub-category, lack of parental involvement, large pupil to teacher ratio, incongruence between Department of Education and teachers, excessive administration work, multiple role expectancy and finally sufficient collegial support