COVID-19 School Closures in Uganda and their Impact on the Well-being of Teachers in Private Institutions in Semi-urban Districts

Abstract

Objective: This article explored how teachers were supported for continued professional growth and on their general well-being before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Experiences of teachers of private schools in Semi-Urban districts during COVID-19 Wave 1&2 lockdown in Uganda are explored. It assess professional growth aspects and their well-being before and during closure of education institutions. The study illustrates challenges experienced by the teachers as well as coping strategies adopted. Methods: In-depth individual interviews, and key informant interviews were employed. At the time of reaching saturation, one hundred and three private secondary school teachers had been interviewed; eight key informants that were head teachers of selected private schools. Data was analyzed using the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. Results: Teachers’ professional growth is in limbo after suffocation during the COVID-19 given longtime school closures with inability of private schools to earn from their clientele. The well-being of teachers is wanting. Many teachers ought not return to teaching and are engaged in various trades for a living. Conclusion: Teachers of private academic institutions contribute to government’s effort in providing quality education. Exploring their experiences during emergencies such as the current COVID-19 pandemic informs stakeholders in education on how to deal with their professional growth and general well-being. Conclusion: Teachers of private academic institutions contribute to government’s effort in providing quality education. Exploring their experiences during emergencies such as the current COVID-19 pandemic informs stakeholders in education on how to deal with their professional growth and general well-being.

A Systematic Review on Teachers’ Well-Being in the COVID-19 Era

“…In line with the bulk of the literature on the topic, the key results revealed that (i) the first-wave COVID-19 lockdown negatively impacted TWB consistently across all three phases of the study, as evidenced in secondary teachers' diminished physical health and well-being, while (ii) a statistically significant correlation with autonomous teacher work motivation, as reflected in individual's desire to work and level of satisfaction and pleasure achieved upon work completion, foregrounded the salient role of this variable in fostering TWB in times of crisis. These findings concur with the overall decreased TWB levels and intense psychological strain experienced by teachers in private secondary schools within the socio-economically deprived context of semi-urban districts in Uganda after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by [119] and reflected by negative teacher identity self-perceptions, a fear of a lack of financial support for subsistence, and an increase in incidents of domestic violence throughout the 2020 lockdown period. Similarly, 70% of all teachers in Blaine's [120] study reported having considered leaving the profession due to intermittent school closures and uncertainty surrounding the government's response and policies on COVID-19.…”

“…Self-reported high TWB levels were reported in only four studies and were mainly associated with an increased sense of work engagement, work meaningfulness, job commitment [110,111], and persistence to overcome COVID-19 and job productivity in terms of enhanced online teaching self-efficacy skills [116,117]. No noteworthy TWB developmental changes were recorded throughout the prolonged period of the COVID-19 pandemic [118,119], while findings with respect to TWB variance by gender and age of the samples included in each study were far from conclusive: (i) reported physical and psychological TWB levels were not found to significantly vary overall [101][102][103], with the exception of two studies where female schoolteachers exhibited higher levels of psychological well-being, while (ii) senior teachers tended to exhibit greater resilience and willingness to overcome current teaching difficulties and survive using work engagement [104], stressing the importance of adequate support provided at the school management level to boost their professional TWB level [108].…”

“…Finally, two studies focused on investigating developmental changes in TWB through the COVID-19 period, deploying quantitative longitudinal [118] and qualitative crosssectional research designs [119], respectively, conducted within two utterly different sociocultural contexts. In the former case, the evolution of TWB as a complex phenomenon was analyzed across three different stages in the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown in Ukraine, i.e., before, during, and after the event, and studied in relation to teacher work motivation levels.…”

“…Thirteen studies (25%) used an exclusively qualitative approach that mainly relied on data derived from (a) in-depth, one-to-one online interviews based on semi-structured questionnaires (nine studies), (b) focus group discussions [132], (c) collaborative autoethnographic practices [125], and (d) open-ended survey questions [131,136], which were further subjected to thematic analysis to reveal teachers' overlapping concerns over their sense of well-being and experiences during the pandemic. Again, the cross-sectional research design dominated in this group of studies to the exception of Kim et al's [135] longitudinal qualitative study, while the sample sizes, often selected based on non-probability techniques, e.g., [119,129,136], ranged between 103 and 3 participants reflecting the small-scale nature of these studies. The measurement of TWB was operationalized in only three instances based on Ryff's (2008) model [123], the job-resource model of well-being [129], and ecological systems theory [131], while in most other cases, it was investigated in an exploratory fashion using interview protocols aimed to illustrate the pandemic-induced complexity in teachers' life experiences and the detrimental effect on their well-being, professional growth, and development.…”