Primary School Teachers’ Perspective on Stress Triggers: A South African Case Study

Abstract

This paper sought to establish teachers’ perspectives on the daily stress triggers they face in primary schools in Chris Hani East District in South Africa. Regardless of gender, wealth, or surroundings, stress is a universal phenomenon that impacts everyone. Although this occurrence has been extensively studied, teachers’ stress experiences continue to pose a serious threat, especially to the efficacy of schools. In South African classrooms, rationalization and the high teacher-to-learner ratio are just two of the problems teachers encounter. Schools must develop more effective intervention initiatives that can help instructors manage their stress. With a survey-only design, a quantitative study technique was used. One hundred schools were chosen randomly. Utilizing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, data was examined. (SPSS). The findings of this study indicated that the demotivation of teachers which triggers stress levels in schools is due to the lack of promotion, poor rationalisation process and lack of motivation from management. It is recommended that school managers must come up with better strategies to motivate teachers and the Department of Education must intervene with programmes that can help teachers deal with stress. This article contributes to the discourse on employee welfare in the educational space. Keywords: Teacher Stress Triggers, Professional Development, Stress Management, Intervention Strategies.