Critical incidents in teachers' lives: understanding teacher be-ing.
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Date
2014
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Abstract
Teachers’ lives are complex and dynamic. They find themselves in an era of new challenges
and new demands. Recent literature reveals that teachers are experiencing insecurities,
confusion and despair. In South Africa there has been a spate of curriculum reforms and a
wave of policy changes. Added to this are the severe contextual restraints, such as large
classes, lack of resources, poor school leadership, poor parental support, school violence and
other social problems, such as HIV/AIDS and poverty. As teachers face these realities on a
daily basis, they experience incidents that become turning points in their teaching lives and
are deemed by them as ‘critical’. These are termed ‘critical incidents’. This study seeks to
explore how teachers respond to these critical incidents and why they respond the way they
do. The use of life history methodology allowed them to tell their stories but more than that
it illuminateded how they were influenced by the contexts in which they live and work. The
use of in depth interviews provided the opportunity to access their personal, professional,
social and moral landscapes to reveal their lived experiences while they experienced the
critical incidents. By delving deeper through the different layers of their lived realities and
exploring how they interacted with and appraised the different events, their feelings and
emotions were revealed. The social-psychological framework on emotions provided a frame
to explore how teachers responded to the different influences, that is, the workplace
influences, socio-cultural/policy influences and personal influences that came to bear on
their teaching lives as they engaged with the socio-cultural milieu in which they were
immersed. The study used narrative analysis, content analysis and discourse analysis to
make meaning of the data. The use of multiple analysis approaches provided different lenses
to interpret and understand the critical incidents. The complexities of teachers’ lives were
revealed when critical incidents that were triggered by one influence provoked other
influences impacting on teachers in multifarious ways. It revealed how teachers interacted
with the different contexts, through their ego-identities that comprised their self-and social
esteem, values, beliefs, meanings/ideas and life-goals (broader goals). The critical incidents
were experienced as teachers appraised the different encounters, which resulted in either
congruence or incongruence to their broader goals. An appraisal of goal incongruence led to
negative emotions and an appraisal of goal congruence led to positive emotions. The thesis
that emerged from the study was that critical incidents in teachers’ lives affected the
teacher’s spirit. Teachers felt either inspirited or dispirited as the critical incident unfolded.
Description
Ph. D. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.
Keywords
Teachers--Job stress--Management., Teacher-counselor relationships--South Africa., Teacher morale--South Africa., Bullying in the workplace--South Africa., Teachers--Social conditions., Theses--Education.