Title:
"Does anyone even notice us?" COVID-19’s impact on academics’ well-being in a developing country
Authors:
J. Hardman, University of Cape Town Associate Professor, School of Education, UCT
R. Watermeyer, School of Education, University of Bristol. Professor of Higher Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformations (CHET)
K. Shankar, University College Dublin Professor of Communication and Information Studies School of Information and Communication Studies
V. Ratnadeep Suri, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Associate Professor
T. Crick, Swansea University School of Social Sciences Professor of Digital Education and Policy
K. Knight, Swansea University Doctor School of Social Sciences
F. McGaughey, University of Western Australia Doctor Senior Lecturer, Law School
&
R. Chung, Chinese University of Hong Kong Assistant Professor School of Public Health and Primary Care
Published:
South African Journal of Higher Education, Volume 36, Number 1, 31 March 2022
Abstract:
In March 2020, the President of South African announced that the nation would go into full lockdown in the wake of an increase in COVID-19 infections. Academics had, in some instances, only one day to prepare for “emergency remote teaching”. Few academics had taught online before, as South Africa’s internet connectivity is not guaranteed in underprivileged areas, where 80 per cent of the population reside. The online move thus necessitated an entirely novel pedagogy for most academics, with high potential for an escalation of work-related stress and related illness, outcomes we have related in the wider sphere of workplace readjustment during COVID-19, to a state of “pandemia”. In this article, we report on an institutional case study where we surveyed n=136 academics from a university in the Western Cape, South Africa to learn more about impacts of COVID-19 on their work. The data analysis adopts Ryff’s (1995) theory of well-being. Findings indicate that the enforced lockdown due to COVID-19 and the subsequent move to online teaching has had a negative impact on academics’ sense of well-being. However, the emergence of positive, caring relationships between colleagues is reported as a significant outcome of the COVID-19 enforced move to online teaching.