Abstract: The study investigated the perceptions of primary school teachers in Gaborone on their workload, workload-related stress and how they managed stress. The theoretical theories of the study were Apple’s intensification thesis and also the professionalization theory. While the intensification thesis states that teachers’ workload continues to increase due to various educational and governmental factors and reforms and that teachers hardly have time for personal, family or social lives, the professionalization theory emphasizes the need to raise the standards of the teaching profession through self and career development. The study involved five public and five private primary schools in Gaborone, Botswana. A total of 139 classroom teachers participated in filling the closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages which were converted into charts for easy interpretations and the research hypotheses were tested using t-tests and one-sample statistics of the SPSS 20.0 version. Participants’ quantitative responses were supported with their actual written words to provide more quality. Findings show that the majority of the teachers experienced heavy workload and workload-related stress. The different ways the teachers managed the stress varied and included activities such as exercises, occasional socialization and periodic holidays. Some of the recommendations were that primary school teachers should be made to specialize in a limited number of subjects rather than teaching all subjects and that teachers’ assistants and stress management programmes be made available in all primary schools in the country.
Keywords: primary school teachers, teachers’ workload, teaching profession, workload-related stress.
Title: Teachers’ Workload and Stress Management in Gaborone Primary Schools, Botswana
Author: OMOTOSHO BUKOLA AGNES
International Journal of Thesis Projects and Dissertations (IJTPD)
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