Abstract:
The availability of resources and the importance thereof differ from school to school,
depending on the school’s socio-cultural and geographic position. Most public
schools in South Africa experience a lack of resources, aggravated by 86% of the
South Africa educational budget being spend on teachers’ salaries. The portion spent
on other resources is limited and in many cases, ongoing in many decades, resulting
in several schools being severely under-resourced (UNESCO, 2015). Global
research claims that teachers are the most important resource available to ensure
effective learning, particularly in the case of an emerging economy characterised by
a severe lack of resources. Under such conditions educators are required to use their
resilience, creativity, improvisation and initiatives to ensure learning occur within the
classroom environment. This implies that educators need to be engaged in their
work, classes and the learners.
Schaufeli (2002) defines work engagement as a positive, fulfilling, and work-related
state of mind, characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption. The ability to have
a positive attitude and be constantly involved with one’s work is reflected in
engagement. It indicates a relationship between individuals and their work, even
though the work may be demanding and challenging. Certain characteristics of
resilience allow dealing with these demands and challenges. The term ‘efficacy’,
positively relates to this engagement. Successfully work engagement leads to
personal improvement, indicating professional and personal development. The
research investigates previous global research regarding teachers’ work
engagement, resilience, positive learning environments and low resource schools,
supplemented by an in-depth case study of poorly resourced schools, focusing
specifically on the work engagement of teachers.
