The role of teacher engagement in creating a positive learning environment in poorly resourced schools

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.