The purpose of the Isithebe Social Connectedness Intervention Study was to investigate social connectedness as a pathway to teacher resilience in challenged education spaces. Objectives included establishing the (i) teacher resilience and (ii) social connectedness of primary school teachers working in school spaces characterised by severe socio-economic deprivation, (iii) exploring the effect of an intentional social connectedness intervention with teachers on their resilience, and (iv) refining a piloted social connectedness intervention to bolster the teacher resilience of in-service teachers confronted with extreme challenges. Theoretically, the study is informed by knowledge on: social connectedness, - capital and affiliation; teacher resilience and socio-ecological resilience, resilience and poverty and socio-ecological resilience.

Six primary schools from lower socio-economic neighbourhoods in the Eastern Cape, South Africa were purposively included and teacher participants (n=36, female=34, male=2) from these schools were conveniently sampled. Transferability of findings is delimited to (i) education spaces characterised by similar structural disparity challenges, (ii) primary schools, (iii) mostly female teachers over 40 years of age with a range of years of teaching experience, and (iv) tertiary teaching qualifications.

A concurrent mixed method intervention design was used to generate teacher-data over-time and in-depth, rather than at breadth and to scale. Over a year time-frame, and following a Participatory Reflection and Action approach, a social connectedness intervention was co-constructed with teacher participants and implemented over a six-month period. Quantitative and qualitative textual and visual data were collected at baseline, during the process of the intervention and post-intervention. Whereas qualitative data, documented as verbatim transcriptions and visual data, were thematically analysed, quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 25. The piloted intervention was refined and is available as the Isithebe Social Connectedness Intervention with an accompanying Isithebe Kit.

The teacher resilience and social connectedness of in-service teachers from the six primary schools in schools challenged by severe deprivation was high – pre-and post-intervention. Following the Isithebe Social Connectedness Intervention, both quantitative and qualitative over-time teacher data showed an increase in social connectedness as well as teacher resilience scores of participating teachers. Qualitative and quantitative data were mixed during the results interpretation phase as this gives the combined strengths of both qualitative and quantitative research as researchers can use the strength of one method of research to counter the weaknesses of the other method.

It was not unexpected that the social connectedness of participating teachers would be high as it has been established that social connectedness (with concomitant social support) mirror culturally salient epistemologies inherent to interdependent worldviews, including Afrocentric indigenous knowledge systems.

It was unexpected that teacher resilience of participating teachers was high despite them working amidst severe deprivation. Following participation in the Isithebe Social Connectedness Intervention teacher professionalism significantly increased, as did teacher emotion, teacher motivation, teacher sense of coherence, self efficacy and teacher efficacy. 

We theorise that, in the presence of social connectedness, teachers use a range of social connectedness competences to give and receive implicit and explicit social support across relational systems. In this regard, teachers bridge social efforts beyond proximal teacher-student and teacher-teacher relationships when they strengthen their social connectedness competence. When teachers in challenged spaces deliberately connected with others, they both assist those in their immediate and socially connected life-worlds, as well as turn to others for support when their burden as teachers become unbearable on their own.

Teacher occupational wellbeing is plausibly informed by being engaged in reciprocal social support and by being well-trained professionals. As a pathway to teacher resilience social connectedness support teachers to (i) be proud of their identities as professionals who provide quality education, (ii) participate in opportunities to develop themselves professionally, and (iii) enjoy their work (occupational wellbeing).

With regards to teacher resilience knowledge, we posit that quality education and occupational wellbeing are not only indicators of wellbeing. The quest to ‘be a good teacher’ may point to these indicators also functioning as pathways to teacher resilience: commitment to provide quality education and the pursuit to experience job satisfaction may drive teachers in distress to opt for resilience-enabling strategies.