Exploring the Competencies of Principals in Managing Teachers’ Stress and Burnout in Selected Primary Schools of Chris Hani East Education District: A South African Context

The purpose of this research was to explore the competencies of principals in managing teachers’ stress and burnout in selected primary schools in Chris Hani East Education District. A qualitative research method was adopted. A case study research design was employed. A purposeful sampling method was used to select five principals to be participants, each representing conveniently sampled five primary schools based on their proximity to researchers. Upon the receipt of permission from Eastern Cape Department of Basic Education officials and principals, semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face to collect data from the participants to solicit in-depth relevant information regarding the phenomenon explored in this research. A thematic approach was used to analyse the collected data from five participating school principals. It emerged that principals, deputy principals and heads of departments are struggling to identify early, teachers suffering from stress, unable to avoid the causes of stress as a result of schools’ systematic challenges and are unable to cope with teachers’ stress. There are no psychological programmes in place in the majority of public rural schools to capacitate principals with remedial skills to deal with teachers experiencing stress. Principals and teachers should be trained by social workers and psychologists regularly to acquire some relevant psychological programmes and apply remedial skills and services to avoid the cause of teachers’ and learners’ stress. This research could contribute to motivating the Department of Basic Education officials to inculcate the skills to principals and teachers for early identification, monitoring and managing the phenomenon explored in this research. Keywords: Management, Stress, Primary School, Monitoring, School Stakeholders, Psychological Programmes and Services.