Thirty-six teachers were present at the pre-intervention data collection, 30 attended the intervention training, 21 attended the teacher-researcher meeting, 30 attended the second teacher-researcher meeting, and 20 teachers attended the post-intervention, with only 15 out of the 20 teachers being present who were also at the pre-intervention. Seven teachers sent post-test questionnaires via email, constituting 22 completed pre- and post-test questionnaires. Two teachers who were present at the pre-intervention data collection did not participate in the intervention, and five teachers who participated in the intervention were not present at the pre-intervention. Figure 3.12 provides an overview of teacher attendance throughout the intervention.
Figure 3.12
Teacher Attendance: Intervention Implementation
3.5 Quantitative Data Collection and Analysis
3.5.2 The ENTRÉE TR Questionnaire
ENTRÉE is an instrument that consists of eight different scales relating to different domains of TR. The TR questionnaire includes items from seven scales with domains of “teacher professionalism (TR-Prof), teacher emotion (TR-Emot), teacher motivation (TR-Mot), teacher sense of coherence (TR-Soc), self-efficacy (denoted in the measure as Resilience [Res] and teacher efficacy (TeachEff)” (Ebersöhn et al., 2020, p. 10) and the contextual scale (Coetzee, 2013).The participants were invited to respond to the statements on a seven point Likert scale (ranging from 1 = “Do not agree at all” to 7 = “Strongly agree”). They were also invited to indicate their confidence on a Likert-type scale (ranging from 1 = “Absolutely Not Confident”
to 7 = “Strongly Confident”).
“Central to teacher professionalism (TR-Prof) is the teachers’ ability to set and define professional goals, and aspects such as commitment, organisational and teaching skills.
Teacher emotion (TR-Emot) includes aspects essential to resilience, including humour, enjoyment, and emotional regulation” (Ebersöhn et al., 2020, p. 9). Teacher motivation (TR- Mot) combines factors such as optimism and intrinsic motivation (Peixoto et al., 2018; Watt &
Richardson, 2007). Teachers' sense of coherence (TR-Soc) indicates the coping techniques teachers use to understand and manage difficult situations (Peixoto et al., 2018). Self-efficacy (also known as Resilience) and teacher efficacy are two efficacy domains (TeachEff). Self - efficacy refers to a teacher's ability to bounce back when confronted with difficulties and a collection of skills used to cope with adversity (Morgan, 2011; Peixoto et al., 2018). Teacher efficacy assesses their beliefs concerning their behaviour and ability in the teaching profession (Morgan, 2011; Peixoto et al., 2018). The interaction between contextual factors and teacher characteristics is critical in the working framework chosen to understand TR (Peixoto et al., 2018).
The TR questionnaire's contextual items assessed how teachers use contextual protective resources to adapt to and overcome difficult situations inherent in the teaching profession, such as large classrooms, lack of teaching and administration staff, discipline challenges and heavy workloads. These elements encompass both what may happen inside and outside school. TR has demonstrated that the level of support from school or government authorities, and encouragement from family members and co-workers (using other teachers as a collective problem-solving network), is critical (Coetzee, 2013). Accordingly, contextual items investigated these factors in the TR questionnaire. “Contextual items also measured factors that sustain teachers in their profession, such as showing empathy to or instilling hope in learners, having a sense of accomplishment in their work by employing problem-solving strategies, a positive attitude, and drawing from their spirituality” (Ebersöhn et al., 2020, p. 9).
3.5.3 The REPSSI SC Questionnaire
The REPSSI SC questionnaire is drawn from OPHI’s operational definition of SC and assesses external and internal indicators of SC and isolation (Bandeira & Mazibuko, 2017;
Zavaleta et al., 2014). OPHI’s definition of SC emphasises the importance of relations, respect and freedom from humiliation, especially in resource-constrained settings (OPHI, 2020). This definition is based on the literature on social capital, social cohesion, social exclusion and psychological theories of loneliness, including internal and external indicators of SC and isolation (Zavaleta et al., 2014). External indicators of SC refer to objective measures of an individual’s social interactions, including frequency of social contact, social network support, reciprocity and volunteering. Internal indicators of SC refer to an individual’s subjective perception of their own degree of interaction in the social environment, including satisfaction with social relations, the need for relatedness, a feeling of belonging to one’s own neighbourhood, loneliness, and trust. For my study, Question 6 (Scale 1), Question 7 (Scale 2), Question 8 (Scale 3) and Question 9 (Scale 4), signifying internal SC, were selected and renamed as the following:
Scale 1: “Building Relationships”,
Scale 2: “Need for Relatedness”,
Scale 3: “Belonging vs Loneliness/Isolation”
Scale 4: “Trust”.
OPHI’s conceptualisation of SC builds on multidisciplinary work exploring external and internal aspects of SC and proposes a conceptual framework and a series of indicators to measure SC. To date, the technical quality of the REPSSI SC questionnaire in terms of reliability and validity has not been established. However, the conceptual scales provide a solid foundation for developing fundamental internationally comparable indicators that assess specific characteristics of SC and isolation (Zavaleta et al., 2014).
3.5.4 Quantitative Analysis
To address the SRQ1: “How do TR and SC compare pre- and post-intervention?”, quantitative data were analysed using SPSS. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to understand the population sample better and assess the frequency of replies to the Likert-scale questions (Field, 2018). Normality tests were conducted, and since it was found that the data deviated significantly from normality (Shapiro-Wilk [S-W] test p-values were less than 0.05), nonparametric tests were used. Specifically, the WSR test was used to establish differences between groups pre- and post-intervention (Field, 2018). A level of significance of 5%
(α = 0.05) was used for all statistical tests, indicating 95% confidence that differences between groups are not due to chance.