Motivation strategies for enhancing teacher performance and wellness in post-COVID-19 rural South African schools

Abstract

The sudden eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the performance of employees and had an impact on their psychological wellness. Its gravity and forceful nature disrupted and activated emotions of demotivation in employees which requires managers to use motivation as a tool for stimulating the high performance of employees in any organisation. This paper explores how motivation can be used as a strategy to improve rural secondary teachers' work performance and wellness for their job satisfaction in Amathole East Education District of South Africa. Herzberg's Two-Factor theory was adopted for the study. The current study was grounded on a qualitative approach with a case study research design. A purposive sampling technique was adopted to choose three schools and twenty-eight participants used in the study. Focus group discussions and one-on-one interviews were used to gather data from the participants. The study discovered that recognition for teacher performance and offering psychological support stood out as sources of motivation that could be used to improve their work performance and wellness. The study recommends that schools design rewarding models and form community of practice groups post-COVID-19 to improve teachers' morale to perform satisfactorily at work.