The study explored the psychological impact of COVID 19 on academics working in higher education institutions in South Africa. The following section entails the themes that emerged from the data analysis which include:
Impact of lockdown restrictions
A few participants shared that they experienced several emotions in relation to the announcement of the lockdown restrictions, which was largely related to the initial 21-day lockdown period. Participants responded as follows:
P4: “…daunting…horror…shock…anxiety”
P6: “Initially a lot of fear and anxiety around the unknown”
Many participants reported increased stress and anxiety. They reported that the stress and anxiety resulted mainly around the fear of the unknown in terms of the pandemic and the lockdown restrictions and worry about their health and that of their loved ones. The misinformation in the media further amplified the fear and anxiety.
P9: “so the anxiety now is coming from all those different sources around where you are, as you speak to your students and you wonder so what’s going to happen to me, given that…not just to say is this pandemic going to end or the loved ones that are passing away, but also economically you know, what’s going to happen. So those are some of the things that fed into the anxiety in my own personal experience."
Many of the participants shared their struggle of trying to implement boundaries in the workspace. The participants expressed their difficulty with switching off from work while working from home. One participant shared the following excerpt:
P3: “I found it really difficult to switch off because now your home is your office…boundaries are very difficult to maintain working from home, so fatigue was the order of the day”.
The participant shared that a consequence of blurring the lines was constant fatigue. This sentiment was shared by many other participants.
Participants also reported quite a lot of guilt as they felt that they were not spending enough quality time with family where they could give their undivided attention. They reported being unable to be emotionally available to their families as a result of the constant exhaustion and fatigue due to work and home responsibilities.
Some participants went as far as to self-diagnose and claimed to be suffering from depression. They did, however, acknowledge that they are self-diagnosed. While others reported that they were emotionally depleted due to the unending pandemic, underpinned by a false sense of hope that things would be better in 2021. They seemed to have held onto the new calendar year as the turning point for the end to the pandemic. When they realised this was not to be the case, the emotional depletion set in, and hope started to diminish. One participant even reported that their empathy for the students diminished due to mental exhaustion. This participant reported that due to their personal state of mental fatigue, their interest and care for the well-being of their students had reduced. Another participant reported that they had a pre-existing mental illness that was exacerbated by the pandemic:
P6: “I do suffer with anxiety and my anxiety was just pushed to the limit during the lockdown”.
Some participants reported that the pandemic and lockdown restrictions did not have any negative impact on their emotional and/or psychological well-being. They reported, however, that they experienced some financial impact albeit it was not always a direct impact - it was more related to extended family members. This, they claimed, did have an emotional impact on them though. Some reported that because they did not lose a loved one or “death was not close to home”, they were not conscious of any emotional and/or psychological impact on their well-being.
Thus, some participants reported that there was no emotional and/or psychological impact on their well-being. They considered themselves to be rather resilient during these adverse times:
P4: “I’m resilient, I can cope, I can…I’m able to deal with new challenges and I’ve grown because of it, ja and the adaptation, that agility for me was like a big boost to my self-confidence”.
For many participants, this is a positive side effect of the trials and tribulations of what they faced during the pandemic.
Changes to the teaching and learning environment
Most of the participants reported that a major change to the teaching and learning environment at their institution was centred around the move from predominantly face-to-face (i.e. contact) teaching and learning solely online. A few participants mentioned experiencing a sense of emotional isolation due to a lack of support from their institution. They felt unsupported by the institution in terms of the way changes were managed, unrealistic expectations (spoken and unspoken) and a lack of regard for personal wellbeing. This resulted in the participants feeling alone, experiencing panic and a heightened feeling of anxiety related to how best to navigate the implications that the lockdown restrictions had on the teaching and learning environment. The participants reported their experiences of 2020 as follows:
P1: “2020 was a rough year” and P7: “It was a very traumatic year”
This upheaval and disruption impacted lecturers and students in various ways. Both lecturers and students had to navigate technology and learning management systems in ways they did not need to in the days before the pandemic. The adaptation to online teaching left some lecturers feeling ill-prepared and anxious at the daunting task ahead:
P5: “…the switch to online was nerve-wracking”
Participants also reported feeling troubled and burdened when they could not assist their students with technological barriers, especially those that were due to socio-economic reasons, such as lack of connectivity, lack of efficient fibre, lack of devices.
Participants reported an increase in workload that was due to the adaptation to a new unfamiliar teaching and learning mode of delivery, supporting students as well as supporting fellow lecturers. One participant relayed the experience as follows:
P8: “it just broke me…the admin behind it was insane”
The participant explained that the marking load associated with the changes in the assessment strategy was exponential, resulting in increased stress levels. Participants also reported that the ever-changing, reactive nature of institutional decisions was rather stress-inducing and meant that the initial weeks and months of the lockdown were profoundly taxing - emotionally and physically.
P7: “Things changed very fast…. everything was so fluid” and “I even forgot what it feels to relax and what it feels to be at peace, what it feels to be happy…where there’s calmness…”.
One participant reported experiencing feelings of guilt related to all the changes that took place in terms of the lockdown restrictions. This guilt was also linked to the implications thereof for the way the participants had to disperse working hours throughout the day. Additionally, this sense of guilt was related to the different roles that the participant needed to fulfil (i.e., related to work and family). One participant explained that the severity of the stress associated with the day-to-day challenges was further exacerbated by the lockdown restrictions and the constant threat of contracting the coronavirus. This resulted in a negative impact on the participant’s physical and mental health.
The psychological impact of the pandemic on academics
Participants felt that there was no real demarcation between 2020 and 2021. Participants’ perceived lack of ‘closure’ of 2020 felt like 2021 was merely an extension of 2020. This had real implications for academics’ emotional fatigue and exhaustion levels. Many reported that they were emotionally depleted from the negative impact of the pandemic and ensuing lockdown restrictions.
P6: “I feel like this year sort of rolled on from 2020, again there was no real break, there was no switching off…”.
P8: “The students are tired, and I am tired…because none of us could recover from 2020”.
This emotional fatigue was compounded by the fact that participants felt that in 2021 their institution did not adequately address the challenges and issues that were encountered in 2020; they felt there was a missed opportunity in 2021 to reflect on lessons learned from 2020 and ensure a less traumatic experience for lecturers and students alike. They felt as if there was a sense of institutional denial in what had occurred in 2020. One participant shared the following excerpt:
P1: “our socio-economic culture that we have in South Africa, and obviously we have quite a big divide between students who financially are able to afford internet and laptops and all of that, and students who aren’t.“
This participant expressed concern for students who did not have the financial resources to adapt to the online learning environment. Further to this, the participant also shared a feeling of helplessness related to not knowing whether students were accessing the content and their understanding of the content.
Coping mechanisms employed by academics
One participant shared that not dealing with the reality of the situation was a means of coping. The following excerpt was shared:
P8: “I adapted to that by not dealing with it”
The participants experienced a sense of avoidance in relation to all the changes which were implemented at their institution. Other participants reported using different coping mechanisms since the start of the pandemic. One participant shared that employing self-reflection practices such as daily positive affirmations was very helpful. The participant explained that it was important to reinforce boundaries with themselves and others, especially given that the physical demarcation of work and home became enmeshed. The participant shared that this meant choosing not to answer work emails after a particular time in order to safeguard quality time with family. The following quote demonstrates this:
P6: "I try to reinforce boundaries with myself”
One participant used faith/spirituality (i.e. prayer) as a coping mechanism while navigating many difficult challenges related to the pandemic. A few participants mentioned that accepting the situation and the realities associated with the pandemic and lockdown restrictions helped them to process what was happening and cope.
Some participants relied on the following coping mechanisms: increased alcohol consumption, listening to music, watching Netflix and reading. For some of these participants, these were new coping mechanisms employed at the start of the pandemic and for others, the coping mechanisms were already used but were used more intently. Many of the participants reported that they implemented physical activity (i.e. yoga and exercise at home) as a coping mechanism. A participant reported that consciously getting sufficient sleep in the evening as a means of coping with the daily responsibilities and changes that occurred at a rapid pace. One participant shared that they tracked the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths on a daily basis as a means of coping. The participant explained that this helped with identifying the ‘enemy’ and understanding the reality of an unfolding situation. Another participant shared that their coping mechanism was undertaking personal studies to escape the reality of the pandemic. The participant explained that studying was very helpful as a means of maintaining a semblance of normalcy. There were also a few participants who did not consciously make use of any coping mechanisms during the lockdown period. There was one participant who shared that they were just focused on surviving till the end of the year (when the pandemic would presumably come to an end). The following quote demonstrates this:
P5: “we just had to make it to the end of the year”
A few participants shared that they found comfort by caring for others and helping their colleagues to navigate all the changes that occurred in their respective institutions. This was a way of coping as participants found that this instilled a sense of hope for them. Others explained that helping others inadvertently helped them find a sense of meaning and purpose. These eudaimonic acts provided these participants with a sense of validation. One participant shared the following experience:
P2: “I think I’m also getting used to it, although it’s not healthy for my side because I can support a lot of students as much as I can but what about me, what am I doing for myself”.
During the interview, the participant identified that helping students and availing themselves to students constantly throughout the period of transition was a means of coping, however, they realised that this was a sacrifice of personal wellbeing in the process.
A few participants shared that connecting with loved ones (i.e. virtually or face to face when allowed) was an important means of coping during the lockdown period. Another participant shared that engaging with therapy throughout the lockdown period was very helpful with managing anxiety associated with the pandemic. In order to cope, a participant shared that planning was helpful during the pandemic because the demarcation between work and home life was compromised by the lockdown restrictions. The following excerpt is evidence of this:
P6: “…it sort of gives me that sense of security knowing that this is what I can control and this is what I’m planning to do for the next”.
The participant went on to explain that planning the things that needed to be done on a daily basis helped them feel a sense of control and a sense of achievement once a task was complete.
On a positive note, however, for some participants, there was a definite acceptance of reality and the new order of things in the pandemic. They reported that they had learned to adapt to the new way of teaching, and they felt more adept in their ability to deliver quality online teaching.
P9: “here’s a marked difference in terms of the systems, routine pattern of doing things, things have sorted of liked settled in…”.
This gave them a sense of achievement as their confidence in being able to get students to engage in the online space grew. This was a real struggle for many participants in 2020 as they linked student disengagement to their identity as an effective lecturer.