Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated how poor teaching and learning contexts in South Africa affected teacher morale, even though the challenge persisted prior to this. Although most teachers who operate within suboptimal teaching and learning contexts suffer from depression, burnout and low teacher morale (Sayed and Singh, 2025) and teachers who work in remote, rural contexts are impacted even more (Makirimani & Naicker, 2024). There is a high correlation between teacher morale and teaching and learning engagements. As such, ensuring that teachers work in an environment that positively impacts their psychological demeanour is critical. This thesis contributes to the discourse of teacher morale in rural contexts by investigating how the School Management Team’s (SMT’s) attitudes and practices affect teacher morale in a rural secondary school in the Limpopo province in the Sekhukhune East District. This qualitative study collected data from nine participants at the school. A purposive sampling technique was employed in sampling the two SMT members and seven teachers who participated in the study. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, and a checklist was used to ascertain demographic and educational information. The data were analysed using thematic analysis for the semi-structured interviews, and the checklist information was tabulated, with descriptive information woven into the interpretation of the data. The study’s findings revealed that teacher morale at this school is influenced by teachers’ feelings of safety, recognition by the SMT, teacher involvement in decision-making, the relationship between teachers and the SMT, and levels of SMT support. The key recommendation based on the findings highlights that SMTs should involve teachers in decision-making and incentivise teachers for good performance. SMTs themselves should undergo continuous professional development to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to support the teachers they manage more effectively. Lastly, the findings also highlighted the importance of acknowledging teachers' voices in all aspects of school governance as well as teaching and learning.