Abstract

HANEKOM, Anine; VAN DER MERWE, Wanda  and  MONG, Elmaré. Nurture: Psycho-educational e-mental health intervention on burnout for Grade R educators. Journal of Education [online]. 2026, n.103, pp.118-141. ISSN 2520-9868.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i103a07.

Arguably, the well-being of educators is one of the most important factors if early childcare education is to be effective. Grade R educators are vital to the future success of children. This is because educators in the early childhood phase influence not only a child's cognitive development but also their physical, emotional, and social development. A career in education is often seen as demanding and stressful and, since depression and burnout are common, this can lead to many negative outcomes for both educators and learners. As indicated in the literature, the development of a psycho-educational e-mental health intervention is encouraged. In this paper, we aim to explain how an e-mental health intervention focused on burnout and created from the perspective of positive psychology can psycho-educate Grade R educators. In this qualitative research study, we used a constructivist-interpretivist paradigm with a phenomenology research design. Through the exploration of participants' responses related to the school readiness and assessment of learners, along with their being overburdened and under pressure in the school context encapsulated the very specific circumstances of Grade R educators. These circumstances lead to feelings of frustration and powerlessness that can lead to burnout. The knowledge generated from this research allowed us to create a psycho-educational e-mental health intervention, NURTURE, a short five-day e-format video series on burnout aimed at Grade R educators. In this article, NURTURE as a psycho-educational e-mental health intervention is explored.

Keywords : burnout; e-mental health; flourishing; grade R educators; positive psychology; psycho-educational interventions; well-being; work-related stress.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )