COVID-19 and Kazakhstani Women Teachers: An Empirical Study of Factors Affecting Mental Health

Abstract

The study investigates stress and organizational climate factors affecting mental health of women school and university teachers in pre‐COVID‐19 and COVID‐19 periods in the context of Central Asia considering the case of Kazakhstan. The results of quantitative empirical study show that the pandemic has caused an increase in perceived anxiety and depression among women teachers. Women teachers in urban areas experienced greater anxiety and depression than rural teachers. The moderation interaction predictor indicates that the effect of perceived stress becomes less negative with increased level of Material and Technical Security or Access to Technological Resources. In conditions of COVID-19 the effect of Material Technical Security/Access to Technological Resources on Mental Health becomes significant when women teachers have a better Social Climate at work. Its effect on Mental Health becomes significant when women teachers are more engaged in the decision making process with clearly defined organizational goals according to the Participatory Management policy and when women teachers more frequently receive Performance Feedback.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office under Grant № 4500425847.

Notes on contributors

Ainur Kenebayeva

Ainur Kenebayeva is the Director of the Research Institute for Social & Gender Studies (Almaty, Kazakhstan). She received her postgraduate and master degrees on Hotel Management and Tourism from Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) and International College of Hospitality Administration Cesar Ritz (Switzerland) in 2011 and PhD in Tourism from Eurasian National University (Astana, Kazakhstan) in 2015. Her research interests include entrepreneurship, rural tourism, consumer behavior, hospitality marketing, education, and gender-related issues.

Alexandra Nam

Alexandra Nam is a research assistant at Nazarbayev University, Graduate School of Education. She completed her MA in Multilingual Education in 2018 from Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, and is currently assisting in the projects “Teacher leadership in Kazakhstan” and “Building capacity for teaching and research in STEM teacher education in Kazakhstan: A research-practice partnership.” Her research interests include identity and gender.

Almira Tabaeva

Almira Tabaeva is a Soros Foundation Fellow and a Research Assistant at Nazarbayev University, Graduate School of Education. She works for PEER (Political Economy of Education Research) Network, Consortium of Gender Scholars and UNESCO supported projects. She obtained her BA from the Uzbek State World Languages University (Uzbekistan, 2009) and MA from Pune University (India, 2011). Her research interests include political and economic analysis of education, social, and gender-related issues in Central Asian context.

Fahriye Altinay

Fahriye Altinay is the Vice Director of the Graduate Education Institute, the Vice Chair of the Center for Social Research and Development, and the head of the Education Entrepreneurship and Innovation department. She also works as an editor and referee in international journals and books. She is member unobstructed information technology platform and actively works in her studies about disability in smart societies. Current researches consider the importance of diversity management, sensitivity training, disability, global citizenship for smart society. She is working on monitoring universal rights of people with disabilities on behalf of societal research and development center. She makes collaboration projects with NGO’s about disability.

Zehra Altinay

Zehra Altinay is the Chair of the Department of Educational Sciences, the Chair of the Center for Social Research and Development. She acts as a reviewer in respected journals. She is a member of unobstructed information technology platform and actively works in her studies about disability, e-learning, oer. Her current research studies focus on disability, sensitivity training, and smart societies. She is chair of the monitoring universal rights committee in the university. She has collaboration and partnership with non-governmental associations about disability and women.