Jamaican Secondary School Principals' Work and Occupational Well-being
Abstract
This qualitative research explores Jamaican secondary school principals’ work and occupational well-being. Research on the topic of principals’ work and occupational well-being has largely been conducted in developed countries (e.g., Canada, Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, etc.). The aggregate conclusion in these countries suggests that principals’ work has implications for their occupational well-being. Given that Jamaica, a developing nation, has adopted North American leadership standards and policies, it is necessary to examine if Jamaican secondary school principals’ work presents occupational well-being issues. Through qualitative semistructured interviews with 12 Jamaican secondary school principals, the study investigated these principals’ work. Specifically, principals’ work within their socioeconomic, geographical, and community contexts were examined to understand if they experienced any challenges. Explored in the study were the occupational well-being issues principals experience, if any, and the strategies principals employ to cope with such issues. The conceptual framework—work and occupational well-being—was used to examine and understand the emerging findings through the interpretivist paradigm. Several themes and subthemes emerged from the data. The results suggested that Jamaican secondary school principals’ work affect their physical, mental, cognitive, and social occupational well-being. In their attempt to cope with these different occupational well-being issues, principals have employed individualized strategies to cope with their occupational well-being issues. Driving this reliance on individualized strategies is the existing social, structural, and cultural stigma around mental health/well-being in the Jamaican society. The shared perspectives among these principals provide a glimpse of their occupational well-being that perhaps need further investigation. The findings in this study have significance for policy and program development, theory and practice in Jamaica and the Caribbean in areas specific to principals’ work and occupational well-being.