5: The Resilience of South African Academic Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world and now, over a year later, people are still coming to terms with the mayhem caused by this deadly virus. To curb the spread of the coronavirus, the South African government instituted stringent lockdown measures such as intermittent closure of universities. To resume the academic programme, universities advocated the transition from face-to-face teaching to online teaching. This posed serious challenges for academic staff who were compelled to make sacrifices so that students could receive quality education. This chapter explored the resilience of three academics who made paradigm shifts to their teaching practice.