The Intensified Academy: A Pre-Post Pandemic Analysis Of Workload Redistribution And Well-being Among Higher Secondary Teaching Faculty In Namakkal District, Tamil Nadu

The global COVID-19 pandemic catalysed an unprecedented and involuntary transition ofeducation from traditional classrooms to digital platforms, profoundly transforming the landscape ofacademic labour. This dissertation examines the lasting ramifications of this transformation on both theworkload and subjective well-being of higher secondary school faculty in Namakkal District, Tamil Nadua region representative of India’s semi-urban educational milieu. Utilizing a sequential explanatory mixedmethods approach, the research commenced with the collection of quantitative data from 327 teachersthrough a stratified random sampling survey, which assessed multiple facets of workload (instructional,administrative, digital, emotional) alongside well-being indicators. Subsequently, qualitative insights weregarnered via phenomenological interviews with 24 purposefully selected participants to elucidate theirlived experiences in depth. The findings reveal a pronounced post-pandemic intensification andreconfiguration of academic labour, not only in terms of increased working hours but also through aqualitative broadening of responsibilities, encompassing digital content curation, continuous onlinecommunication heightened emotional labour. Importantly, this restructuring has significantly blurredconventional work-life boundaries, precipitating notable declines in faculty well-being and elevating therisk of burnout. Although institutions demonstrated resilience, this was often achieved at considerablepersonal cost to teachers, with the burden unevenly distributed along lines of gender and school type. Thestudy ultimately contends that the post-pandemic educational milieu constitutes a regime of intensifiedacademic workload. It advocates for urgent policy measures that extend beyond mere technologicalintegration to holistically address the work ecology of teachers, positioning faculty well-being as a coredeterminant of both educational quality and sustainable institutional resilience.