ABSTRACT
In Pakistan, a novel disease COVID-19 was transpired in 2019 that has been affected unexpectedly to everyone in different fields of life. The aim of this research was to explore gender differences in psychosocial challenges of university teachers during COVID-19. Likewise, other major aspects, educational sector had to shift its pedagogy from traditional learning to e-learning. This was a challenging and threatening to human life around the globe especially in the learning community. The main objective of the study is to explore experiences of teachers to develop an understanding of their work life challenges during pandemic, lockdown and online teaching. Considering the research goal, the data has been collected through in-depth interviews under the qualitative research paradigm. Twenty university faculty were interviewed, ten male teachers and ten female teachers from five private and five public institutes respectively. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis under the seven major themes i.e. Work Family conflict, Psychological issues, Social constraints, Technical issues, Uncertainty about Future, Gender roles, & Discipline wise challenges. The findings of the study showed that male and female teachers both faced work pressure and stress in professional lives during COVID. Female teachers in addition with their professional work were performing extra duties regarding household work, with less or in some cases zero domestic help. This study also showed that the common psychological effect of COVID-19 was stressful to meet job demands and accompanying fear of exposure to disease both in male and female teachers. However, fewer ratio of male and female teachers was affected socially, the only trouble was missing out on social gatherings which were put aside due to one’s own safety.
