Student teachers’ perceptions of a Wits rural teaching experience project: What to learn and improve
Abstract
In South Africa all universities send education student teachers to schools for teaching practice as part of their preparation for teaching. Of concern is the lack of research investigating pre-service teachers’ experiences of teaching practice, especially in rural and farm schools. Several rural teaching practice projects have been established by various teacher education training institutions in South Africa, in order to introduce student teachers to rurality and rural and farm schools. The introduction of the projects suggests an acknowledgement of varied school contexts and pedagogies, and the importance of making education student teachers aware of them. The project use a qualitative approach and semi-structured reflective discussions and reflective journals to collect data. The findings show that education student teachers want to be part of the rural community and schools, rather than being ‘tourists’ and ‘scientists’. Collaboration between pre-service and in-service teachers is identified as crucial to share teaching skills.
References
Arends, F. and M. Phurutse. 2009. Beginner teachers in South Africa: School readiness, knowledge and skills. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Balfour R, Mitchell C and Moletsane R 2008. Troubling contexts: Toward a generative theory of rurality as education research. Journal of Rural and Community Development, 3(3): 100-111.
Britzman, D. 2003. Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach (Revised Ed.).Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Butler, T. 2013. Review of the book Rainbow pie: A redneck memoir, by J. Bageant, and Those who work, those who don’t: Poverty, morality, and family in rural America, by J. Sherman. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 28(5): 1-4. Retrieved from http://jrre. vmhost.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/28-5.pdf
Caires, S., Almeida, L. and Vieira, D. 2012. Becoming a teacher: Student teachers’ experiences and perceptions about teaching practice. European Journal of Teacher Education 35(2): 163-178.
Creswell, J.W. 2009. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.
De Lange, N., Khau, M., and Athiemoolam, L. 2014. Teaching practice at a rural school? ‘And why should we go there?’ South African Journal of Higher Education.28 (3): 748-766.
De Vos, A.S. 2002. Combined qualitative and quantitative approach. In De Vos, A.S., Strydom, H., Fouche, C.B. and Delport, C.S.L. 2002. Research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Dymant, J. E., and O’Connell, T. S. 2010. The quality of reflection in student journals: A review of limiting and enabling factors. Innovative Higher Education, 35: 233-244.
Eckert, L.S., and Petrone, R. 2013. Raising issues of rurality in English teacher education. English Education, 46(1): 68-81.
Ferber, T. and Nillas, L. A. 2010. Through the eyes of student teachers: Success and challenges in field teaching experiences. National Teacher Education Journal, 3(2): 61-86.
Good, T.L, McCaslin, M, Tsang, H.Y, Zhang, J, Wiley, C.R and Bozack, A.R. 2006. How well do 1st - year teachers teach. Does type of preparation make a difference? Journal of Teacher Education 57 (4): 410-430.
Graham, S. 2006. Strategy instruction and the teaching of writing. A meta-analysis. In: Handbook of Writing Research, Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, Jill Fitzgerald (Ed.): 187-207, The Guilford Press, ISBN 1-59385-190-1, New York, United States of America.
Green, B. and Reid, J. 2004. Teacher education for rural- regional sustainability: Changing agendas, challenging futures, chasing chimeras? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education,
(3): 255-273.
Hudson, P. and Hudson, S. 2008. Changing preservice teachers’ attitudes for teaching in rural schools. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 33(4): 67-77.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). 2000. Recommendations: National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission: Sydney.
Junqueira, K.and Matoti, S. 2013. A comparative study of pre-service teachers' teaching efficacy beliefs before and after work integrated learning: Part two. Africa Education Review 10(1), 28-46.
Lingam, G. I. 2004. Teacher preparation for the world of work: A study of pre-service primary teacher education in Fiji. Unpublished PhD thesis, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Maphalala, M.C. 2013. Understanding the Role of Mentor Teachers during Teaching Practice Session, International Journal of Educational Sciences, 5(2): 123-130.
Maree, K. 2007. First steps in research. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers.
Marks, M.J. 2007. Influences on Preservice Teacher Socialization: A Qualitative Study. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting Chicago, IL.
Masinire, A. Maringe, F. and Nkambule, T. 2014. Education for rural development: Embedding rural dimensions in initial teacher preparation. Perspectives in Education Journal 32 (3): 146-158.
Mayer, J.D. Salovey, P. and Caruso, D.R. 2004. Emotional intelligence: theory, findings and implications. Psychological Inquiry, 60: 197-215.
Miller, L.C. 2012. Understanding rural teacher recruitment and the role of community amenities. Journal of Research in Rural Education. 27(13): 1-52.
Moletsane, R. 2012. Repositioning educational research on rurality and rural education in South Africa: Beyond deficit paradigms. In Rural education and rural realities: The politics and pos-sibilities of rural research in Southern Africa. Perspectives in Education Journal 30 (1): 1-9.
Mukeredzi, T.G. and Mandrona, A.R. 2013. The journey to becoming professionals: Student teachers’ experiences of teaching practice in a rural South African context. International Journal of Educational Research, 62:141-151.
Schaffer, C, Gleich-Bope, D, and Copich, C. B. 2014. "Urban Immersion: Changing Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions of Urban Schools". The Nebraska Educator: A Student-Led Journal. Paper 19.
Schafft, K. A. and Jackson, A. Y. (Eds.). 2010. Rural education for the twenty-first century: Identity, place, and community in a globalizing world. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Tsang, A. 2011. "In-class Reflective Group Discussion as a Strategy for the Development of Students as Evolving Professionals," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 5 (1):1-20.
Wenger, K. J., and Dinsmore, J. 2005. Preparing rural teachers for diversity. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 20(10): 1-10.
Copyright (c) 2017 Thabisile Carol Nkambule
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
