Four areas where student teachers believe they can make a difference
WORLD Teachers’ Day, celebrated annually on October 5, allows us to reflect on the deep, enduring – and often unrecognised – contribution of teachers to our society.
Despite this year’s theme “Teaching in freedom, empowering teachers”, many say they feel disempowered to be the professionals they would like – and need – to be.
However, even as the media continues to focus on ongoing negative issues like bullying, late-ness, poor infrastructure, racial tension, lack of teacher professionalism, we see that student teachers remain enthusiastic, committed, and driven to make a difference. This is where our hope lies.
A group of final-year education students at my university recently participated in a leadership in education course where they discussed topics such as education, the constitution, the economics of education, the role of language, and decolonising education.
As part of this, I asked them what they understood by the notion of the teacher as an agent of social change. Their remarks ranged across four areas where they thought teachers could make a difference.
The first was pedagogy, or teaching and learning. Student teachers were eager that the way they taught would reflect democracy-in-action, that they would be able to listen to their pupils, not only talk at them. They agreed that subject expertise was an important element of being an agent of social change, for if the teacher does not know his or her subject, the pupils will receive inadequate tuition.
In the area of curriculum, they agreed that the subject life orientation offered pupils exposure to good life choices, but that there was insufficient time in the crowded school curriculum for these important discussions to take place.
The student teachers also reiterated the value of extra-curricular activities, where competences like leadership, organisational skills, and teamwork could be developed. They gave the example of student teachers who had organised games during lunch break, and told how this intervention had excited and motivated pupils, even to the point of them engaging more actively with their school work.
The area of the institutional elicited much discussion. One young student teacher recounted with passion how the teachers at the school where he had been working, despite very adverse social conditions, trusted one another, shared a vision and worked together to promote inclusion and high academic standards. This he attributed to the strong and committed leadership of the principal at that school.
At the level of the social, student teachers articulated a wish that all schools in South Africa would offer a high standard of education so that pupils and their families would actively choose to attend the school closest to their homes, rather than travelling long distances in the hope of a better education. Closer proximity between home and school, they argued, would contribute to parental involvement and community cohesion, and diminish the negative effects of high costs, time and the exertion of travel.
I asked student teachers to bring an object to the workshop that they thought was an expression of how they saw their role as an agent of change. This could be concrete (for example, a lesson plan or a picture), or metaphorical (for example, a song or a poem). The contributions were wonderfully illustrative. One student teacher donned a builder’s hard hat. This, she said, embodied two aspects of her future role.
First, she expected to face many hard knocks at the school, but she felt she was ready for these.
Second, she saw her role as a teacher to be a builder, to be part of constructing the lives of pupils as they moved into the future. The second student teacher showed a picture of a circuit board.
She argued that all aspects of the school are connected, and that if one aspect breaks down, the whole system will suffer. In this way, she portrayed the interconnected role of leadership, classroom practice, teacher professionalism, infrastructure, and home conditions.
The final activity of the workshop was for these student teachers to create a simple drawing that captured their personal vision of a transformed school.
Again, many creative ideas were forthcoming. A mathematics and science student teacher, true to his discipline, drew rockets reaching for the sky, while a physical education student teacher drew pupils participating in sport, and linked a healthy body to a healthy lifestyle. A life orientation teacher drew objects in many shapes and sizes; this, he said, embodied inclusion, where all were treated with respect. Others drew images that illustrated critical thinking and co-operation.
On this World Teachers’ Day, the contributions of these student teachers can only fill us with hope. Let us challenge each participant in the system, whether it be a principal, a district official, policy-maker, teacher educator, pupil, or a parent, to make sure their hopes and dreams can come to fruition.
For if we let our future teachers down, we lose a generation of social actors who can make an enormous difference to our country.
Maureen Robinson is a professor in the department of curriculum studies at Stellenbosch University.