From this chapter it is evident that experience is both an internal and external process and is not something that happens to a group but to individuals. Even when a group has a common experience the depth to which it is experienced is different from one member of the group to another. The environment or context plays a great role in every experience but is not the only factor. There are factors that are both seen and unseen, known and unknown, which have the ability to impact on not just the experience but the type of experience one gets.
From the analysis one can find that the students in this study had both great enduring experiences and very negative destructive experiences. It is evident also that family and home environment, as far removed as it is from the context under research, can also impact on a student’s high school experience.
The importance of teachers, the relationship they have with learners and the methodology and pedagogy that they apply to their work in and out of class cannot be over-emphasised. Many students in my study highlighted the issue of teacher- centred rote teaching as detrimental to their academic success. Such methodology is characterised by an instructor (teacher) and learner type of arrangement;
learners spoke when spoken to, making it difficult for learners to relate. This creates apprehension where learners are unable to ask questions or make contributions in class. Teachers should have cordial relationships with their students as that gives students the freedom to be themselves in class and make valuable contributions to classroom discourse. The absence of cordiality makes it difficult for students to ask questions or make meaningful contributions in class.
The classroom context should also make it easy for learners to have different
opinions from their teachers. A healthy classroom setting must encourage divergent views as that is the foundation of creativity and independence which is at the base of academic growth and success.
It has been established that the experiences of student teachers of English has informed not just their decision to become teachers but also teachers of English.
This goes to show that no experience can be overlooked as it is capable of either fostering or derailing the dream and future of a future teacher. At the heart of the learners’ choice to be teachers is a desire to play a role in the future of young people. But reasons for becoming a teacher are far deeper than that; while they are personal, they are almost all united by the desire to impact people’s lives. In as much as many stakeholders are involved in creating a worthwhile and fruitful learning experience for learners, it is teachers who have a direct effect on students in the classroom, because that is, after all, where learning takes place.
CHAPTER 5:
CONCLUSION 5.1. Introduction
My research was centred on the experiences of the South African English classroom with the focus on the high school experiences of student teachers of English at a university in KwaZulu-Natal.
This study was considered imperative due to the upsurge in the number of students registering to be teachers and the existing gap in knowledge among these students that has seen some excel while others struggle. That prompted a critical look into their past high school experiences. This study set out to determine if current study can be affected or enhanced by past experiences which has necessitated a study that speaks to those realities.
It is pertinent to further note that all the schools in this research located in the rural areas and townships were considered by the participants to be under-resourced and all the schools in the urban areas were considered to be well resourced. This goes to show the apparent disparity in development among urban, township and rural settings in South Africa and the asymmetrical impact it has on schools and schooling consequently. This study suggests that in general, schools in urban areas boast the best resources and more qualified teachers than their counterparts in township and rural areas and this fact has consistently shaped the outcomes emanating from schools located in these contexts. There are findings that point to the fact that most poorly managed schools are also located in the townships and rural areas which could explain why many learners in these areas have poorer experiences of high school than their counterparts in the urban areas.
Some schools have resources which are not put to profitable use, for fear of learners vandalizing them or damaging equipment or infrastructure supposedly bought or constructed for their use. The fact that most of these schools do not pay
fees probably made it expedient on some principals to prioritize the safety of school infrastructure, study apparatus/equipment and information and information communication technology (ICT) over students’ use or interest.
Taken altogether, these results suggest that English was predominantly used in all the urban schools and IsiZulu and Sesotho used mainly in the rural and township schools depending on location and the language group that dominated that location. The implication of this is the possibility that learners’ inability to understand or use English was their greatest undoing as it affected not just their academic life but also their confidence and general interest in education. This is happening against the backdrop of English being the language of teaching and learning in most South African schools. My research also highlighted many schools where teaching and learning were prioritised and where learners were helped not only academically but also to be motivated and dream bigger. My research threw up a very convoluted classroom and school experience that also led to a variety of reasons why the student teachers in my research chose to be teachers. The relevance of classroom methodology to this study is clearly supported by the current findings. These experiences were found to have informed the current experiences my participants are having in their study of English.