Chapter 5 Lens 2: The teacher-self in relation to the socio-cultural context
5.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the second layer of analysis which deals with the teacher- learner in relation to the socio-cultural context in response to the second sub-question: What meanings of self, shape teachers’ learning? As Wasserman and Jacobs (2003) note race, class and gender are socially and historically constructed so the teachers’ identities in this study have been shaped by their experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa and continue to be shaped through their practice as teachers. Teachers in this study were educated and trained during the apartheid era in South African, in educational institutions that were stratified according to race, class and gender. During apartheid, South African schools were divided by race through the enforcement of the following laws: The Bantu Education Act No.47 of 1953;
The Coloured Persons Education Act No. 47 of 1963 and the Indian Education Act No 61 of 1965 (Mothata & Lemmer, 2002). The Bantu Education Act No.47 of 1953 in particular led to a more racially divided teacher training system. Although South African schools have been desegregated for more than a decade after apartheid, problems relating to race, class, and culture and gender still manifest in schools (Jansen, 2004a; Ndimande, 2009).
As children, the teachers in this study attended racially segregated schools and as practising teachers, they presently teach in racially desegregated schools. How do these teachers negotiate the complexities that arise from such changes and challenges in South Africa’s new educational setting? How do they negotiate their meanings of teacher-self/ves within particular schooling realities and what do they do to change and challenge the reproduction of the dominant discourses in their schools and communities?
Social identity theory and the socio-cultural theory provide me with theoretical lenses through which to examine how the dominant structures of schooling in South Africa shape particular (raced, classed, gendered) constructions of the teacher-learner. Social identity theory is a theoretical perspective which addresses group membership and behaviour (Hogg, Terry & White, 1995; Hogg & Terry, 2000). Social identity theorists believe that “the self is at least partially defined by membership of social groups” (Bornman, 2010, p. 237). As
Chapter 5 Lens 2: The teacher-self in relation to the socio-cultural context
is seen as an ongoing “synthesis of (internal) self-definition and the (external) definitions of one’s self as offered by others.” The way in which teachers position themselves in their social lives and at their schools gives rise to their identities as teacher-learners. The socio-cultural theory, on the other hand, allows me to examine teachers’ identities and agency within the particular social contexts that shape and continue to shape certain constructions of teacher- learner. “Teacher agency is part of a complex dynamic; it shapes and is shaped by the cultural features of society and school cultures (Lasky, 2005, p. 900).
In this chapter I present a critical analysis of the lives of the teachers in this study and how they negotiate meanings of race, class, gender and the dominant discourses of schooling as they make new meanings for themselves as teacher-learners. I also explore how these particular discourses shape the way these teachers view themselves and the meanings that they ascribe to their practice as teacher-learners in South African public schools.
Although all teachers in this study are shaped by race, class and gender, I consciously foreground particular discourses that frame the meanings that teachers give to themselves as teacher-learners.
Racial identity is crucial within the South African context given the country’s history of apartheid and the way this has shaped South Africans. Racial identity provides a framework for understanding individual and collective identities. For the purpose of this research it is important to note that race is a social construct “with no rational basis in biology” (Francis, Hemson, Mphambukeli & Quin, p.139). Race has to be understood within the discourses of gender, sexuality and social class. Race has a “formative” power in that it forms and shapes the individual and collective identities (Connolly, 1998, p. 11). Discourses on race have serious consequences as they give rise to the stereotypical way in which teachers are labelled and treated. Race, together with the discourses of class and gender, is an important facet of this study since it shapes teachers.
I also examine how teachers’ positions as being raced, gendered and classed are shaped as children through socialisation at their schools (as learners) and at home (as children), and how as teachers they find different ways of recreating and reworking meanings of “who they are” to produce new meanings of teacher-learner as they work in desegregated public schools. Through this process of creating and producing new meanings of teacher- learners, they are able to develop personally and professionally as social beings working in
Chapter 5 Lens 2: The teacher-self in relation to the socio-cultural context
particular schooling realities. Discourses of race, class and gender are important for this study if we are to understand South African teachers’ learning within the “multiple contexts” in which they work and the “social systems in which they participate” (Borko, 2004, p.4).
Like Pillay (2003, p. 81), “the storied vignette offers a space for me to provide a critical perspective to the interpretation, through a process of excavating and making visible those subtle silences and muted experiences embedded in the life story, that have shaped, shape and continue to shape teachers’ lives.” In this chapter I present vignettes of the five teachers which direct us to how they negotiate the teacher-self/ves within particular schooling realities and how they consciously take on particular discourses to disrupt or attempt to disrupt the production and reproduction of the dominant discourses in their schools and communities. These vignettes show how these five teachers use their position as teachers to rework what it means to be a teacher-learner. Through the vignettes I highlight how their race, class and gender meanings of self are shaped and continue to be shaped by their daily lived experiences as teacher-learners.
Chapter 5 Lens 2: The teacher-self in relation to the socio-cultural context