THE EMERGENCE OF TEACHER IDENTITIES: DEFINING A PROJECT
5.6 MODES OF REFLEXIVITY
To engage in one form o f internal conversation more than any other is to have a particular life o f mind, which thinks about the self in relation to society and vice versa in a particular way.
(Archer, 2007a, p. 100) Central to the emergence o f personal and social identities (Chapter Three), and the emergence o f the social actor, is reflexivity, that is, the mental ability o f persons to consider both their
social contexts in relation to themselves, and themselves in relation to their social context. In the previous section o f this chapter, I provided a brief overview o f the socio-political and economic context that each o f the teachers in my research were born into, and how this context, conditioned and enabled their decision to become teachers, that is, their ultimate concern in relation to their future careers. The internal conversation, an agents’ PEP, enables persons to deliberate about their concerns in the world, and mediate the effects o f the social and cultural systems on agency, and the projects that they formulate.
O f interest in this chapter is how the four participants mediated the structural and cultural constraints and enablements in relation to their project (i.e. to become teachers). Each person has a distinctive mode o f reflexivity. In other words, how persons exercise their reflexivity differs from person to person. In Chapter Three, I presented A rcher’s four modes o f reflexivity:
communicative reflexive, autonomous reflexive, meta-reflexive and fractured. W hile persons are able to move between modes o f reflexivity during their life time, Archer (2003) contends that persons have dominant modes o f reflexivity at certain times o f their lives. In this section, I suggest that the modes o f reflexivity o f the four teachers in my study were formed during their childhoods and have primarily remained consistent. I argue that Nokhaya and Nomsa are both communicative reflexives in that they are reliant on persons close to them to complete their conversations for them. Veliswa and Beauty, by contrast, are both autonomous reflexives, in that they are self-reliant in their decision-making processes. Key to the identification o f the dominant mode o f reflexivity for each o f the teachers in my research, is the extent to which they experienced contextual continuity or discontinuity in their lives.
I begin this section by focusing on Nokhaya and Nomsa, the two communicative reflexives, followed by Veliswa and Beauty, the two autonomous reflexives. The particular mode of reflexivity o f these teachers is o f importance in my study as it assists in explaining how each o f the teachers make the decisions they do; how they mediate social and cultural constraints;
and how they monitor their practices. Each mode o f reflexivity has a distinctive stance toward society and the properties and powers o f the social and cultural systems. I noted in Chapter Three that communicative reflexives adopt a primarily evasive stance and are prone to promoting morphostasis, whereas autonomous reflexives adopt a strategic stance, which generally promotes morphogenesis (Archer, 2007).
5.6.1 Nokhaya and Nomsa as communicative reflexives
Drawing on the data from the life history interviews o f both Nokhaya and Nomsa, I suggest that they are communicative reflexives, that is, persons whose reflexivity is initiated through the internal conversation, but whose reflexivity is not complete until their conclusions have been confirmed through dialogue with significant others in their lives. In other words, both Nokhaya and Nomsa complete their thoughts about themselves, and their projects, in relation to their social contexts, by talking with other people. It is in the process o f talking them through with other people that they conclude their reflexive deliberations.
Three features common among communicative reflexives are evident in the data from Nokhaya’s and N om sa’s life histories. These features include biographical, geographical and occupational contextual continuity; success at dovetailing their concerns; and contentment.
These features are common in agents, like Nokhaya and Nomsa, who use a “thought and talk”
pattern (Archer, 2003, p. 167) in identifying their concerns and developing projects to address their ultimate concerns. Employing a “thought and talk” pattern suggests the social order is privileged as they work hard to sustain relationships with family and friends, precisely because they depend on “similar and familiar” others (Archer, 2007, p. 195) to assist in completing their internal conversations. W hile their concerns, particularly as adults, may be raised intra
personally, they are usually resolved inter-personally. Dialogue with suitable persons, whom they trust, influences what they do, how they act and ultimately whom they become.
I elaborate on each o f the three features highlighted above, by drawing on the life histories of Nokhaya and Nomsa to argue that their dominant mode o f reflexivity is communicative.
5.6.1.1 Lives o f contextual continuity
Nokhaya’s and Nom sa’s life histories are ones o f biographical, geographical and occupational contextual continuity.
5.6.1.1.1 Biographical continuity
In this section I illuminate, using the life history interview data, the natal context o f Nokhaya and Nomsa. Nokhaya was born in 1957 in Tsolo, a rural village, in the former Transkei. Unlike the other teachers in my research, Nokhaya was born into a home where both parents had some level o f education. Her father was a clerk on the railways in Durban in Natal (now referred to as KwaZulu Natal) until he retired, and her mother was a teacher. She was the fourth born o f
five children; three girls and two boys. Despite her father’s long absences from home, he remained instrumental in any decision-making related to his children. This is evident in his decision that Nokhaya should leave school after her Junior Certificate56 and enrol at a teachers’
training college to become a teacher, as noted earlier in this chapter. Nokhaya’s mother was also instrumental in assisting her daughter to make decisions in her life, particularly in relation to her first teaching post. “Yes. I got [teaching posts at] two schools. The other one was locally and the one was too far. My mother said I must stay” (Nokhaya, LHI1, t.22).
Nokhaya regards her mother as the most influential person in her life. She was a teacher by profession, but she did not have permanent employment as it “was difficult for married woman to teach at that time” because permanent posts were reserved for unmarried women (Nokhaya, LHI1, t.58). This meant that she spent long periods at home and had an opportunity to focus on her children’s education. She fostered in Nokhaya a love for books and reading from an early age. “I think I liked books very much that time because I used to take my reading book and turn it upside down (she takes a book to show me). I turned it upside down because I wanted to know if I could read it when it is upside down” (Nokhaya, LHI1, t.80).
While Nokhaya did not elaborate on her relationships with her family once she left the Transkei at the beginning o f 1988, it is evident in this short narrative that she developed a close relationship with her mother, and that her mother was in many respects, the person that she consulted with when she wished to talk through matters o f concern to her.
With Nomsa neither of her parents were her trusted interlocutors, instead it was her older sister, the eldest in the family, who took this role. Although her parents were strict and motivated her, and all their children, to get an education and become professionals, it was her eldest sister who was the first to do so and was thus much admired in Nom sa’s home. In relation to her sister, she said that “she’s the most influential in the family and we respect her” (Nomsa, LHI1, t.320).
Nomsa admires her sister and appears to have followed in her footsteps. “Yes and we were also doing the same subjects at school” (Nomsa, LHI1, t.285). On completion o f her schooling, N om sa’s sister persuaded her to become a teacher and to go to Algoa College. This occurred a few years later when N om sa’s then boyfriend agreed to pay for her studies.
56 During the apartheid years, one could obtain a Junior Certificate at the end of Grade 10.
N om sa’s sister convinced her, after she had been teaching at Daniels Primary School in Zwide in Port Elizabeth for three and a half years, to take up a permanent post at the same school that she was teaching in. Nomsa thus moved to Lwandle and started teaching in the FP at Phambili Public School where her sister was the HoD. Nomsa, having gained experience as a primary school teacher indicated that she was interested in becoming a HoD. W hile there was a HoD post available in Lwandle Township, Nomsa was interested in applying to schools in Port Elizabeth, “but my sister doesn’t want me to go back to PE (Port Elizabeth), I’m not sure why ... but she’s the one who advised me to come here. She’s also teaching here” (Nomsa, LHI1, tt. 280-282). Her sister is thus not supporting her in this decision, and it appears that Nomsa for now, is complying.
Nomsa has the greatest respect for her sister, as does the rest of the family. “ She is a very honest person. If I can count her boyfriends, only two that I know (laughs), only two. It’s her boyfriend and the one that’s she’s married to. She was the first one in the family to drive a car, she was the first one to become a professional” (Nomsa, LHI1, t.286).
Both Nomsa and Nokhaya come from stable home environments. Both had parents who were in long-standing relationships and who had the interests o f their children at heart. Both Nokhaya and Nomsa were able to identify, early in their life, significant interlocutors who they consulted with about their concerns (i.e. what they care about in the world), and who assisted them in formulating and monitoring their projects. The communicative reflexive becomes dependent on having at least one person who they trust implicitly and can communicate with, in order to share their “thought and talk” pattern (Archer, 2003, p. 167). Developing relations o f trust is central to this/these relationship(s) (Archer, 2007, p. 158) and trust is earned, “as the more that has been shared, the easier it is to share more, provided there is mutual recognition o f similarities by those involved” (Archer, 2007, p. 165). The ‘familiars’ for both Nokhaya and Nomsa were family members. Despite the significant biographical continuity in the lives of Nokhaya and Nomsa, their lives were also framed by relative geographical continuity.
5.6.1.1.2 Geographic continuity
Both Nokhaya and Nomsa lived in, what is currently known as the Eastern Cape, throughout their lives. Nokhaya lived in two regions in the Eastern Cape: the Transkei, where she lived from birth till age 30 and Lwandle in the Eastern Cape formerly known as the Cape Province, where she has remained since.
As noted earlier in this chapter, Nokhaya’s schooling started in the village o f Tsolo, but she moved to Ndamase Secondary School in Ndamase, a neighbouring village for her secondary schooling, as there were no secondary schools in Tsolo. Her mother made the decision that her daughter should go to Ndamase Secondary School. At the end o f her Junior Certificate, Nokhaya went to Shawbury Teachers’ Training College in Shawbury to start her Primary Teachers Certificate (PTC). Her first teaching post was in Lower Esinxaku, a village close to Tsolo. Ndamase, Shawbury and Lower Esinxaku are all within a 60km radius from Tsolo, which meant that for the first 30 years o f Nokhaya’s life, she lived close to home. Since leaving the Transkei in 1988, and taking up employment at Sontonga Public School in Lwandle, Nokhaya has lived in Lwandle Township.
N om sa’s primary schooling started on New Years’ Farm. This farm school had a single class from Grade1 to 4. Nomsa (Nomsa, LHI1, t.32) describes it in this excerpt:
[The school] was called New Year Park. It was from Grade 1, it was then called Sub A to Standard 2 (Grade 4). And then Standard 3 to Standard 4 (Grade 5-6) to another farm, then Standard 5 (Grade 7) to another farm. Then from Standard 6 (Grade 8) in Grahamstown because there were not high schools on the farm.
Nomsa thus went to three different multi-grade primary schools all in the same vicinity on neighbouring farms. As there were no high schools in the district o f Seven Fountains, Nomsa went to school in the closest town, Grahamstown, 30km from the farm on which she grew up.
“Yes and I was so young, and others would say are you coming to do Standard 6 (Grade 8)?”
(Nomsa, LHI1, t.130). There, she schooled at Nathaniel Nyalusa, the oldest black school in the former Cape Province. She started her high school education in 1988. During this time she lived with her aunt until her family moved from New Age Farm in Seven Fountains to settle in Grahamstown in 1990. After four years o f unemployment and living at home, Nomsa went to Algoa College in Port Elizabeth to do a National Professional Diploma in Education (NPDE) in 1997. Once she graduated in 1999, she taught in Port Elizabeth for eight and a half years.
Like Nokhaya, Nomsa never moved far from her natal context. The furthest place geographically from Seven Fountains, was Port Elizabeth, which is 100km away. Both teachers’ lives thus reflect ones o f geographical continuity. I next consider the extent to which their lives represent ones o f occupational continuity.
5.6.1.1.3 Occupational continuity
Nokhaya and Nomsa both have family members who were teachers and influenced their decision to become teachers. As highlighted earlier, Nokhaya’s parents made the decision for her to become a teacher. Since obtaining her PTC at the end o f 1978, Nokhaya taught in two schools. She started teaching Grade 5 in 1979 at Lower Esinxaku Secondary School. It was Nokhaya’s mother who suggested that she take up the position at Lower Esinxaku Secondary School. When she applied for a teaching post she was offered two places. At Lower Esinxaku, Nokhaya taught Grade 5 for ten years.
In 1988, she moved to the school where she currently teaches, Sontonga Public School in Lwandle. At Sontonga, she taught Grade 5 until the end o f 2010. It was only when she was asked by the School Management Team (SMT) if she would be prepared to teach Grade 3, that she considered teaching in the FP. One o f the FP teachers retired at the end o f 2010 and the SMT thought that Nokhaya would be a suitable replacement for her. She saw this move as an opportunity because she realised that there was much that could be done in the FP. “I was teaching Grade 5 and then the teacher from this grade, Grade 3 left, retired. And then the SMT gathered together to decide who must come to teach Grade 3 and they chose me” (Nokhaya, LHI1, t.2).
Having followed in her m other’s footsteps, Nokhaya, throughout the 33 years she had been teaching when I met her, had taught in only two schools. For the vast majority o f that time (i.e.
32 years) she taught Grade 5. In August 2012 when I met her, she had been teaching Grade 3 for 18 months. Her occupational narrative reflects one o f significant stability and continuity.
N om sa’s eldest sister who studied to become a teacher, has been very influential in N om sa’s teaching career. After a year o f not working post completion o f her NPDE, Mrs Ngqakayi, a teacher she met at a hairdressing salon, suggested that she go to Elundeni Public Primary School in Motherwell, a suburb o f Port Elizabeth in January, as there were a number o f posts available at the school. This she did and started her teaching career as a Grade 3 teacher. Nomsa taught at Elundeni Primary School for three years, from 2001 to 2003. She moved to Daniels Primary School in Zwide, another suburb in Port Elizabeth. At Daniels Primary School, she taught maths in the Intermediate Phase (Grade 5 to 7) from 2004 to mid-2007. Finally in mid- 2007, Nomsa found a permanent post at Phambili Public School in Lwandle. Her sister was
“the one who advised me to come here” (Nomsa, LHI1, t.282). Nomsa is currently teaching Grade 3 at Phambili Public School. Nomsa expressed an interest in applying for a more senior position in a school. “Like one day I want to be a principal ... I think I have to do my honours and after that nothing will stop me. Even now I’m going to apply in the bulletin for a HoD post” (Nomsa, LHI1, tt.302-304). However, she later explained that it was unlikely that she would leave as “my sister doesn’t want me to go back to PE, I’m not sure why” (Nomsa, LHI1, t.280).
Three characteristics related to contextual continuity characterise the experiences o f Nokhaya and Nomsa. Firstly, both come from a stable and supportive family. Nokhaya, being close to her mother, was able to develop a trusting relationship and one in which she could share
“thought and talk” (Archer, 2003, p. 167). For Nomsa, that person was her sister. Secondly, their biographies suggested a natal context typified by geographical stability that resulted in continuity throughout their schooling, from primary school to initial teacher training, and into their first teaching posts. Thirdly, there existed for both Nokhaya and Nomsa, having qualified with their respective teaching qualifications, occupational options within close proximity to their natal contexts.
This contextual continuity in both Nokhaya and N om sa’s lives have enabled them to “realise their ‘ultimate concerns’ through developing a modus vivendi expressive o f them” (Archer, 2012, p. 133). Committing to a career, like teaching, is a big step in shaping the identities of persons. The choice o f occupation “serves (provisionally) to seal continuity with the natal context or to signal rapture with it. Even the provisional choice o f work continuous with that context may foster new ties rebinding subjects to the familial background” (Archer, 2012, p. 154). Nokhaya and Nomsa chose occupations that are deeply embedded in an extension of their natal social context.
5.6.1.2 Dovetailing their concerns: Nokhaya and Nomsa’s decision-making processes Deciding on one’s ultimate concern, as explained in Chapter Three and earlier in this chapter, involves the DDD process (Archer, 2000). It is through this process, that persons dovetail their concerns in the three different orders o f reality and decide on their ultimate concerns.
Throughout Nokhaya’s life, she has seemingly had decisions made about her future on her behalf. While it is understandable that parents make decisions on behalf o f their children while they are minors, it appears from the life history interview with Nokhaya that key decisions have
been made on her behalf well into adulthood. The trajectory thus o f a seemingly passive agent however, is one that emerged in her youth and is reflected in her decision to become a teacher;
the decision to teach at a school close to her home village o f Tsolo, and the decision to become a FP teacher.
The deliberative process o f identifying her ultimate concern, was for Nomsa, driven primarily by finances. As shown earlier in this chapter, it was only when her then boyfriend offered to pay for her studies, that Nomsa made the decision to follow in her sister’s footsteps and become a teacher. She enrolled at Algoa College in Port Elizabeth for her NPDE.
5.6.1.3 Contentment
Archer (2012) suggests that communicative reflexives are passive about their careers. In the life history interviews with Nokhaya and Nomsa, it became clear that their life choices were directed by decisions made on their behalf - becoming a teacher (Nokhaya & Nomsa) and moving to Lwandle (Nomsa). Yet, their stories appear to be one o f contentment.
Despite telling me in her life history interview that she would have chosen a “career with better salary” (Nokhaya, LHI1, t.254), Nokhaya acknowledged that teaching is her career and it is the hope that the children she teaches will ultimately be successful, that keeps her going.
I suggest that N om sa’s narrative is also one o f contentment as she stated that she wished to remain within the teaching profession. She is interested in applying for a HoD position and ultimately a principalship. Her sister has suggested that she apply for HoD positions, not in Port Elizabeth, but in Lwandle Township.
While communicative reflexives depend on significant interlocutors to assist them in the process o f deliberating about their concerns in the world, they are not simply people to whom things happen, rather they are authors o f their own projects, based on their ultimate concerns.
Both Nokhaya and Nomsa, once deciding to become teachers, had to develop projects that they considered desirable and that they could live by. In defining their projects, that is, their course o f action to realise their concern for teaching, they engaged in the process o f reflexive deliberations which is a first-person task. As Archer (2003) notes “there cannot be a third- person substitute for the author o f reflexive acts” (p. 190).