The way the PGCE part-time students learn might be influenced by their various reasons for joining the PGCE part-time programme. This sub-section explores such reasons in order to establish how their reasons for joining PGCE might be linked to how they develop professional knowledge in their teaching.
The majority of the participants joined the PGCE for extrinsic reasons, such as getting job security and getting qualified teacher professional status. This brought other expected
benefits, such as a better salary, because of the qualification and change of identity status.
Below is a description of the respondents’ reasons for joining the PGCE programme.
Lily
She joined the PGCE programme by chance because she did not have any plans to become a teacher. She was probably influenced by family and friends to try teaching. She has this to say:
If you have a basic degree, everybody will say go and teach. That seems to be the simplest thing to do and the easiest thing to get into, you know, ok what can I do now? I will probably try teaching.
From her report it appears that Lily joined the PGCE programme by chance, because she was not clear what she was interested in doing besides giving it a try in the teaching field.
Rex
At first he reported that he joined teaching to relieve financial pressures and later realised that he really needed to join the teaching profession by doing a PGCE. He enrolled for the PGCE so that he could be a qualified educator and could secure his post which was temporary. By having this PGCE qualification, Rex will be on the permanent staff in the teaching profession. He shared these feelings when asked why he joined the PGCE programme:
Well it was to secure a better post, because at the moment I am working as an Unprotected Temporary Educator (UTE), a temporary teacher and will remain a temporary teacher until I get hold of a qualification in education so that’s why I have done PGCE.
Tom
Firstly, he was inspired by his mother who is also a teacher and, to some extent, this inspired him. Secondly, he was teaching as a temporary educator and his contract expired at the end of the year, meaning there was no income for him. He then decided to get a teaching qualification so that he could continue in the teaching field. When asked why he joined the PGCE programme, he answered:
Firstly, my mother is a teacher; secondly it’s what happened at my first school. I started in April and the contract expired in December, the way it happened was painful. I had enjoyed receiving some cash and was very disappointed and then I
started at another school but decided that since I have started teaching I should continue.
Kim
Kim joined the PGCE for intrinsic motivation reasons. She had this excitement to build, construct, change the way people think, as a teacher. She seems to have a passion for helping people change the way they view the world.
Kim reported:
I want to work with people I want to build and construct and change the way people think.
Sam
Sam joined teaching because he had enthusiasm for the teaching profession. He had felt excited being a teacher since he was at school. He shared these feelings during the interview:
While I was at school, I liked teaching, cause while I was doing grade 12, I used to teach grade 10s Accounting, but during those days what was happening was that, teachers were being retrenched so I thought of doing something that would get me involved with people because I like helping people a lot.
Jane
Jane said that she joined the PGCE as she wanted to get the teacher qualification because it was very important to have. In order for her to get teacher status, this was vital for her.
To be honest I really was going to get the teacher qualification because now that is so important in teaching to be properly qualified and be SACE registered, I was really hoping that I would learn some interesting stuff along the way [laughs] but it really was primarily to become qualified.
Kelly
Kelly reported that she enrolled for the PGCE because she was tired of being a temporary educator and wanted job security. She claimed that one can teach for many years and without the teacher qualification one would remain a temporary educator. In order for her to change the status the qualification was of great importance.
I am really tired of being a temporary educator. So I find that I must do this PGCE course, because even if I can teach for 10 years it will be always temporary.
Meg
From the interview it was not mentioned which subjects she teaches and it was not clear why she joined the PGCE programme.
Sbu
Her reason for why she enrolled for the PGCE was to protect her job, since she has been employed as a temporary educator.
Cause there is that issue of that when you are serving for a year, the department said you are in the line to get the permanent, job, especially when you are studying. When I pass this year, that means I will become a qualified teacher.
Pelly
Pelly’s qualification was evaluated by Umalusi in 2002 and she was requested to upgrade her teaching qualifications, because she was not professionally trained to be an educator.
Since that time she remained an UTE, meaning her job was not permanent. She later signed up for the PGCE programme so that she can become a qualified educator.
I saw that there is need for me to do a professional qualification because now I was put on as an unqualified temporary teacher (UTE), so I have decided to register last year.
5.2.1 Summary of the reasons for doing the PGCE
From this teacher background information the majority of the participants joined the PGCE programme in order to secure their teaching jobs. They came to the programme to earn the qualification so that they could become professionally qualified teachers. It seems some of the participants felt that they were inadequate without the teaching qualification and some even felt that they were tired of being labelled as UTE. These feelings probably emanated from evaluations or judgements given to them by their work colleagues. The Department of Education could not recognise these teachers as permanent teachers as they did not have professional teacher qualifications. According to the policy document these teachers needed a PGCE following an approved first degree, in order for them to be recognised as qualified
educators (Department of Education, 2006). All-in-all, lack of job security was challenging for all the teachers and this is why they decided to have a teaching qualification. Having a PGCE would mean a change of status, which would bring feelings of satisfaction, recognition and happiness as qualified professionals.
In order to answer the main research question, below are the themes that emerged from the interviews. The themes will be analysed according to their research question. Next are the themes that emerged from the interview for research question one.