identity for their future practice?
Two themes related to Research Question 4 emerged:
Theme 1:
• Empowerment
Feelings of empowerment were overwhelmingly articulated by the PSTs who took part in the study. The following excerpts reveal that PSST participants were empowered.
I do feel empowered as a teacher (future teacher) because now, I have information on how to start indigenous gardens and if I get a job maybe at a disadvantaged school where disadvantaged learners learn, I can even start a garden there to help them take their crops home and the feed their families if maybe the parents are long gone (dead) or they are the only ones who are able to sponsor their families. (FG1 PSST3)
Also, we could also implement this garden exercise in schools where we are going to teach, for example, some of us are going to teach in deep rural schools, where we must teach learners about plants as from their … background. (FG5 PSST4)
So, it has empowered me as a future Life Sciences teacher. It’s not only based on standing in front learners and teach but also involving them in such activities. Yah it was a great experience. (II PSST1)
125
As a teacher (future teacher), the project inspired me to expand it to other schools I will be teaching at. (RJ PSST10)
Pre-service teachers who participated in the U-CE project felt empowered to do more than what was required of them, as is evidenced by the view of one participant (II PSST1) to go beyond standing in front of learners and teach. This marks a shift in the mindset in this participant, from simply teaching from the front of the class to extending the experience of food gardening to the learners she would teach in the future.
Moreover, on reflection, participant RJPSST10 echoed the position of II PSST1, by stating that he would go beyond the food gardening in the university campus and extend the idea to the schools he would be working at in the future. It can be summarized from the four data sets under the empowerment theme above that the PSSTs became more passionate about teaching about food gardening in the schools as professional teachers in the future.
Christiansen (1999) asserted that identity is constructed through day-to-day activities over a period and it influences an individual’s interaction in society. The author adds that through proficiency in career, identity is moulded which contributes to happiness if the new identity is accepted by the individual. Besides, Mayer (1999) stated that learning the rudiments of teaching such as the methods, content, and curriculum is the first aspect of teaching while developing a teaching identity towards teaching (a second aspect) encompasses having motivational feelings to make a difference in the profession. The author contends that knowing the fundamentals of teaching is termed
“being the teacher” while developing an identity over time through perceiving your social environment is “becoming a teacher” (p. 10). Additionally, factors such as individual conviction, prevailing social and environmental influences, family and household backgrounds could impact the identity of pre-service teachers and how they attend to discourses in their teaching career (Gu & Benson, 2015).
Therefore, I submit that most PSSTs who were involved in the U-CE in this research developed the motivation to make a positive difference, not only in the curriculum content knowledge of nutrition (being a teacher) but were inspired to go and make a difference in the lives of their future learners. They were inspired to engage in
“becoming a teacher”. The empowerment achieved by the PSSTs in this study went beyond only the skills to impart the content specified in the biology syllabus to their
126
future learners. The PSSTs yearned to bring about social change in the communities where they may find themselves teaching in the future (becoming a teacher).
So, it also empowers us as future Life Sciences teachers to also introduce such in our schools that we are going to. (II PSST1)
Moreover, Lavery, Coffey, and Sandri (2017) alluded to the fact that pre-service teachers attained a significant change in their attitudinal behaviour in addition to their training towards becoming classroom teachers after undergoing a service-learning program that partnered with the community. Scholars have submitted that critical pedagogy emancipates the students who are oppressed and disadvantaged. Freire (1970) described ‘self-depreciation’ (p. 63) as the conscious belief by the oppressed;
conceptualized by the oppressor, that the oppressed are incompetent, indolent and incapable of achieving greatness in life. The author argued that the oppressed can be liberated through thoughtful participation in the act of freedom and not by merely taking them out of the predicament.
Theme 2:
• Agency through activism
Most PSST participants enunciated that through U-CE using the garden project, they would become agents of transformation in the South African context. The excerpts below from focus group and individual interviews confirm that the PSSTs believed that through the experience and skills acquired through U-CE, they could be agents of change in the society.
In addition, this will help black people to be independent; blacks always depend on white people or those who are rich, they work for these people if they aren’t working for them, they will go and do their garden and sell it. (FG2 PSST4)
As future teachers, I think these garden projects have empowered us to implement or put into action this in schools, whereby it can also help us to fight the epidemic diseases …and fight the big problem in Africa as we are facing; poverty. So, I think this would be big, this would be big … initiative for us as teachers in schools.
(FG4 PSST1)
127
Pre-service science teacher participant – FG4 PSST1 linked food gardening, not only to food insecurity but also by saying that it can help us to fight the epidemic diseases.
This was very significant because it revealed a sense of agency, an ability to act, on the part of the PSST.
Other participants also confirmed that through the food garden project, they could bring about transformation in the aspect of enhancing well -being and reduction of poverty, as practicing Life Sciences teachers. The data set below attest to this assertion of agency.
…this project can also provide a solution to the community, who are highly affected by poverty, as South Africa as a developing country. (FG1 PSST3)
Garden projects can be implemented in schools. As a biology teacher, having the ability and being knowledgeable about gardens, I can positively improve my learners’ well-being… (RJ PSST2)
The data from the reflective journal and individual interview further attest to the awakening of the activism and agency in the PSSTs acquired through participating in the U-CE. de Leon‐Carillo (2007) speculated that pre-service teachers begin their training with opinionated notions about the roles of teachers before experiencing the program. However, teachers’ identity is reshaped through their development into becoming a teacher; knowing the functions of a teacher and being a teacher (Abulon, 2014; de Leon‐Carillo, 2007; Friesen & Besley, 2013).