DEDICATION
6.1 THE RHETORIC DIRECTLY LINKED TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESSES LEARNING PROCESSES
6.1.2 The Rhetoric of Difficult Work
Barbara: Does the government make a follow-up to check if the teacher is a proper Maths teacher or just by name only (BP 28)?
This parent seemed concerned about the academic competence of teachers and whether or not the government had a strategy to monitor teachers’ professionalism in relation to the subjects that they taught. What Barbara was suggesting was that there should not be a mismatch between teachers’ qualifications and the subject/s that they are employed to teach. So, the rhetoric was really about the teachers’ ‘fitness’ to teach, particularly the Maths subject, which was one of the scarce skills that South Africa has a long history of poor learner performance in.
Seemingly, for the parent participants, monitoring and evaluation operates at four levels namely; teachers need to be monitored by the Department of Education officials; that teachers’ work needs to be ascertained by evidence in the children’s book; that teachers themselves are capable of monitoring their work; and that the government needs to evaluate the impact of new programmes on teachers’ work. What came out strongly in this rhetoric of monitoring was the need for surveillance as a way of ensuring compliance with the curriculum or the expectations by the DoE in order to increase productivity.
Zenith: I think that the work of teachers is the most difficult work because it involves the different kinds of children; some that know how to respect the elders and some children that are disrespectful. It's a difficult job that even I as a parent may not be able to cope with...yeah, very difficult (ZP 7).
Zenith observed that dealing with ill-disciplined children added to the load of work that teachers have and it often derailed the process of teaching and learning. This parent talked about ill-discipline as a struggle, not only for teachers, but also parents, who both have to deal with rebellious children. The parent revealed the way in which some parents have lost authority over their own children, and therefore, empathises with teachers who have to deal with quite a number of ill-disciplined children. The rhetoric was about the work of teachers being made difficult, not so much by the academic demands, but by the social issues that impact on teaching and learning.
Whilst Sharon believed that a teacher is a professional who knows their work and teaches the child to read and write, Zenith saw the difficulty of teachers’ work centring more around children and how teachers are supposed to handle them than the teaching aspect.
In the same vein, Barbara noted that:
Barbara: Othisha bathwele kanzima manje [teachers are having it hard nowadays… kukhona izingane ezidla amadrugs ezinye azihloniphi fanele uthisha (a)deal(e) nako [there are learners who use drugs, others are disrespectful and the teacher has to deal with all of this] (BP 10).
This parent talked about the intensity of teachers’ work as being located in some sources which are external to the core business of teaching. She observed that the sources were multi-layered; that is, they may have emanated from social (ill-behaviour) or psychosocial (use of drugs) dimensions. The rhetoric was about external sources adding to the difficulty of teachers’ work.
Teachers’ work was seen as difficult in a positive way when it assisted learners to be successful in class by achieving or learning difficult skills. But teachers’ work was seen as difficult in a negative way when it was disrupted by other issues which made teachers unable to successfully fulfil their teaching roles. In some way, these parents saw teachers’
work being made more complex or difficult because of outside influence. In Laclau and Mouffe’s (2001) discourse theory, these parents’ articulations on teachers’ work as being
difficult, formed chains of difference since they were all talking about the same issue, yet from different perspectives.
6.1.3 The Rhetoric of Stressful Work
The rhetoric of stressful work was largely centred on the issues of what teachers are unable to do, to curricular issues and, to a certain extent, to learners’ behaviour or attitudes. It ranges from the inability of teachers to attend to learners’ different needs, to being unprepared, to being put to the test by the learners. Other issues included parental non-involvement as well as the hectic nature of teachers’ work.
Two of the parents talked about the teacher-learner ratio as contributing to the stressful nature of teachers’ work:
Zenith: Because it gives them pressure - in teaching more than 40 pupils15 in class (ZP 21).
Barbara: There are schools where learners are overcrowded in class. The teacher is frustrated if s/he is unable to get close to a child who may be having a problem because learners are just too many (BP 26).
What these parents noted was that if teachers were teaching large classes they became overwhelmed. In fact, Zenith talked about teachers being pressured, whilst Barbara talked about teachers being unable to attend to individual and diverse needs of learners. The rhetoric was about teachers not performing at their best because of institutional problems, such as overcrowding.
The stress in teachers’ work was also seen as emanating from the introduction of new curriculum. As explained by Zenith:
Zenith: Also…this new syllabus16, some of the teachers are not familiar with it, so it's a pressure for them because at times they go to class unprepared. Sometimes learners asking them (teachers) questions that they don't have answers for (ZP 21).
What Zenith observed was that teacher unpreparedness could be a consequence of not having full understanding of new curricular innovations that teachers needed to adapt.
She implied that teachers are pressured, not only to learn, but also to implement the new
15 Used synonymously as learners or students
16 Used synonymously to mean curriculum
curricular policies that they are not well-versed with; thus, causing their work to be stressful. Zenith further talked about how teachers are put to the test by some learners.
She noted that teachers’ competence is sometimes questioned and tested by learners who may have particular demands during teaching and learning.
Sharon talked about the stressful work of teachers being further compounded by the fact that some parents were not helpful or involved in their children’s education.
Sharon: They don't encourage their children to learn. They don't help their children with their schoolwork. There is no schoolwork done by their children at home. This cause stress for teachers (SP 5).
This parent indicated that the non-involvement of parents in their children’s education was stressful for teachers who expected parents to help the children with some aspects of their schoolwork, especially where teachers could not offer individual attention to all the learners. The rhetoric was that teachers’ work was made stressful due to the lack of support from parents or as a result of a disconnection between the school and the home.
One of the parents indicated that:
Whitney: The daily teachers’ work can be regarded as hectic (WP 4).
What Whitney observed was that teachers’ work became stressful when it was chaotic or filled with confusion from various expectations or demands imposed on teachers by the DoE or parents, as further indicated by Whitney.
The nature of teachers’ work was stressful when it imposed negative emotional state on teachers and hindered their effectiveness. Stressful work could be seen as a point around which varying parents’ rhetoric was constructed.