CHAPTER 6: CARVING THE THIRD LAYER OF MY MASTERPIECE ON
6.2 TEACHERS’ EVERYDAY LIVES IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR
6.2.2 Teachers’ adverse responses to their professional role as teachers
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empathetic and nurturing qualities as a teacher. This emotional awareness was essential for her identity formation, since emotional awareness is vital to serving and having a life of meaningful purpose (Deutschendorf, 2009). Bernell, by observing the despondency of her learners, was listening to the needs they communicated non-verbally (Noddings, 2006). Therefore, for Bernell, her actions were not just about torn uniforms, but went deeper to address how the children felt emotionally. Her actions demonstrate how, according to Miller and Moran (2012), a teacher is instrumental in influencing a child’s self-esteem, which can affect the child’s behaviour and achievement. In this act of providing clothes, Bernell showed her love and concern for the learners in a tangible way.
As a teacher at a deprived school, she understood that she had a moral responsibility to contribute to the children’s welfare (Weissbourd, 2003).
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6.2.2.1 The indecisive teacher: The Black learners feel we are weak teachers
Shamilla, a teacher at a Q4 school, had to confront the issue of race at her school when she was required to lead within the classroom. In this instance, the question of race presented a challenge to her as an Indian teacher. Shamilla expressed the problem that she experienced when it came to discipline-related issues, especially if she had to discipline the Black learners. Shamilla felt disappointed that when she had to discipline Black learners, it became more than an issue of discipline, and began to take on a racial dimension:
When the children misbehave, and I discipline the Indian learners, I may get resistance from the learners and some parents, but it is about discipline issues.
However, if I have to discipline the Black learners, then it becomes a race issue.
I call the Black teachers to address the learners then. Surprisingly, if the Black teachers discipline them, it’s okay. This situation is becoming bad because the Black learners feel we are weak teachers, and they know we have to call the Black teachers who are not always available.
Shamilla experienced the diversification of the school and the inclusion of learners who may be ethnically, economically and socially different, as a challenging process (Heystek, 2009). This challenge was evident in her uncertainty about where to stand on the issue of disciplining the Black learners. She seemed to battle with her inability to actively intervene and bring about a significant modification of the learners’ unacceptable behaviour. When experiencing such behaviour, Shamilla chose to be non-confrontational:
“We then back off. We don’t want to be accused of being racist.”
The teachers were confronted with many challenges as a result of issues that arose from the diversification of their schools. Shamilla struggled to handle the discipline-related issues she was confronted with. By categorising the learners as Black learners and Indian learners, she has already used race as a means to group her learners (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). The mere fact that she talks about learners of different race groups creates a separation, and situates one group as insiders (those she can control) and the others as outsiders (those she cannot control) (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). In this racially integrated space of her classroom, Shamilla could have used her position as the teacher to act as an agent to implement social equality instead of being an agent of conflict (Sayed & Novelli,
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2016). By calling in the Black teachers to control the Black learners, she is not promoting inclusiveness amongst her learners, but is instead encouraging racial division. Moreover, subjecting her Indian learners and Black learners to different treatment could have replicating effects, as the Indian learners of her race group could begin to identify with her and emulate her actions, which could result in the perpetuation of divisive, exclusive tendencies (Makoelle, 2014). Instead, Shamilla could have used her classroom as a space in which to set and achieve the long-term goal of encouraging the Black learners to see her as a teacher for all races, rather than being fixated on her short-term goal of achieving and preserving a “normal” classroom state of “disciplined” learners (Priestley, Biesta &
Robinson, 2013). As a product herself of an unequal society, where apartheid denied her equality, Shamilla could have used critical pedagogy to address the issue of discipline and race in her classroom through the teaching of social justice (Davis & Steyn, 2012).
She could have used pedagogies that draw on collaboration, critical reflection and problem solving to foster a more just classroom where all her learners could be treated equally (Balwanz & Hlatshwayo, 2015).
6.2.2.2 The blindsided teacher: The Black learners have no respect for me
Bianca entered the teaching profession before racial integration at schools had been implemented and spent her initial years of teaching under the previous apartheid dispensation. At that time, she taught exclusively Indian learners: “At that stage, the school had only Indian learners and Indian teachers”. With the dawn of democracy, the demographics of learners at her school were radically transformed, and for the first time she experienced a scenario where the learners were different in terms of race, class, cultural groups, language and socio-economic status. Bianca, a teacher at a Q5 school, also had to address the issue of race at her school. She recalls:
Over the years, teaching has changed drastically. When the House of Delegates was dissolved, we were allowed to admit children of all race groups. Sadly, when this happened, we saw an exodus of Indian children from our school. Now our school population is about 1300. In total, we have about 15 Indian children.
The above excerpt foregrounds Bianca’s challenges in relation to racial integration at her school. Words such as “drastically”, “sadly” and “exodus” are strong words that offer us