Setting the scene
Introduction
This study focuses on the life experiences of teachers and presents an understanding of the title "What is a teacher anyway?" Researching the past and present experiences of teachers will allow me to better understand how teachers understand themselves.
Background
Only by understanding teachers' individual lived stories and personal experiences can one understand how they know themselves in relation to their work and how this affects their work. They state that teachers' experiences are shaped in particular ways by their identities and localities.
Why I am doing this study
Jansen (2001) points out that policy changes in the South African education system have placed teachers in a dilemma. My research into understanding how teachers give meaning and meaning to themselves and their work is driven by these demands, changes and challenges that teachers face.
Key research questions
What are the constructions of the professional self-forming teachers' work in a South African primary school. The above key research questions have helped me to understand how teachers make meaning and sense of themselves and their professional work amid all the changes and challenges they face.
Political and professional context
- The school
- Policy shifts
She maintains that there is a paradigm shift in the way teachers think, write and talk about students. Sayed points out that "there is a clear gap between the seven roles and responsibilities and what actually happens in the classrooms".
Methodology
Outline of chapters
I then proceeded to explore the ways in which I went about analyzing the data. It allowed me to find depth, meaning and insights in the life of a teacher. I am the president of the board of directors of the school in the area where I live.
The biographical force affects Sarah's sense-making of her work in the context of the school. These identities give us a better understanding of who they are and how they make sense of themselves and their professional work in the context of the school. This reflects the professional work of the male teacher in the classroom and in his teaching.
They are driven by the desire to make a positive difference in the lives of students.
Review of related literature
Section A: Introduction
Research on teacher identity
- Biographical constructions
- Social Constructions
Morrow (2007) notes that the classroom teacher is faced with a difficult but dynamic task. Denzin and Lincoln (2002) view qualitative researchers as visitors to private parts of the world.
Section B: Contextual forces
- Micro issues
- Teacher work in the context of change
- Teacher issues with curriculum change
- Teachers and the school
Section C: The Force Field Model
It drew our attention to the fact that teachers' epistemologies, the context of the school, together with policies, actually shape what it means to be a teacher. The photos were used to capture the essence and special moments from the teacher's life.
Research design and methodology
Introduction
It has also provided an explanation of the appropriateness of the design and research methods used to answer the title of the study: What is a teacher anyway. My goal was to produce and make sense of the information I received from my participants and then act responsibly with that information. McMillan and Schumacher (2001) state that methodology describes the study design, which includes the choice and setting of the site, the number of participants and how they are selected, data collection and analysis strategies.
Research design
- Interpretive paradigm
In my studies, I had to understand the complex world of lived experiences from the point of view of the teachers who live it. Within the interpretive paradigm, I tried to understand the meanings, explanations, rationale and intentions that the teachers use in their everyday lives at school and thus to understand how they guide their behavior. The data from the career life history interviews and photo voice helped me to better understand the details of their interaction within the context of the school.
Qualitative research paradigm
Trauth (2001) believes that interpretive research attempts to understand reality through the meanings that people attribute to it. I tried to understand how the teachers think and feel and from there to understand their actions as teachers. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007:21) argue that the researcher is seen as the 'human instrument' and that an individual's world can only be understood by the researcher 'who shares his frame of reference'. Henning (2004:20) states that in the interpretive paradigm “knowledge and understanding are constructed through the description of people's intentions, beliefs, values and reasons, meaning making and self-understanding.” Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007:22) emphasize that it is important for the interpretive researcher to dig deep to uncover unique facts and then add them to existing knowledge if one is to represent a part of reality that exists in the direct experience is found. of everyday life.
Research methodology
- Participatory Methodology
- Methods of data collection
- Career life history interviews
- Photo-voice
The career life history interview was most suitable for studying the lives and work of teachers as it enabled the researcher and participants to discuss and interpret what it means to be a teacher. By reflecting on their career life stories, participants were able to develop their own framework for understanding what it means to be a teacher. In response to my prompts during the career life story interviews, participants were able to speak for themselves, and to do so freely and openly.
Selection of participants
The research site
Ethical considerations
According to McMillan and Schumacher (2001), purposive sampling is done to increase the usefulness of the information obtained from the sample. As an ethical measure, written consent was obtained from the individuals involved to use the photographs, as well as from the individuals being photographed. Denzin and Lincoln (2002) emphasize that great care must be taken to reduce any risk to participants.
Data analysis
Once I transcribed the data, I had to make sense of it, interpret and theorize the data. The data analysis of the career-life history interviews and the photo-voice was guided and shaped by Samuel's (2009) Force Field Model, in which I read the data, reflected, referred to relevant literature and highlighted how the teacher interacted with the dealt with different challenges and forces at primary school. The data I collected and analyzed from the career history interviews and photovoice helped in understanding their significance as teachers.
Limitations
During data analysis, I had to be very careful with words, which have many meanings and are themselves interpretations. In the analysis I looked for ways in which the participants understood themselves as teachers in a primary school. This phase of the study required me as the researcher to reflect, organize and review the data to help me answer the title: "What is a teacher anyway?" Henning (2004) states that the researcher makes sense of the data by looking at the bigger picture and turning the transcriptions into qualitative research.
Trustworthiness
During the different sessions of the career life story interviews and the photo voice, I was able to go back to certain topics and ask the same question in different ways, thus ensuring and building the credibility of the data. The various elements of the research study - the rigor of the process, setting up the interview, transcribing the data and the production is analyzing the data - were all crucial. By being careful at each step, albeit with my clear commitment to each step, the participant's voice came through.
Conclusion
With such a background, I can make sense of and construct my professional work in the classroom. It gives deeper meaning to his identity, who he is as a teacher, and the construction of his professional self in the classroom. They are trying to meet the unrealistic requirements of the National Framework for Teacher Education (2007), which has affected their professional performance in the classroom.
Findings and analysis
Introduction
This chapter has explored how teachers make sense of and make sense of themselves and their professional work in a South African primary school. Section A covered the findings and analysis in response to the first critical question: What structure of professional self do South African primary school teachers adopt. Section B contained data in response to the second critical question: How do these constructions of professional self-designed teacher work take place in a South African primary school.
Section A: Professional self
- Part One: Sarah
- Part Two: Ben
Ben has found that his teaching over the past twenty years has changed his identity as a teacher and his construction of his professional self. Looking back at the past, Ben is able to make meaning and sense of himself as a teacher. He draws meanings from his experiences with his teachers and father to make sense of himself as a teacher.
Section B: Professional work
- Part One: Sarah
- Part Two: Ben
By becoming aware of the pupils' background, she finds innovative ways to help them in a positive way and make meaning of her professional work. It is every teacher's dream to have a perfect school environment, for the benefit of the pupils. Despite the programmatic forces around him, Ben is serious about his work as a teacher.
Conclusion
Ben and Sarah, by telling their career life history stories, show how they make sense of their professional lives and professional work in various ways in the context of the school, thus bringing me to the two critical questions in my study. From my encounters in the schools, the two teachers find that this is an impossible task. Globalization viewed from the periphery: The dynamics of teacher education in the Republic of Benin.
Conclusion
Teacher Identity
It is significant to note that the two teachers have multiple identities that do not remain static, but change constantly, depending on the challenges and circumstances they face on a daily basis, especially in the school context. The meaning of doing for both primary school teachers and how they see themselves and how they see others can be both enabling and disabling within the institutional settings in which they work. The institutional forces of overcrowded classrooms and work overload result in the two teachers working beyond their classroom and school hours to manage their work with little difficulty.
Methodological reflections
The professional work is reflected in the teacher to be open and fight for social justice. The main issues of being a woman, a family person, the role of the church and the role of the student at school, result in the formation of the identity of the caregiver. Roles around the family, mentoring at school, and the spiritual role at church foster a loving and caring disposition in the female teacher, which influences the type of work she embraces.
Speaking back-“ Being a teacher in a South African primary school”
The two teachers are unhappy with the downplaying of textbooks, which are crucial for quality in teaching and learning. According to the South African Council for Educators (2005), teachers struggle with the implementation process as they were not prepared to do it. Thus, Samuel (2008) argues that teachers are caught in a web of the search for professionalization while the employer simultaneously searches for strong control.
School: a contextual reality
Sixteen years later, since the first democratic elections, they are still not comfortable with the changes. They are dedicated to their vocation as teachers and therefore try to make the best of the situation they are in. Faced with the various constraints in the school, they learned to become innovative and make do with what they have.
Conclusion
Fortunately, both teachers have a passion for teaching that motivates and pushes them as teachers to move forward with confidence and work at their best. Therefore, whatever forces are working against them at school, they try to find ways to manage them in the best way possible. Emotions of teachers in the context of educational reforms. full name), Principal of Durban South Primary School, I confirm that I understand the content of this document and the nature of this research project and I give permission for the research study to be carried out by Ms. M.Ramawtar in my school during non-teaching period.
