Induction of Novice Educators in Rural Schools

Abstract

Access to quality education is recognised globally as a fundamental human right with no exceptions for socio-economic background, location, gender or race. Besides education being instrumental in reducing inequality in every society, it is also central to the achievement of almost all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG s). However, integrating educators into the school system in South Africa in order to achieve the SDG s has generated concern. Hence, this chapter focused on examining the nature and extent of the induction of novice educators in rural schools as the praxis of redefining rural education in South Africa. This chapter employed a mixed-method research approach, and its design was grounded within the post-positivism paradigm. A self-developed questionnaire and individual interviews were used to collect data from 33 novice teachers in ten rural schools in the Mvudi Circuit of Limpopo for the quantitative phase, while nine novice educators were interviewed for the qualitative phase. Frequency distributions and a thematic analysis were employed to analyse the generated data. Two research questions were asked and answered. The findings established that the novice educators were merely introduced into the teaching profession and not properly inducted, with mentors or line managers assigned to the newly employed teachers. Also, many school authorities in rural communities have not seen the need for the proper induction of newly employed teachers as essential for the teaching profession. By implication, these novice educators are central to redefining rural education in South Africa; hence their personal and professional needs must be met through proper induction. The conclusion is that school authorities must provide the needed support for new teachers by appointing mentors or line managers for their first two years on the job.