Learning Trajectories of Primary Student Teachers; a Cross-Cultural Comparison

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doi:10.3844/jssp.2012.135.142

Abstract

Life history methodology was used to compare the life and educational trajectories of six primary student teachers in England with their counterparts at a Malawian Teacher Training College. A semi structured interview schedule was used to elicit the students’ childhood memories including experiences of school, significant people in their lives, interactions with their teachers and influential factors in deciding to enter teaching. Students were also asked to expand their philosophy and purpose of education, to consider their immediate needs as newly qualified classroom practitioners and predict their career trajectory over a 20 year period. The cross-cultural analysis reveals causal biographical and socio-cultural factors combining to influence students’ intentions to pursue teaching as a career. Teacher identity and notions of educational purpose revealed altruistic desires to teach, influenced by significant others in students’ personal lives; educational narratives and the socio- political contexts of the respective societies. Choices made by the English students reflected the individualistic nature of British society whereas their Malawian counterparts were driven by a desire to improve children’s education as a means of improving their country. In all cases the English students saw themselves remaining in primary education, in comparison all the Malawi students saw this as a stepping stone to a higher status role. This reflects the perceived low status that primary teaching has in Malawi and suggests that to improve education in Malawi a major priority should be to raise the status of primary teachers.

Highlights

During a preliminary visit by the English academics to the region in September 2010, it was noted that the life experiences of female Malawian primary student teachers appeared distinctly different interplay of the national culture and educational traditions in which they are situated
These findings suggest that student teachers are simultaneously positioned both as learners and emergent professional teachers and are subject to the duality of dominant national cultural discourses and their own personal biographical ‘footprints’
MCSE results are used in the selection of candidates for training courses and English student teachers: One outstanding characteristic of the English students was the stability of their lives from early childhood to the present time, which afforded them economic, emotional and psychological security

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Differences could be found in the education of teachers in England and Malawi. During a preliminary visit by the English academics to the region in September 2010, it was noted that the life experiences of female Malawian primary student teachers appeared distinctly different interplay of the national culture and educational traditions in which they are situated. They add that students’ individual ‘learning biographies’ are influenced by such factors as:. Interactions with teachers during schooling, which may be at variance with dominant discourse of what teaching

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION

Introduction