Student Teachers, Professional Development and Effectiveness: The Role of Resilience in Enhancing the Culture of Learning and Teaching

Vuyisile Msila

doi:10.13189/ujer.2021.091008

Abstract

Student teachers in their initial teacher training get time to visit schools and observe and put various theories into practice. Practice teaching is the beginning of the journey towards professionalism. Yet many student teachers who visit schools in South Africa witness grim realities in different schools. Several South African education experts have written about two kinds of school systems; one is schools serving the affluent families whilst the other, numerous schools serve the indigent families and children who are faced with adversity in society. This case study examines the role of teachers in engendering hope and emotional strength among learners who face hardships. Exposed to challenging conditions in their practice teaching schools, the 10 student teachers tried to develop themselves as well as the learners through the fostering of resilience. The conclusions found that facilitating resilience among learners who face adversity is one powerful remedy in creating affable school climate and invitational classrooms. Teachers who instill this in their classrooms may have a long fulfilling career as teachers who are both life-long learners and professionally matured whilst their learners overcome their personal challenges as they face classrooms with emotional stability.

Highlights

Student teachers in initial teacher training programs are supposed to have the most exciting times in schools as they do their practice teaching
All the student teachers in the two schools pointed out that the host schools were fraught with under-performance and weak leadership
The student teachers in the two schools were always unaccompanied in their classrooms and in rowdy classrooms they struggled to control the learners in the first week

Summary

Introduction

Student teachers in initial teacher training programs are supposed to have the most exciting times in schools as they do their practice teaching. Lack of experiential knowledge minimizes the ability to support learners in the face of chronic trauma [20] All these are contexts show the origins of many Teacher education programs that ignore resilience fail to classroom problems in many public schools situated in address education problems. Effective teachers will cultivate conscious resilience in peers can help in sustaining empowerment in this regard Their learners who face adversity in life both at school and This becomes part of teacher professional maturity that at home. What is of critical importance in qualitative content analysis is ensuring credibility the researcher must be conscious of his or her familiarity of the area studied to lessen own bias [36]

Findings

Working with the Learners’ Consciousness

The Learners as Teachers

Conclusions