Durban -
Black university students were shying away from training to teach in the critical early childhood phase, according to research published in the South African Journal of Education.
While 72 percent of all university students were black, only a small percentage were enrolled to study early childhood education.
The research authors, academics from the Early Childhood Education Department at the University of Pretoria, and the James Madison University in the US, probed the reasons why black teaching students at that institution opted to train to teach older pupils.
This is the second study from these academics to focus on the recruitment and retention of black students in the foundation phase (Grade R to Grade 3).
The most recent study, published in the journal last month, is the work of Pretoria researchers Miemsie Steyn and Professor Cyril Hartell, and Professor Teresa Harris from James Madison University.
In 2009, only 13 percent (168 out of 1 275) of all the early childhood education teachers produced in South Africa were black.
In that year, the schooling system expected to lose 3 275 black early childhood education teachers to attrition: retirement, resignations and death.
Students interviewed by the researchers said that in their high schools and communities they were encouraged to study medicine or engineering and had not initially known about early childhood education as a field of study.
The students interviewed were already enrolled in the early childhood education programme at the University of Pretoria.
They also told the researchers that for many of them, early childhood education had been a backup plan.
“I applied for criminology, and then I was advised to put education as my fall back plan, so I did,” one said.
Another explained: “Yeah, I think a lot of people just do education as a starting point. Most of them will tell you that ‘Ah! We had no choice. They have a lot of bursaries for education. Now let’s just do education as a way out. At least we can afford to get a degree.’ But they are not passionate about it. If you’re passionate about it, it’s very interesting.”
In the earlier study by Steyn, Hartell and Harris, a student explained that they had been “looked down upon” for choosing to study to teach little ones, because it was a role that the grandmothers in her community had traditionally filled.
“They let the granny next door come teach the children. So now, why would you want to go to study to teach children.”
Steyn, Hartell and Harris probed whether there were other factors which could explain the low enrolment rates of black early childhood education students at the University of Pretoria, and found money and language barriers to be hindrances.
Students who had bursaries told the researchers that it did not provide enough money for all their textbooks, and that they also needed money for the classroom learning resources which they were expected to make themselves.
Basic Education Department spokesman Elijah Mhlanga said the department was addressing the scarcity of foundation phase teachers through the Funza Lushaka teaching bursaries.
An audit of South Africa’s 400 000 teachers was under way, and expected to be complete by year’s end. It would reveal what each teacher taught and at what level, and how many were unqualified.
The early childhood education sector had been neglected for a long time, but the government’s focus was now on the curriculum and employing qualified teachers. Mhlanga said.
- The Mercury