A substantial body of international research exists dealing with the experiences of unemployment. However, there is relatively little research focusing on unemployed people with postgraduate degrees and no research on qualified unemployed teachers in South Africa. Against this background, this research explored the experiences of eight unemployed Black African teachers in a rural village in the Limpopo province, South Africa by means of face-to-face, in-depth interviews. The study found that the majority of those interviewed had chosen teaching because it had a vocation or calling and that this aspect of their career choice made their experiences of unemployment even more painful. It was also noted that being unemployed was a particularly difficult state to accept because of the emphasis on the importance of education in the communities from which the teachers came and the accompanying belief that a tertiary qualification would almost inevitably secure employment. It also found that the participants expressed a number of the negative experiences such as loss of self esteem and a sense of self worth. More specifically, it was found that the inability to fulfil the traditional gender role as head of a household was one of the most significant problems confronting the unemployed men. Additional findings of particular interest include the fact that by contrast with other research, this group of teachers did not experience the extent of social isolation so often found in the international literature. It was suggested that a possible explanation for this finding related to the particularly strong social ties that operate in Black African rural communities in South Africa. A number of suggestions concerning further research into the experiences of unemployed graduates are made in the concluding sections of the study. It is suggested, for example, that it would be useful to explore the extent to which the experiences of unemployed Black African teachers in urban communities relate to those described in this research.

D.Ed.

M. Ed. / Professional Teacher Development (PTD) is an ingredient essential to the creation of effective schools, positively impacting learners’ performance and enhancing teachers’ knowledge, skills and attitudes, which are imperative in improving leaner performance. Effective PTD requires considerable time, must be well organised, be carefully structured, purposefully directed and focused on both content and pedagogy. It should be cost effective, in terms of time and effort persistent to teachers’ needs, relevant, practical and educationally sound. It is not a single stroke; one must work hard so as to attain mastery. PTD is an effective transfer of knowledge-sharing from within the institution, supporting critical junctures in its networks, ensuring integration within the externally. When carried out correctly, it is the key to ‘recharging’ teaches, giving them the tool they need. Principals are being challenged about what constitutes quality in education, and are forced to make efforts to change the status quo – instead of cocooning themselves in isolation. They have to design coherent and purposeful programmes effecting learning which is accompanied by change in behaviour, perception, thinking, beliefs, values, and awareness. It also will alter insight, and involve new patterns of operation, new strategies and new procedures. A structural PTD is determined by the specific institution’s context, helping to overcome teachers’ negative reaction to school-based PTD. They will be changed in major ways, both in terms of their teaching practices and their personal behaviour as there is no substitute for on-the-job learning with opportunities to reflect on action. One potential way to enhance PTD is to utilise constructivist strategies with the teacher. For PTD to be effective and bring improvement within the institution, the teachers should meet regularly to explore common problems and seek solutions based on shared experiences and collective wisdom. School-based PTD will cause DCS teachers to shift cultural paradigms, instil new values and goals, and help shape their professional identity, taking the microenvironment of DCS into cognisance. A good PTD needs to be mindful of connecting good theory to classroom practices, as quality PTD is the vehicle for providing the knowledge needed to support effective teaching – an adult institution. No improvement efforts can succeed in the absence of thoughtfully planned and wellimplemented PTD.

No description available.

No description available.

Teachers want to be in schools where their identities are authentically affirmed. However, some educators in predominantly Black schools perceive that they are not always afforded the same level of value and respect as their colleagues in mostly White or mixed schools. Instead, teachers in predominantly Black schools seem to have experiences associated with frustrations that often go unheard of or dismissed for various reasons. Schools with predominantly Black student populations are often associated with challenges in retaining teachers, commonly referred to as teacher retention or teacher turnover. This turnover can have an impact on the academic progress of the students due to a lack of consistency in keeping qualified teachers. After working in a predominantly Black school for 3 years, I began to question the influence of teacher experiences in these areas and how they relate to the retention rate. Conversations with fellow staff members about perceived inequities and muted concerns prompted an interest in this study. There is a commonly held belief that schools with predominantly Black student populations face challenges in achieving consistent academic success compared to their counterparts. This study will examine the factors that influence teacher retention in predominantly Black schools by reviewing the experiences of those who teach in these schools. I used Narrative Inquiry to help understand the factors that play a role in encouraging or discouraging teachers from predominately Black areas.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The matter of ill-equipped black Afrikaans teachers still remains a topical issue but it appears as though little progress has been made to remedy the situation. In the present research a literature study as well as an empirical investigation, conducted from a number of angles, were undertaken in order to identify the most irksome problems and to accordingly make recommendations towards the development of an in-service program. The literature study serves as the backdrop against which the empirical study was undertaken. The empirical study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the process of triangulation, i.e. deductions were only made after the data presented by each of the empirical components was diagonally compared and verified. The overarching purpose of the empirical study was to pinpoint the shortcomings in the professional outfit of both the teachers and the learning facilitators, and to subsequently determine to what extent the Free State Department of Education succeeds in rectifying them. The study revealed that the teachers experience a number of teaching-related problems and that their interaction with the learning facilitators does not bear much fruit. The learning facilitators are not sufficiently empowered to fulfil their duty as in-service trainers and they consequently experience difficulty in providing effective and purposeful in-service training. It is the duty of the Free State Department of Education to relieve the existing need for in-service training.

O presente estudo é uma tentativa de reconstruir a trajetória escolar e profissional dos docentes afrodescendentes das universidades públicas do Estado de São Paulo. Para tanto, procurou responder as seguintes indagações: quais foram as oportunidades de educação disponibilizadas ao negro? De que forma as perspectivas políticas e sociais dos negros se estabeleceram? Como os afrodescendentes chegaram ao espaço docente? Situar o grupo étnico historicamente, nos aspectos sociais e políticos, parecia condição para caminhar no sentido de responder essas questões. Dentro das organizações modernas a progressão social está determinada pela apropriação do saber formal, constituindo assim um campo de batalha invisível onde o sujeito negro está sempre em desvantagem. Explicitar também as bases em que estava suplantada a história educacional do negro era necessário para desvelar a trajetória dos professores/as negros/as num tempo mais recente e, num sentido mais amplo, avaliar o desempenho da educação sobre os negros desde a Abolição, ainda que de forma panorâmica e voltada para a realidade de São Paulo. A discriminação está quotidianamente presente nas relações humanas, embora seja disfarçada por mecanismos sutis de evitação, mas que interferem no acesso do negro às oportunidades de forma igualitária a outras etnias. Pela natureza da investigação só seria possível trabalhar com técnica qualitativa. Para tanto, utilizaram-se a memória como recurso metodológico e a técnica de história de vida, acrescidos a estas, os princípios da pesquisa documental. Foram colhidos dezessete depoimentos, sendo cinco professoras e doze professores entrevistados, com utilização do gravador. Das falas extraíram-se três categorias e dez sub-categorias para análises. Pela memória é possível afirmar que os/as professores/as enfrentaram muitas dificuldades para estudar, não pela ausência de boas escolas, pelo menos não no caso dos meus interlocutores, mas pela escassez de recurso na família. Muitos tiveram que priorizar o trabalho e só depois a escola. Ainda assim, foi possível uma trajetória escolar de êxito, o que se confirma nas suas ações profissionais como docentes. Professores/as que ingressaram na docência nos anos 70, com exceção de um, todos já chegaram ao topo da carreira, tendo ocupado cargo de relevância dentro da Universidade. Dando seqüência a esta pesquisa, seria relevante estudar o ingresso do negro na docência e sua ocorrência desde o início do século XX ao final do mesmo, para retratar sua progressão ou estagnação no acesso à docência. / This study is an attempt to reconstruct the schooling and professional path of Afrobrazilian professors who teach at São Paulo State Universities. The following questions were examined: which were the educational chances of black people? In what way the political and social perspectives of blacks were established? How did the Afrobrazilian population entered the teaching field? It seemed possible to answer these questions when situating the ethnic group in history and analyzing the social and political aspects involved. Inside modern organizations the social progression is determined by the appropriation of formal knowledge, thus constituting an invisible battlefield where the black individual is always at a disadvantage. It was necessary to give explicit information about the basis where the black educational history was superseded in order to reveal the path of black professors in a more recent time. Further, we had to evaluate, in a broader sense, the performance of education on Afrobrazilian people in the state of São Paulo since the Abolition, even though this was done in a more general manner and was reflecting only the reality in the state of São Paulo. Discrimination is an everyday occurrence in human relationships, although it is disguised by subtle mechanisms of avoidance, which intervene between the equality of opportunities of blacks with other ethnic groups. Taking into account the nature of this investigation, it was possible to work exclusively with a qualitative approach. Methodological features used were memory, the life history approach, as well as the principles of documentary research. Seventeen depositions of university professors, five schoolmistress and twelve schoolmasters were collected through recorded interviews. Starting with this recorded material it was possible to extract three categories and ten sub categories to be analyzed. Data collected show that black professors faced many difficulties to study, not due to lack of good schools, at least in the case of my interlocutors, but mainly due to poor financial resources of their families. Most of them had to prioritize work and had put school in the background. However, they all have had a successful educational career as university professors. Black professors who had entered schooling in the 70’s, except for one, have reached the top of their career and have engaged in relevant positions at the University. In order to extend this research, it would be relevant to study the entrance of black people into teaching field and its occurrences throughout the whole XX century, to demonstrate their progression or stagnation in the teaching area.

The intent of this study was to explore the perceptions of Black middle and upper class preservice teachers as they relate to teaching and learning in high poverty urban schools. Participants included 11 senior early childhood education preservice teachers at a historically Black college in the southeast region of the United States. The study was conducted using qualitative inquiry. Background questionnaires, individual interviews, and a group interview served as the data sources. While there is an extensive body of knowledge focused on the increasing number of White preservice teachers who lack experience with students in diverse communities, there are limited studies pertaining to the perceptions of Black middle and upper class preservice teachers who may lack experience with students in high poverty urban schools. In the Black community, color and social class have been inexorably linked for generations. Social class is conceivably one of the most significant sources of inequality in schools and was one of the first factors, after intelligence, researched by scholars as a source of difference in achievement. The study answered the following questions: (1) What are the perceptions of Black middle and upper class preservice teachers regarding teaching and learning in high poverty urban schools? (2) To what extent do Black middle and upper class preservice teachers believe they can be successful teachers in high poverty urban schools? The data demonstrated that Black middle and upper class preservice teachers (a) prefer to teach in communities similar to their own school experiences; (b) believe students from high poverty urban schools can achieve at the same level as students in middle and upper class schools, but are uncertain of the value their informal knowledge brings to the classroom; (c) recognize effective teaching strategies and best practices in classroom instruction; and (d) have mixed feelings regarding their ability to connect with students and parents in high poverty urban schools. Implications from the study include expanding the scope of field experiences for Black middle and upper class preservice teachers in high poverty urban schools and recognizing Black middle and upper class preservice teachers in teacher education research.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / The objective of this research was to analyze the professional trajectory of black teachers and doctors, who work in public universities in CearÃ. Objectively, has been sought to understand if institutional racism and gender interfere in their professional trajectories, and what challenges were found to legitimize themselves in academic and scientific space. The methodology adopted is a qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with black female teachers who work in federal and state public institutions located in the interior and capital of the state of CearÃ. The interviews were fulfilled into 3 parts: identity profile (general information of interviewed), socioeconomic data and life history. Parallel to the interviews, the Curriculum Lattes of each teacher was analyzed in order to identify the academic course carried out by the teachers. From the narratives of nine black female teachers located at the State University of CearÃ, Federal University of CearÃ, Cariri Regional University and University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony, we present her trajectories, achievements and challenges. In this research, in spite of showing the advances and the achievements made by black teachers in higher education institutions, what represents the constant effective work through the construction of new methodological and epistemological proposals, it also presents and denounces the multiple facet of racism, prejudice and racial discrimination, through the career trajectories in the institutional sphere or in interpersonal relationships. These findings call attention to the urgency of constructing new concrete attitudes in the institutional sphere, in this way, some actions could be more prominent to confront racism and segregationism practices and the power relations imbued in academic culture. In spite of everything, we could reaffirm that the presence of black teachers in this white academy, rework the scientific canons, and it is also a space of affirmation and recognition. Once they are there (in the universities), they carry out a work where the individual is collective, within a perspective of schooling and antiracist education. / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar a trajetÃria profissional de docentes negras e doutoras, que atuam em universidades pÃblicas do CearÃ. Objetivamente, buscou-se compreender se racismo institucional e gÃnero interferem em suas trajetÃrias profissionais, e quais os desafios encontrados para se legitimarem no espaÃo acadÃmico e cientÃfico. A metodologia adotada parte de uma pesquisa qualitativa mediante a realizaÃÃo de entrevistas semiestruturadas junto Ãs professoras que se autodeclararam negras e que atuam nas instituiÃÃes pÃblicas federais e estaduais, localizadas no interior e na capital do estado do CearÃ. As entrevistas foram divididas em 3 partes: perfil identitÃrio (informaÃÃes gerais da entrevistada), dados sÃcios econÃmicos e histÃria de vida. Paralelo as entrevistas, realizou-se anÃlise do CurrÃculo Lattes de cada professora de modo a identificar o percurso acadÃmico realizado pelas mesmas. A partir de narrativas de nove professoras negras situadas na Universidade Estadual do CearÃ, Universidade Federal do CearÃ, Universidade Regional do Cariri e Universidade da IntegraÃÃo Internacional da Lusofonia Afro brasileira, apresentamos aqui suas trajetÃrias, conquistas e desafios. Nesta pesquisa, apesar de mostrar os avanÃos e as conquistas realizadas pelas professoras negras nas instituiÃÃes de ensino superior, no que se refere ao constante trabalho efetivo mediante a construÃÃo de novas propostas metodolÃgicas e epistemolÃgicas, tambÃm apresenta e denuncia as mÃltiplas facetas nas quais o racismo, preconceito e a discriminaÃÃo racial transversalizam as trajetÃrias profissionais, quer seja no Ãmbito institucional, quer seja nas relaÃÃes interpessoais. Tais achados, nos chamam a atenÃÃo para a urgÃncia de construÃÃo de novas atitudes concretas em Ãmbito institucional, no enfrentamento das prÃticas racistas, segregacionistas e das prÃprias relaÃÃes de poder impregnadas na cultura acadÃmica. Apesar de tudo, podemos reafirmar que a presenÃa de docentes negras nesta academia branca, reelaboram os cÃnones cientÃficos, e à tambÃm um espaÃo de afirmaÃÃo e reconhecimento. Uma vez que là estÃo (nas universidades), realizam um trabalho onde o individual à o coletivo, dentro de uma perspectiva de escolarizaÃÃo e educaÃÃo antirracista.