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Novice teachers' experience of support from the Head of Department in primary schools

Novice teachers face a variety of challenges when they enter the teaching profession. They are confronted with the harsh realities of the teaching profession and are expected to cope with immense demands and responsibilities. Heads of Department are responsible for co- ordinating and providing guidance to novice teachers. However, little is known about the experiences of novice teachers in terms of the support they get from Heads of Department. This study explored novice teachers’ experiences of Head of Department support. Purposively sampling was used to select five novice teachers and four Heads of Department from three primary schools situated in the Tshwane South School District. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The semi-structured interviews were analysed using a thematic data analysis procedure and the documents through content analysis. The findings of the study highlighted similarities in the challenges and the support needs as expressed by the novice teachers and by the Heads of Department. The novice teachers in this study articulated the need for more guidance and mentorship to be provided whereas the Heads of Department stated that due to the demands of the professional task in terms of the multiple roles they play and time constraints, the support they give to the novice teachers is inadequate. The study concluded that both novice teachers and Heads of Department struggled with managing the demands of their profession and novice teachers called for further support and mentorship to be provided on aspects that contributed to their holistic development of teaching abilities and attributes. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/78486
Date January 2020
CreatorsNemaston, Avital Ronnieskja
ContributorsOgina, Teresa Auma
PublisherUniversity of Pretoria
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Rights© 2020 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.

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