The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the messages conveyed by
principals in one context, that of well resourced schools. The contents of the messages and
how these messages are influenced by the context of the schools were interrogated. Also of
relevance are principals presenting a desirably, inviting message about the teaching
profession. This study is part of the TP120 project that is being conducted by the University
of Kwa-Zulu Natal to evaluate the placing of context at the centre of a learning to teach
approach. The school environment has become diverse and dynamic since the
implementation of changes after 1994. Teacher training institutions are faced with trying to
adequately prepare teachers to adapt and adjust. The thinking therefore, is to include diverse
contexts as one of the major components in the teacher education curriculum. One initiative
to achieve this is to enlist the help of principals, who are the experienced counterparts in
schools, to assist university personnel with the training of student teachers. This is done when
first year student teachers are taken to schools of varying contexts and where principals are
given an opportunity to address these students. The belief is that, what principals say prepares
students teachers for the world of work in a particular context. A case study using the
interpretivist paradigm was conducted with the participants being principals in well resourced
schools. The participating schools and the participants were selected by pre-determined
criteria in keeping with the requirements of the TP120 project. The principals’ speeches were
recorded and transcribed. Thereafter a discourse analysis was embarked on. The theories that
underpin this study are the invitational theory of Purkey and Novak (1996) and the learning
to teach approach of Amin and Ramrathan (2009). The findings show that a well resourced
context is established and maintained through hard work, dedication, commitment and
support of all stakeholders. The messages conveyed by the principals prepare the student
teachers for the teaching profession in general and for the well resourced context in
particular. The main conclusion of this study is that principals can be an invaluable source of
knowledge to student teachers and can assist in teacher training. They articulated a sense of
purpose and direction and inspire the student teachers by motivating, encouraging, guiding
and inviting them to the teaching profession. Recommendations of the study were that the
universities should continue to provide student teachers with the opportunity of experiencing
different contexts, principals can be provided with guidelines on what to talk about in their
orientation speeches, student teachers should prepare questions to get clarity on issues in
particular contexts and principals can be provided with professional development around
communicating motivational and inspirational orientation speeches. Recommendations for further research are that a variety of contexts be researched or the student teachers can be
interviewed to gauge the exact message that they go away with. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/6079 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Naidoo, Somadhanum. |
| Contributors | Mthiyane, Siphiwe Eric., Amin, Nyna. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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