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STRUCTURE• Introduction• History of teacher training in South Africa

The influence of ecosystemic
factors on Black student teachers’
perceptions and experience ofEarly Childhood Education• Statistics on early childhood teacher supplyin South Africa• Theoretical framework and methodology

Prof. Cycil Hartell• Findings and discussion
9 April 2015, CICE seminar• Recommendations21

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UP Faculty of Education in a Nutshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLs8bzuAALQ&feature=youtu.be123

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History of teacher training in South Africa•Teacher training evolved from the Apartheid system (1948-1994)•

Racially teacher training system. Deep racial and regionalinequality.

•Discriminatory policy of separate ethnic “development”•“In 1979, there were no White teachers without a matric-level(Grade 12) qualification, while one third of African teachers (32%)
had no matric and not many had degrees” (Christie, 1994:130).

•

Difference in qualification structure•

As a consequence of the above-mentioned, “…most currently
serving teachers received their professional education and enteredteaching when education was an integral part of the Apartheid
project and organised in racially and ethnically divided subsystems” (DoE, 2006)134

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Political Reform in South Africa• Transformation started 1994
• To provide a system of education that builds
democracy, dignity, equality and social justice• To broaden participation in HE so as to reduce
the highly stratified race and class structureof the country

Early Child Education (ECE) Teacher supply•

Retention and training of teachers have not kept up with the growthrate of the school‐going population.

•Currently, there are 23 higher education institutions in SA.
However, only 13 universities offer initial ECE teacher education
programmes resulting in a short supply of Black student teachers.

•2009: 4147 ECE teachers were needed annually to meet thegrowing enrolment of children, yet the expected graduates for 2009were only 1275. Of these expected graduates, only 168 were Blackteachers speaking African languages (Green, 2010)•2013: 7.92% of ECE population were Black and only 1.5% (2 of 135)
were expected to graduate in their 4th year. (Faculty of Education,2013)• Desegregation
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Number of Students in Faculty ofEducationECE Black Student Enrolment
STUDENT ENROLMENT PER YEAR: JULY 2014
BEd: ECD & FP

1stYEAR

2ndYEAR

3rdYEAR

4thYEAR

TOTAL

Black students

13610534

Total students

283220173

142818

Total Black students: 1,271
Faculty Ed. AFR =1364 ENG =1998 TOTAL =3362

Total faculty of Education: 3,500
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ECE Students: 34205

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Research Questions

ECE Student Enrolment

Why do so few Black students enrol in early childhood
teacher education and training?
 Which ecosystemic factors influence Black students’
perceptions and experiences of Early Childhood Education?

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION White
Students

 How do ecosystemic factors influence Black student
teachers’ enrolment and throughput in Early ChildhoodEducation?

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Black
Students

 How do ecosystemic factors influence Black student
teachers’ perceptions and experiences of the relevance andappropriateness of Early Childhood Education?
21Bronfenbrenner’s Ecosystems Theory

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecosystems Theory

CHRONOSYSTEM
MACROSYSTEM• Explains the relationships among people,
communities and institutions

EXOSYSTEMMESOSYSTEM
MilieuCulturalrelevance

ECEstatus

Academic
relevanceMICROSYSTEM
Inhibiting
BLACKfactors
f

MICROSYSTEM
Inviting
factors
STUDENT
FinancesSchools• Factors in the environment of the student
Teacherstatus• Views different levels in the social context as“systems” where functioning of the whole isdependent on the interaction between various parts

PROFILE

Perception

MICROSYSTEM
Teachertraining

Education

Socio‐ economic• Looks at the interactions between these systems

Black communities
Historical perspective246

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Method and Procedures• Qualitative case study

Findings and Discussion• Focus group interviews• Participants:Eight first‐year students,
5 second year students, and 4 thirdyear students participated
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PERSONAL CHOICESEmerging Themes• Personal (Microsystem)• Community (Mesosystem)• Institutional (Exosystem)• History (Chronosystem)

Choosing Early Child Education
 “Yes, I knew all along I wanted to teach young children
and not older children...Yes I’ve always wanted toteach and that’s why I initially applied for education.” “My parents were very supportive of whatever career
I chose as long as I stick to it and finish it.” “Actually my dad encouraged me to do educationbecause he was like always saying, “I don’t havemoney to pay for the other careers so how about you
do education.””27

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PERSONAL CHOICESPERSONAL CHOICES

Choosing Early Child Education (continue)

Choosing an Institution of Higher Education

“You know, as I started coming here, all thenegative attitude that has been in my mind
about teaching has just gone away. I’m justseeing how other people are so enthusiastic
about teachers, you know, just, how cansomeone have so much passion? I thought I
had passion; I don’t have that much passion.
But then it kind of inspires you, you know? “

 “Well for me, the University of Pretoria where I comefrom is this was considered one of the best, the best
university you can come to.”PERSONAL CHOICES
Education and ECE in particular became a fall‐back plan formany of the students we interviewed
 “I applied for criminology, and then I was advised to put education as
my fall back plan, so I did. But then the university answered me formy education application. So then, a week later they answered me forcriminology and said I didn’t get space due to the fact that theHumanities Faculties is full. Instead of staying at home for a year, I’ll
just take this for a year or a single semester.” “Yeah, I just think a lot of people, they 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 away out. At least we can afford to get a degree.” But they are notpassionate about it. If you’re passionate about it, it’s very interesting.
If you’re a teacher by heart, not even ashamed to say, “I’m doing
education,” like others do. They just hide what they’re doing.”

 “I’ve always wanted to come to a place where there’s
a lot of White people, not because I wanted to be faraway from Black people, just to experience a different
culture, just to experience different lifestyles, just toexperience different people, just how different ourlifestyles are compared to people who live in town,
mostly who are White.”

COMMUNITY INFLUENCES
ECE has a low status
“Well, for Blacks being an ECE teacher, it’s like, I’d say not
the lowest but one of the lowest occupations, careers thatyou could choose.”“Why would you want to study to teach kids when you canactually study another degree? So they actually lookdown upon us. I mean in our areas, they just open apreschool, they just come in to teach school. They get thegranny next door to come teach the children. So now, whywould you want to go study to teach children? They don’t
have the knowledge of why you need to learn to teachchildren.”86/19/2015

INSTITUTIONAL FACTORSINSTITUTIONAL FACTORSEnglish as academic language

Financial costs for ECE program “But with most Black students it’s thelanguage barrier because you know when
we’re doing our research, the information,
the English, is of a higher standard and thepeople have trouble with that. And you haveto go through an article of 50 pages andunderstand all the words… yeah academic
writing, people struggle with that.”

“You have to know where to buy them [paintsand learning resource supplies], places tolaminate, places to photocopy. You look at
this project for maths and then just look at
the materials they used. They’re beautiful.
You can tell that they spent a lot. And then
you wonder, how am I going to do thatwithout transport and money.

INSTITUTIONAL FACTORSThe Cost of University Education
Most of the Black students in this program receive
financial aid through bursaries that are repaid
through service to rural and urban areas.
 “Yeah, the first year our parents had to take outmoney. Then the second year we learned how tosave our money from the dining hall, eat once a
day and get change.”

INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
Cost of ECE program “…my mom because she’s a single parent and she
didn’t have money for me to go to school because
she’s a domestic worker…So the challenge that I’mfacing is sometimes I think Early childhood
education needs us to have money for laminating,for activities we do, we have to buy stuff, we haveto laminate, we have to do all that, so that’s one
challenge that I have because they don’t havemoney.”

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INSTITUTIONAL FACTORSCultural differences “The university has so many things that aredifferent from our schools and new to us. You need
to work hard because tests are difficult and it isdifficult to cope.” “It is very different for us here. Hard work,
expensive and sometimes we do things then we
wonder why because it is different from us at home.

Factors for low completion rate
Most Black students who enter the university face multi‐
dimensional obstacles:– economically disadvantaged– prejudices about teaching– culturally irrelevant curricula– language demands– Cultural alienation and diverse cultural environment– Inadequately prepared/underprepared for studies at HEI– More rigorous performance requirements– Institutional factors that may unintentionally or overtly
exclude these students due to the prevailing ideologies andwesternized expectations of the student population
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PERSONAL CHOICES
Positive attitudes toward the ECE program (continue)
 “You know, as I started coming here, all the negative
attitude that has been in my mind about teaching has justgone away. I’m just seeing how other people are soenthusiastic about teachers, you know, just, how cansomeone have so much passion? I thought I had passion; I
don’t have that much passion. But then it kind of inspires
you, you know? “ ‘With me I think it had definitely lived up to myexpectations because we learn so much…You feel like you
are going to develop the child holistically…. I really feel that
our lecturer are really dedicated to the program.”

History
The purposeful historical disparities in education
have contributed to the low status that Blacks
afford to the teaching profession
“ECE teachers have no status at their schools”
“It seems they are not qualified and their salaries
are low”
“ ….. old ladies teaching ECE”

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Themes“History”

Bronfenbrenner’s
Ecological Theory
CHRONOSYSTEM“Community”

MACROSYSTEM

Institutional

EXOSYSTEM

Categories
Negative impact of historicaldisparities in education

1. orientate and prepare Black students for specific(language, contextual, cultural) programmes (ECE). Poverty

2. have strategies to recruit and retain Black students. University costs• Transport

MESOSYSTEM

Higher education institutions should:

ECE status•Resources for programme“Cultural relevance”

Recommendations• Language

3. address the cultural relevance of the ECE
programme as well as institutional
4. examine the financial support offered to Black
students in ECE•ECE programme“Me, myself andothers

MICROSYSTEM

Personal choices
Current experiences

In the context of this study, the implication is that although former
White universities opened their doors to Black students, theexpectations based on a specific ideology and culture still remains.

Welcoming Day and Orientation Week

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Thank youProf. Cycil Hartell
cycil.hartell@up.ac.za

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