Abstract
Scholars have been sounding the alarm of novice teacher turnover crises for decades. South Africa is soon to be facing an educational catastrophe because of a shortage of experienced teachers. Globally and in South Africa, notice teacher attrition is high, and the experiences of novice teachers entering the classroom are often described as feeling isolated and unsupported. This qualitative study was underpinned by an interpretative phenomenology approach. Using semi-structured interviews, this study explores novice teacher mentoring needs from an Ubuntu perspective. It was found that novice teachers feel overwhelmed and are not coping with the complexities of teaching in their early career. Novices express the desire to be formally mentored by a knowledgeable ‘elder’ teacher who can become and ally and friend, and from whom they can learn valuable teaching skills. While informal mentoring relationships often do form later on, novices wanted formal mentoring from the onset of teaching activities. This paper argues that a competent mentor who values Ubuntu in their mentoring, could offer collaboration, respect, compassion and support to novices that may keep them in the profession. This paper further explores the school micro-community from the Ubuntu principles to support novices. In addition, it explores the potential benefit of a prescribed Ubuntu orientated mentoring programme to formalise mentoring for novices. While there is a plethora of studies about mentoring novice teachers, literature from an Africanised Ubuntu perspective, is scarce. Perhaps the time has come to find African solutions to our African problems.
Presenters
Christy Jean KotzeLecturer, Curriculum and Instructional Studies, University of South Africa, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Mentorship, Novice teacher, Teacher attrition, Ubuntu
