Exploring the backgrounds and shaping of beginning ...

International Journal of Educational Development 22 (2002) 261–274 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev

Exploring the backgrounds and shaping of beginning student teachers in Ghana: toward greater contextualisation of teacher education Kwame Akyeampong a,∗, David Stephens b a

Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana b Faculty of Education, Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway

Abstract Teacher education programmes are often quite similar in their framework and content but often lack sufficient reflection on the personal background and the socio-political forces that shape teachers’ roles and identity within the systems in which they operate. This paper explores this issue by using Ghana as a case study and discusses implications for its teacher education programmes and policies. Key characteristics of beginning student teachers found were: weak qualifying grades in two fundamental school subjects, mathematics and English, a waiting period of 2–5 years prior to entering teachers’ college, and apparently sharp differentials in trainees’ socio-economic background as compared to typical Ghanaian communities. They come to training with rich and varied images of teachers, teaching and the profession, but, in addition, many beginning trainees also express little desire to teach at primary school level, mainly for reasons of status and insufficient fringe benefits. These factors, we argue, should be taken into more account in the design of college programmes and the development of teacher education policies. The paper concludes with a call to teacher education systems, especially in Africa, to look more closely at, and learn from, who comes for training, what they bring with them, and how they perceive themselves in relation to teaching, training and future aspirations.  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Teacher identity; Beginning student teachers; Teacher education; Teacher images; Ghana

1. Introduction Research suggests that teachers’ classroom practice is more than a function of the content of teacher education programmes, and that teachers’ personal socio-historical past, beliefs and values

Corresponding author. Tel.: +002-33-42-33793/33796. E-mail address: [email protected] (K. Akyeampong). ∗

play a large part in shaping their classroom behaviour and practices (Wideen et al., 1998; Knowles, 1992). Harley et al. (2000), studying South African teachers’ implementation of education policy, noted that teachers assumed roles in their practice that, apart from the influence of local cultures and contexts, reflected their personal value systems. These values and past experiences are often the lenses through which teachers make sense of their everyday classroom practice. As Nespor (1987) points out, teachers’ classroom practices have roots

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in their own experiences of schooling, particularly in their previous interaction with their own teachers, resulting in certain perceptions, values and expectations of teaching. Lortie (1975) explains the logic behind this: Teaching is unusual in that those who decide to enter it have had exceptional opportunity to observe members of the occupation at work: unlike most occupations today, the activities of teachers are not shielded from youngsters … Those planning to teach form definite ideas about the nature of the role. (p. 65) This suggests that beginning teachers bring with them into teaching a teaching schema, possibly formed over years of experience of interacting with teachers in various capacities, and sometimes from their own prior teaching experiences. This schema then becomes the basis for the student of what teaching is ‘supposed’ to be (Bullough et al., 1997). For example, some student teachers place more value on the personal development of children and relationships between children and their teachers (Wilson and Cameron, 1996). Others primarily emphasize teacher effectiveness in terms of teacher caring, nurturing and imagination (Mahlios and Maxson, 1995; Black and HowardJones, 2000), while for some their conception of teaching subject matter is strongly influenced by the way they themselves learned the subject whilst at school (Stofflett and Stoddart, 1994). In effect, student teachers enter training with quite strong and varied notions, attitudes and values concerning teaching as a result of their previous experiences of the education system. Moreover these notions are often at variance with the theories presented to them at college and may well contribute to the poor transfer of theory to practice during the training process (Huibregtse et al., 1994, Korthagen and Kessel, 1999). The notion of self and the development of teacher identity has been noted as important in teacher thinking and classroom actions. Research into teacher role identity points to a contextualised sense of self—one which is often in tension with an external and professional sense of self, constrained by culture, context and circumstance. The

idea of identity as a situated or contextualised sense of self is thought to play a crucial part in shaping teaching behaviour. This formulation of teachers’ views of self and identity evolve through the cumulative influence of several factors that include the home environment, parents, teachers, socio-economic, and political factors (Knowles, 1992). The input characteristics and qualities of the typical beginning student teacher are important indicators of the quality of trained teachers at the point of exit and of their continuing long-term commitment to the profession. Using the Ghanaian context, this paper seeks to examine similar issues of background characteristics, experiences, beliefs, expectations and aspirations that beginning student teachers bring with them into college, and explores their possible meanings and implications. The MUSTER project1 provided a good opportunity to explore this territory from a developing world context. We were seeking to understand who comes for training in Ghana, what they bring and how they perceive themselves in relation to training, teaching and future aspirations.

2. Sample and instruments A random sample of 100 new student teachers was selected from each of four teacher training colleges in the southern part of Ghana2. The total number of 400 was made up of 265 male and 135 female student teachers. Eighteen student teachers, made up of nine men and nine women, were selected to write autobiographies of family life and schooling experiences. Of these, a dozen student teacher trainees participated in a focus group inter1 MUSTER (Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project) is a collaborative project co-ordinated from the Centre for International Education at the University of Sussex Institute of Education, UK and involving research institutes in Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago. Financial support for the 3-year project was provided by the British Department for International Development (DFID). 2 There are currently 41 teacher training colleges in Ghana. 38 of them are state run and the remaining three are private colleges.

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view. The respondents were also guided in the production of autobiographies focussing on the student teachers’ self-identity with respect to their early life experiences of parents, teachers and school. Their motivation for wanting to become teachers was also explored. A questionnaire was administered to all 400 student teachers. The questionnaire had three sections which sought information about the student teachers’ background characteristics, and their views about teachers, teaching and teacher training experiences. The first section of the questionnaire covered such items as age, parental education and occupation, ethnic group and language spoken at home. Section two focussed on three main categories, viz., trainees’ perception about teachers, teaching and the training college experience. A third section consisted of a variety of open-ended questions requiring extended responses about their best and worst memories of schooling, student teachers’ view on life at teachers’ college, and their career ambitions.

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response patterns was arrived at. In order to determine which response patterns were in the majority and which in the minority, each response type was tallied and this provided a fair insight into the kind of emphasis respondents were placing on particular issues.

4. Background characteristics of beginning student teachers3 Analysis of the background characteristics of the student teachers provided some insight into the profile of prospective teachers intending to embark on teacher training in Ghana. From the survey, three main characteristic features were delineated for analysis. These were: (1) age profile; (2) trainee quality indicators using entry qualification grades in English and mathematics; and (3) home background characteristics using parents’ education and occupation as proxy measures. 4.1. Age

3. Analysis The recurrent themes in the autobiography and the interview data were analysed based on the protocols used i.e. early life experiences, perceptions about teaching as a career, and early experiences of training college life. The analysis of the qualitative data was based on a thematic approach, critically examining individual responses to questions, categorising the responses, and finally deriving themes from them. For the analysis of the openended question items, two researchers examined the written responses and agreed on the categories for each response. Emerging themes were then derived for the subsequent analysis and reporting of findings. The collaboration of the two researchers ensured internal consistency in the categorisation and interpretation of the data. In practice, the analysis of the open-ended items involved grouping similar responses to a question under a single and typical response category. Each new response type was allocated a different category and this process was continued for all the responses until an exhaustive list of typical

A student teacher entering training college in Ghana would normally have spent 6 years at primary school, three years at junior secondary and a further 3 years at senior secondary. Usually children in Ghana enter Primary one at age 5 or 6 years, which means that a candidate for training4 will be eligible to enter a teacher training college at age 17 or 18, if their schooling proceeds uninterrupted up to that point. The ages of the 390 student teachers ranged from 17 to 29 years, with the majority (73.4%) between 19 and 21 years. From the data it became clear that gaining admission into teacher training was achieved at an earlier age for more of the female student teachers than males. A little over a

3 See also Coultas, J and Lewin, K (2002) ‘Who Becomes a Teacher? The Characteristics of Student Teachers in Four Countries’ in this volume for comparison with other countries. 4 The 1987 education reforms introduced a new education structure that provided at the basic education level for six years primary education, 3 years junior secondary education and 3 years senior secondary. This represents a reduction of the years of pre-university education from 17 to 12.

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third (35%) of female and almost a quarter (21%) of male trainees were between the ages of 17 and 19 years. It would appear therefore that females were gaining admission into teacher training earlier than their male counterparts. Based upon the student teachers’ age profile and data about the year in which they gained admission into the training college, it emerged that 63% of the student teachers waited between 2–5 years after completing their secondary education before gaining admission to teachers’ college, whilst 33% gained admission to teachers’ college immediately upon completion of secondary education. A reason for this may be that many student trainees either could not satisfy the entry level qualification requirements, assuming they applied immediately after their secondary education (a proxy indication of interest and readiness), or had delayed their decision to go into teaching for other unknown reasons. It is common in Ghana for students who want to improve their ‘O’ level or SSCE grades (post-secondary selection exam grades) to rewrite some papers to improve their chances of qualifying for higher education.

SSCE, about 69% obtained ‘E’ in English—which is the weakest pass grade, and about 22% obtained a ‘D’ pass grade.In effect, about 91% of student teachers entered teachers’ college with weak passes in English.Of those who entered on the basis of ‘O’ levels, 62% achieved grade 6 (a credit) in English. For mathematics, 40% of SSCE entrants obtained ‘E’ and 25% a ‘D’. The beginning student teachers’ entry grades in English and mathematics could be considered a good indication of the quality of candidates for teacher training, and suggest that many student trainees might have found it difficult to gain admission into tertiary level institutions such as the university or polytechnic. These institutions have more competitive entry requirements.6 It is also clear that the majority of entrants were coming into college with a weak subject knowledge base in the two most fundamental school subject areas, English and mathematics. This has consequences for the starting points for the teaching and learning of these subjects in the training colleges, and ultimately impacts on curriculum balance in terms of other training areas e.g. pedagogical content knowledge, teaching practice etc.

4.2. Entry grades 4.3. Parents’ socio–economic background Entrance to post-secondary teacher training institutions in Ghana is mainly based on stated minimum requirements. For GCE ‘O’ level applicants a minimum of five credits, including mathematics and English, is the entry requirement. The ‘O’ level system uses a 9–point grading scale, with grade 6 (defined as a credit) equivalent to the minimum achievement level. For the Senior Secondary Certification Examination (SSCE), which recently replaced the ‘O’ level, the requirements are based on an aggregate of 24 or less, including at least credits in core science, core mathematics, and core English language5. Of those who entered college on the merit of 5 The SSCE has replaced the ‘O’ level as part of the restructuring of education in Ghana. The minimum qualifying aggregate grade of ‘24’ is derived from three core subjects (English, mathematics and science) and two elective subjects (either science or general arts programme). Grade designation for SSCE are as follows: A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, and E=5.

Student teachers’ parents’ occupations and education levels provided insight into their socio-economic background and the likely influence on personal and professional aspirations. Out of the 384 trainees who responded to the question about parents’ occupation, the highest percentage (21%) indicated their father was a teacher, followed by a farmer (18%) and a trader (14%), in that order. For the occupation of mothers, a majority (52%) indicated they were traders, followed by teachers (14%) and farmers (13%). Approximately half of the respondents indicated that their father had qualifications that ranged from a teacher’s certificate (post-secondary) to a university degree. Com6

There are only five state-run universities and six polytechnics in Ghana. Privately owned universities are springing up but they tend to be more expensive and are yet to pass the social test of credibility. They are therefore not as competitive as the traditional state-run universities.

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pared to only about 10% of the population who have similar qualifications (World Bank, 1996)7, it would appear that most beginning student teachers come from relatively better off socio-economic home backgrounds. There are two possible implications of this. First, the differentials in home backgrounds between student teachers and the communities in which they are likely to teach might make some unwilling to accept or unprepared for teaching positions in the deprived communities in which the majority of school-going Ghanaian children reside. Most of the population in Ghana lives in rural and semi-rural areas with agriculture providing over half of all employment (World Bank, 1998). The problem of trained teachers unwilling to accept postings to rural communities in Ghana is widely acknowledged (Casely-Hayford, 2000; Hedges, 2000). One strategy advocated to redress the imbalance of teacher demand and supply between urban and rural Ghana is a change in teacher education recruitment policy to reflect demand for teachers in deprived school communities. Under this policy student teachers will be expected to select their areas for posting before they enter training college, and to obtain endorsement from their district of choice. This is to ensure that potential entrants prepare and orient themselves for living within a particular district (GES, 2000). However, this policy has to contend with the realities of personal choices and the possibility that this could worsen the situation if prospective candidates not wishing to teach in deprived districts simply do not seek an endorsement, but opt out of teaching altogether. The second likely consequence of the home background characteristics relates to the effect that the beginning student teachers’ sense of self, shaped by aspirations nurtured by their family background, has on their commitment to the teaching profession. The evidence suggests a connection can be made between the level of commitment and the status of the teaching profession in Ghana, particularly whether conditions of service are con7 Analysis of education classification and average age-earnings profiles derived by level of education in Ghana show that earnings are positively correlated with level of education (World Bank 1996 Report No. 15570-GH).

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sidered to be rewarding enough to attract and keep teachers whose nurtured aspirations direct them to seek professions which offer better remuneration and status. The study’s evidence is that the aspirations of many student teachers were either to leave teaching at the most opportune time for a more lucrative job, or to seek teaching jobs with enhanced fringe benefits, such as the provision of decent accommodation.

5. Background experiences 5.1. Experiences of family Using the autobiographies, an attempt was made to explore the nature of some college students’ family backgrounds. For some, this period was quite challenging due to financial difficulties or the itinerant nature of parents’ jobs, which meant moving in to live with extended family members (e.g. aunt, grandmother). Not surprisingly, the most severe examples of financial difficulties were from nuclear and extended families whose occupation could be classified as ‘socio–economically poor, particularly food crop farmers or the self-employed’ (World Bank, 1995). There seemed to be a positive side to these challenges in that they were not always portrayed as obstacles, rather in some instances as ‘hurdles’ that had inspired determination and perseverance. Making it to teacher training was often cited as evidence of their hard work and dedication in overcoming the limiting economic conditions of family life. In trainees’ accounts of striving to achieve and make progress in schooling, teachers came in for particular mention. The autobiographic narratives revealed teachers as advocates for children who faced the prospect of dropping out of school because of family financial constraints. It was often the teacher who urged the parents to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure continued schooling. The following illustrate examples of the teachers’

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role and influence in dealing with the potential of school dropout: My parents were not well off to provide me with all the necessary things that I needed to assist me in my academic work. At times I was sacked for owing school fees and had to stay at home until my parents were able to pay my school fees. There was once a time when my class teacher Mr Mensah visited my parents and advised them to take care of me especially in catering for my education. Through all these agonies I experienced, I was able to pass through the basic education with successful completion in 1992. I was told I had got aggregate six in the BECE examination which has stood as a record up till now. This made my teachers rush to my father telling him in a way of intimidation that if he did not send me to secondary school, he stood to be questioned by the authorities in the education service. As a matter of fact these teachers encouraged my father to send me to secondary school. Mr Gevo was my best teacher. It was through his effort that I have been able to come up to this stage. When I wanted to write the Common Entrance Examination (a selection exam for secondary school which is no more in use), it was Mr Gevo who helped me and even to the extent of buying the forms for me. Whenever he saw I was in some difficulty he came to assist me. I could see it was that which helped me further my education. The issue of school dropout is one that has plagued the school system in Ghana for a long time. Cohort analysis of survival rates indicates that of 1000 pupils entering Primary One (P1) less than 600 pupils complete Junior Secondary Three (JSS3), and just a little above 200 enter Senior Secondary School (SSS) (NEF, 2000). Survival rates have been shown to be lowest between P1 and P2, and between JSS3 and SSS1, when many leave the system (Akyeampong et al., 2000). Surprisingly, policies to address this problem have not touched

on the training and active role of teachers in communities where this is a particular problem. 5.2. Experiences of teachers and schooling Student teachers were asked in the questionnaire: “What was the best (and worst) thing about your primary schooling?” Best and worst schooling experiences were mostly portrayed in terms of experiences with teachers that illustrated characteristic qualities of good and bad teachers. Some of the respondents also described their schooling experience in terms of the effect of lack of school resources and infrastructure. Best primary schooling experiences were often characterised by the contribution teachers made towards children’s learning and development. In one sense, good teachers were recognised as those capable of using effective teaching methods that made learning both interesting and rewarding. Others saw good teachers as knowledgeable in the subjects they taught and capable of contextualising and making the learning experiences real. Good teachers were also perceived as those who demonstrated effective interpersonal relationships, were disciplinarians, and provided moral and spiritual guidance. Clear recognition was given to a good teacher’s pedagogic style and the dramatic influence it had on learning and achievement, In fact, the way she taught was amazing. Even if you don’t have sharp brains you will understand the subject clearly. She mostly taught using everyday experiences. He used our daily life activities to explain problems in mathematics and you will understand and love mathematics. He was then a pupil teacher (untrained) but the way he presented the lessons was very good. Another image of a good teacher related to personal moral values. Qualities such as love and care shown towards children both within and outside the classroom were perceived as signs of deep commitment and interest in the teaching profession. Teachers exhibiting such qualities were viewed as liberal and humanistic role models. The

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images indicated the extent of teachers’ influence and roles beyond the boundaries of classrooms towards community and family. Dedication to work—defined in terms of being punctual, and commitment to children’s learning and achievement—were also considered admirable teacher attributes. To summarize, good teacher qualities were in evidence at two different social levels. At the classroom level, they were caring, keenly interested in children’s achievement, and effective in their methods of teaching to promote children’s understanding. At the community level, their exemplary lifestyles provided role models whose influence reached even to children’s families in respect of their schooling. For teacher education these images raise several important issues, notably the role that moral attributes can play in classroom pedagogy, and how these perceptions can be used as a contextualised reference for defining important characteristics of teacher quality and development. A number of questions follow: how do we capture the essence of these qualities in the discourse of teacher learning, development and achievement? Can and do moral qualities have much to do with effective teaching in terms of its impact on student achievement? What are the possible implications if teacher quality is perceived in such terms as teachers’ moral qualities? For example, it may be that student teachers who perceive quality more in terms of teacher morals and relationships are unlikely to see teacher training as a means to making fundamental improvements in their capacity to teach, since knowledge of professional practices may be viewed as only a minor component of competence. At best, then, it might consist of tips to make life easier, rather than leading to any substantial improvement in capability, especially for weaker student teachers (Akyeampong et al., 1999). Teacher education should focus more of its attention on the relational aspects of teachers’ work, particularly on how that operates to improve or hinder effective teaching and learning. Student teachers’ recollections of their worst school experience centred mainly on the use of corporal punishment. Poor academic performance, or

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sometimes failure to answer a teacher’s question correctly, often resulted in the use of the cane. This practice was perceived by most as counterproductive because it engendered negative feelings towards teachers and dislike of those subjects that students found difficult, rather than fostering discipline and effort in learning as intended by the teachers who used the cane. However, others saw teachers’ use of this punishment as a means of shaping character and motivating hard work. Nevertheless, negative images of teachers were often linked to teachers’ abuse of the use of the cane. We found the accounts of corporal punishment particularly associated with the cane quite alarming. A particularly vivid description illustrates the extent of its use and the negative consequences it had on a student’s academic work. I remember one day when I was in the primary school I had a fight with one of my classmates. So some of my friends went to the next classroom and reported the case to the teacher there. She sent them to come and call us. When we got there the teacher didn’t ask us anything and told us to fight in her presence because she has seen me fighting on several occasions. It was about 45 minutes to the closing time and the lady teacher made us fight and fight as she was sitting down watching the fight, while the other pupils were watching and shouting as we knocked each other with heavy blows. What hurt me so much was that, when the bell rang for closing she called me and after giving me some lashes she asked me the number of canes I have received. When I told her I was not counting, she started all over again and gave me ten lashes. My father reported the case to parents of the teacher and since then she never liked me. At times she didn’t mark my work when she gave us some assignment. Evidently, from the above quote, negative experiences of student–teacher relationships endure long in the memory. Another theme emerging from the question about the best and worst experiences of primary schooling was the quality of school facilities and

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the important role head-teachers play in promoting a congenial school atmosphere. There were also recollections of schools that lacked resources for learning, had poor quality staff, and undisciplined teachers, who either did not attend classes regularly or came late or drunk. In summary, two major themes of the worst descriptions of schooling related to the personal characteristics of teachers and school resources. Abusive and intimidating behaviour of teachers appeared to be of critical concern when it came to negative experiences of schooling. 5.3. Experiences of teaching A majority of student teachers (74%) had no teaching experience prior to entering training college. A few (14%) had teaching experience of a year or less. 6% had taught for between 1 and 2 years, and 1% had taught between 2 and 3 years. Less than 1% had taught for more than 3 years. From the survey, therefore, only about a quarter (26%) of the beginning student teachers had formal classroom teaching experience prior to their entering teachers’ college. The teaching experience profile of the beginning student teachers shows that most do not come to the training with significant professional experience capital which could be used as an important starting point in developing a reflective discourse of prior experiences in teacher training. Many beginning student teachers, however, saw less formal or unstructured teaching experiences as equally valuable in terms of the professional capital they bring to college. These unconventional teaching experiences (e.g. teaching Sunday school, teaching siblings etc., explaining ideas to peers) were often considered valuable contexts within which a hitherto buried interest in teaching had been awakened. What was particularly interesting in some accounts was the association of teaching with an innate personality trait that appeared after experiencing teaching and was evidenced in a commitment and devotion to children’s learning and development. As one student said, I love children and have many children friends. I like being with children, teaching and helping

them solve their problems. I become worried when children become stubborn because of lack of care and love. Here, there appeared to be an assumption that interest in working with children was evidence of potential to become a successful teacher. For beginning teachers holding such views it is important to explore with them how this attribute might be useful in classroom management and learning. In conclusion, instead of ignoring images of the teacher that may not fit with conventional conceptions of professional preparation, we need to use these somewhat unconventional images as a fulcrum to enhance student teachers’ conceptions of teaching. Finally, the notion of care and love for children as an important characteristic of the teacher-pupil relationship has to be seen in terms of its value in motivating and challenging pupils to make greater strides in learning and achievement. The challenge, as we see it, is for teacher education programmes in Ghana and elsewhere to depart from the fixed behavioural models of training, and move towards a training model that makes greater use of positive images of teaching, particularly those brought into the training college by the new recruit. To examine more specific conceptions held by beginning student teachers we attempted to explore some of their beliefs about teaching and the teaching profession; this is the subject of the next section.

6. Beliefs about teaching and the profession Generally, beginning student teachers felt teachers are made and not born (60%). However an appreciable number (40%), believe teaching ability is an in-born personality trait. It is conceivable therefore that, for a good number of trainees, they may not have much personal commitment to teacher development and professional growth as a process, particularly if they feel it makes little difference to teacher competence. Although about 59% agreed with the statement that teachers could improve the academic perform-

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ance of slow learners, again quite a sizeable proportion (41%) did not share this view, making it necessary to raise awareness of, and explore with trainees, the assumptions behind the philosophy and promotion of teacher competence. A majority of beginning student teachers surveyed (86%) believed the most important thing a teacher can do is to teach pupils facts. This belief may be centred on the tradition of knowledge transmission found in African school systems (Jessop and Penny, 1998; Tabulawa, 1997) and also noted in Ghana (Akyeampong et al., 1999). It calls for training programmes operating in the African context to redress this instructional belief, bearing in mind the culturally embedded nature of the transmission model of teaching (Tabulawa, 1997) and its implications for change strategies in favour of more constructivist approaches. A number of the student teachers (62%) felt students learn more from asking questions than from listening, suggesting an inclination towards more active pupil participation in the teaching and learning process.

7. Expectations and aspirations 7.1. Choosing teaching as a career Generally the reasons stated by many of the beginning student teachers for choosing to train as teachers had more to do with altruistic and extrinsic motives than intrinsic motives. Altruistic motives such as the desire to impart knowledge, an interest in working with children, and an interest in raising the standard of education in the country were the most mentioned. I want to impart the knowledge acquired to someone and also be a role model for the young ones to follow. I want to become a teacher and help raise the falling standard of education in the country, especially in the remote area. Some student teachers expressed the view that teaching would win them respect and appreciation

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from society. Research by Casely-Hayford (2000) exploring the participation, quality and needs of female teachers in rural areas in Ghana suggest that respect and appreciation from local communities in which teachers work is earned, and cannot be assumed. Some of the factors which are key to teachers earning community respect, according to Casely-Hayford, are: a work ethic, regular attendance, punctuality, an interest in children, and success of children in reading and writing. Emphasising the idea that teachers’ professional attitudes and performance at school are a key to gaining community respect and appreciation has implications for the curriculum of the teachers’ college. Two main themes reflecting extrinsic motives that derived from statements on why student teachers chose teaching as a career were job security and social mobility, as the following quotes illustrate: In the midst of graduate unemployment, my employment is assured after training (trainees are automatically posted to a school to teach after their three years of training). Through teaching, one can become an officer (that is join the military)—and even enter politics to become a prominent person. A teacher can further his education … to the university and become a secondary school teacher. A career in teaching was considered by some as a gateway to further education leading ultimately to a better job. Such motives, we believe, are influenced by current Ghana teacher education policy, which allows teachers to further their professional education on study leave and at the same time receive their full salary. With higher qualifications there are more opportunities to move up the teaching ladder e.g. teach in a secondary school, which is seen as being of higher status than primary teaching, or to branch into other professions that offer better remuneration. A majority (79%) of the student teachers made a reference to poor conditions of service as a major disincentive of teaching. This was seen as the root

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of the problem for teachers in the community. As we tried to reconcile negative and positive statements about benefits, it seemed evident that student teachers, even though they were aware that teaching did not pay and had low status, particularly at the primary school level, perceived other potential benefits that fitted with their ambitions outside teaching or even within teaching (high status educator positions). Our hypothesis is that most student teachers unable to enter university or polytechnic because of their weak entry grades, see study leave with pay offered to teachers as an attractive alternative route to fulfilling their ambition of entering careers that offered better remuneration and higher social status. Furthermore, they may have felt teaching offered an opportunity to give something back, but were unwilling to see themselves in teaching in the long term. Other references to the unattractive side of the teaching profession mentioned were: 앫 Working in deprived areas and the danger of disease 앫 Problems with communication due to language differences that may exist between teachers and communities in which teachers work 앫 Problems of unsuitable accommodation in rural communities 앫 Conflicts with community members and parents because of pupils’ poor academic performance 앫 The undue public interest and scrutiny of teachers’ lifestyle because of the imposition of social role models. These represent some of the contemporary challenges facing teachers in Ghana, and have important implications for teachers’ long-term commitment to teaching. 7.2. Aspirations and expectations after training More specifically, we asked student teachers to describe the aspirations they had after training, and to further explore their motivations for, and images of, the teaching profession. Beginning student teachers expressed two main aspirations after their initial training. As has already been noted, one was to seek opportunities to further their education, and

preferably teach at the secondary school level because of the low status of primary teaching. In Ghana, secondary school teachers tend to enjoy better social status relative to primary school teachers and this may be because the former have university degrees, and usually receive better conditions of service, particularly accommodation. As one respondent said about his ambitions: I’ll finish with my three years service8 and then apply to the university for my degree course and then my masters so that I can also take one of the highest positions in education in the future. The other aspiration of student teachers related to a perception that initial training would turn them into effective teachers. From our point of view, it is important that student teachers see their initial training as the starting point in a journey of discovery and development in teaching. Effective teachers are not produced in an instant through training, but rather become so through commitment to teaching as a developmental process that really starts after initial training. Such a process would need to be enhanced by in-service training. 7.3. Purpose of teacher training In response to being asked why teachers require training, answers related either to the goal of preparation for professional practice or preparation for interpersonal relationships and general living. Training for professional practice meant any of the following: (1) to gain mastery of subject matter; (2) to develop teaching skills; and (3) to develop professional understanding of children’s behaviour. From the way these were expressed, it seemed that student teachers’ understanding of what training was intended to achieve was essentially to acquire knowledge and skills of teaching, and that this legitimises a trained teacher’s identity. None of the statements suggested an expectation that training would provide opportunities for exploring

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Three years of teaching after graduation from college is a statutory service condition that entitles the newly qualified teacher to study leave with full pay.

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teaching with the view to refining and promoting personal agency in teaching. The view of training therefore is that it is equipping to act out teaching i.e. the student is given training rather than being encouraged to engage with it, a view reflecting the philosophy and delivery practices of current teacher education in Ghana (Akyeampong, Ampiah et al., 2000). On the issue of training helping them to make better adjustments in life situations, it was unclear where such expectations came from. Two quotes illustrate such perceptions: One will be able to interact with others … and also undergo some hardships in the process to prepare one to face future hardships. You will be prepared to look after yourself and to adapt to the environment. It is difficult to understand clearly what might be the reason for this belief but we suspect that this may be a hidden perception of a goal of training indirectly communicated through the exercise of college traditions and culture. During initial teacher training, as we were told in interviews with student teachers, and witnessed, student teachers were expected to engage in routine college chores such as weeding compounds and fetching water (some colleges do not have pipe-borne water at their location), under strict supervision by tutors and prefects. Student teachers in college live lives on the campuses that are regimented in every way possible: We are treated like primary school pupils. We are not allowed to regulate our lives. Such a situation does not encourage the development of personal or professional agency, and may well inculcate values out of step with moves to decentralise educational development and encourage college graduates to take responsibility for change once in the classroom. In a separate questionnaire (not included in this study) we asked college tutors to provide us with two examples of how they thought their college tried to make good teachers out of their students.

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Of the 55 college tutors who responded to this question, about a quarter wrote that they believed colleges had a responsibility to mould student teachers’ character as part of the process of becoming a good teacher: The college instils discipline in the students. Those who go against the rules of the college are punished. The college tries to enforce college rules and regulations effectively … and members of staff try to give examples in all areas of life. The college uses a range of punishments to ensure students are punctual and regular at college social gatherings and classes. Such actions are likely to send particular signals about teacher role identity that, although they are not stated clearly as a training objective, nevertheless speak volumes to student teachers about a moral agenda of training, which should somehow make them better adjusted to teaching life. This authoritarian environment of training colleges is most likely a reflection of the history of how teacher training colleges were developed in Ghana. Most colleges were started as missionary institutions with a culture of strict discipline to train ministers, catechists and later teachers. Others were originally started as traditional secondary schools and later converted into training colleges, but have maintained the organisational and cultural characteristics of the secondary school system. In fact training colleges look very much like secondary schools infrastructure-wise and in their instructional practices. Most classrooms have no visual aids, instructional materials are scarce, and libraries are small and poorly stocked. In a college with about 550 student teachers, its library had a seating capacity of about 30. Finally, from the survey, beginning student teachers expect training to have more of a practical rather than theoretical focus. If training colleges are to achieve this in the true sense of developing reflective practice and dispositions important for effective teacher performance, then they will require significant improvements in the provision

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of training resources, and a shift in how student teachers are perceived, treated and trained to become teachers. Most (66%) agreed that teacher training should focus more on teaching methodology and less on mastery of subject knowledge, and that teaching practice should be scheduled to last at least a full academic year. At the time of data collection, the entire teaching practice period for the 3-year training was 12 weeks in duration, but there are currently proposals to change the structure of initial teacher training9 so that, in future, trainees will be expected to spend a year in schools as an integral part of their teacher training.

8. Conclusion 8.1. Some important messages The findings of this exploratory study show that beginning student teachers in Ghana have largely similar expectations, aspirations and images of teaching to those of student teachers in other countries reported elsewhere (see Yong, 1995; Young, 1995; Wideen et al., 1998). The student teachers’ written statements about their motivation to enter teaching were often based on altruistic reasons. There was, however, a high expectation that a career in teaching would open up opportunities for further professional education leading to a higher status teaching position, or else make it easier to gain employment in other careers considered more lucrative. Judging by the fact that the majority of the student teachers did not enter teachers’ college immediately after secondary school, and had weak entry grades, it would appear that most chose teacher training as a last resort. It is therefore not surprising that many stated their motivation to go into training in terms of the opportunities teaching offered either to find a higher status job outside teaching or a high status

9 The proposed new structure known as the ‘in-in-out’ scheme would mean a trainee spending the first 2 years of the 3-year programme in the college and the 3rd year involved in work-study in a primary school.

position in the education or the teaching profession. As Peil (1995) points out, in Ghana: teacher training is often seen as merely a step on the way to a more lucrative employment rather than as leading to a career educating the next generation. (p. 290). Investing sufficient personal energy in professional learning and development is a sign of strong commitment to teaching as a career. This fact calls for a model of teacher training that aims to make teaching intrinsically more attractive by recognising and integrating the altruistic values beginning student teachers bring into training. There is evidence of a close relationship between intrinsic motivation and commitment to teaching (Kaufman, 1984, cited in Yong, 1995). For teacher training in Ghana, we believe ways should be found to inculcate a higher sense of commitment to teaching by engaging with the positive values trainees have about teaching in the discourse of teacher education. A first step would be for teacher educators to learn much more about the educational experiences of their in-coming trainees and to use these experiences in the development of courses concerned with pedagogy and preparation for teaching practice. From the study it emerged that student teachers began their training expecting, at the end, to be equipped with specific pedagogical skills and knowledge for effective teaching. This is counter to the notion of professional learning and development as a continuing process in which teacher effectiveness is a function of teachers’ processes of reflection and evaluation of their own practice in the long term. Ghanaian student teachers in their training need to learn to: 앫 make explicit the skills, knowledge and understandings necessary in becoming an effective teacher 앫 articulate their own decisions about appropriate teaching strategies with the support of the above 앫 see learning to teach as a developmental process, and learning to teach better as the longterm concern (Murphy et al., 1993, p. 143)

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Student teachers paint vivid pictures of early school experiences, particularly of school life and of teacher behaviour and practices. Their images and perceptions of teaching and teachers, we argue, need to be made more explicit and given voice in the training process, so as to promote deeper reflection on professional knowledge and pedagogical classroom practice, which can then lead to a personalised understanding of teaching. Clearly, there is evidence of the importance of the socio-political role of teachers in school and communities. Teachers are seen as much more than people who stand before children to impart knowledge. They are seen as role models for society, something the student teachers in our study were keenly aware of. Accounts of their early experiences with teachers were sometimes outside classroom contexts and appreciated for the impact they had on family choices concerning students’ continuing education. We feel it is important that this community role is recognised as an important dimension of a teacher’s work, particularly given the challenge in many developing country education systems of trying to improve participation and retention rates. The period of training in our view should provide an opportunity for teachers to discuss issues relating to socio–cultural and economic factors which hinder children’s participation in education, and the contribution they can make in order to improve the situation. Corporal punishment plays a significant role in the lives of children in school. In the culture of many traditional Ghanaian societies caning, particularly in the home, is not seen as necessarily evil. Often it is perceived as a corrective action to morally ‘straighten’ children. Thus its use in schools by some teachers may simply be a reflection of an image of bringing up children in which parents exercise authority and control over children through the periodic use of the cane. Since the issue of caning features quite prominently in the accounts of early school life experience, it is necessary that during training attention is drawn to assumptions behind its use, and justifications for its continued use are discussed. The background characteristics of student teachers provide insight into who opts for training, what they bring in terms of their experiences and per-

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ceptions, and finally their expectations. Often teacher education programmes, particularly we would say in the African context, address themselves to the theory and practice of teaching without addressing issues that are directly related to images and practices of teaching located at the heart of the educational system. We believe there is an urgent need to reflect on and make explicit the commonly accepted socio–cultural values and norms about teaching and the profession in particular contexts, as part of the strategy to improve teaching and educational quality. It is also necessary to challenge assumptions about the realities of prospective teachers’ future careers and to try and bridge the gap between expectations and reality. This is indeed critical to beginning teachers’ survival in the profession, as their commitment will be tested by critical incidents in and out of the classroom (Ball and Goodson, 1995). Where the commitment to teaching is weak, the chances are that many will drift out of teaching. Clearly for the student teachers in this study, teaching at the primary level was not considered attractive and their aspiration to become secondary teachers after their university education is bad news for basic education reforms in Ghana. This is a matter that requires an urgent strategic policy response. Student teachers in Ghana, on the threshold of beginning their training and a career in primary teaching, already have career aspirations that might dampen their investment in time and energy in their training. For those who do decide to enter the teaching profession, this research indicates that more serious attention needs to be paid to the experience and ideas about the profession that trainees bring with them into the training process. If this does not happen there will continue to be a disjunction between theory and training, and the personal images and perceptions student teachers hold of the very nature of teaching and the role of the teacher.

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