The questionnaires in this study were part of a broader picture of the research aimed at investigating the influence of, and the interplay between contextual and biographical factors of the respondents of the questions in the interviews. The significance of the profiles of the twelve novice teachers was to assist the reader and the researcher in understanding the context and the background of the novice teachers under study. The data that emerged from the questionnaires showed that management, conditions of work and contexts of schools for all novices under study were the same.
The study does not aim to focus much on the findings of the biographical-data questionnaire except where their relevance gives meaning to the main findings. There is a common notion that the views of the respondents are influenced by
75 gender, age, qualifications, work load and other factors. In line with this view, the researcher purposefully selected the respondents and schools with similar characteristics in order to limit the disparities caused by the variables in the findings of the study.
The respondents were asked to complete a questionnaire. At the end of the field work, the researcher compiled data from the questionnaires into Table 4.1 below.
Table 4.1: The aggregated profiles of novice teachers used in the study
Key: D. S. E. - Diploma in Secondary Education
B. Com. - Bachelor of Commerce B. Ed. - Bachelor of Education
B. A. + P.G.D.E. - Bachelor of Arts plus Post Graduate Diploma in Education
B. Com. + P.G.D.E. - Bachelor of Commerce plus Post Graduate Diploma in Education
Only two novice teachers were picked from each of the six selected schools. The consent of the novices selected for the study was sought before selection was finally made. The gender composition of the sampled participants was cross tabulated with other attributes. The researcher assumed that male and female would approach the phenomenon in this study differently. Therefore, it was necessary to understand that gender might be one of the important variables that would influence the respondents’ views and actions. As a result, there was a
Novice
Teachers Gender Age Professional Highest Qualifications No. of Subjects Taught No. of Classes Taught Lessons per Cycle (Workload) Subject Taught
A F 24 B. A. + P.G.D.E. 1 3 18 Moral Education
B F 22 D. S. E. 1 4 28 English
C F 25 B. Ed. 1 3 18 English
D F 20 D. S. E. 2 3 15 Setswana
E M 26 D. S. E. 1 3 21 Agricultural Science
F M 25 D. S. E. 1 3 18 Business Studies
A1 F 26 B. Ed. 2 6 22 Moral Education
B1 M 23 D. S. E. 1 6 30 Setswana
C1 F 20 D. S. E. 1 3 21 Home Economics
D1 M 27 B. Com.+ P.G.D.E. 1 4 28 Integrated Science
E1 M 23 B. Com. 2 6 25 Business Studies
F1 M 21 D. S. E. 1 4 28 Guidance and
76 balance of gender in the respondents as reflected in Table 4.1. Half of the respondents is male and the other half is female.
The information in Table 4.1 serves as a reference to assist the reader with information on the participants as referred to throughout the chapter. Participants were coded A to F1. To meet the need for confidentiality and to provide privacy (see Paragraph 3.9), these code names were recorded on the biographical data questionnaires (see Appendix C) and the transcriptions of interviews (see Appendix B). The information collected was adequate data for the qualitative research.
The twelve teachers, two from each school, were purposefully selected to participate in this study. All of them were in their first year of teaching. Their teaching subjects were: Moral Education, English, Setswana, Guidance and Counseling, Agricultural Science, Business Studies, Home Economics and Integrated Science. Their ages ranged between 20 and 27 years. The differences found in the profiles of the respondents complemented Brock and Grady’s (1998:179) observation that first year teachers represent different age groups, backgrounds and experiences (see Table 4.1).
The findings revealed that the participants have different educational background and it was clear that they also have a different amount of work in their schools. The various educational qualifications of newly qualified teachers were: Diploma in Secondary Education (DSE); Bachelor of Arts Degree (B.A.); Bachelor of Education Degree (B Ed.) and Bachelor of Commerce Degree (B Com.). Other novices had a Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) as an additional qualification. Except for PGDE graduates, all of the novices under study had followed an integral model of teacher training, that is, the subject matters and the pedagogical subjects were distributed throughout the teacher training course. In actual fact, a PGDE covers teaching methods and practice. The gender composition of the twelve teachers under study was cross-tabulated with the teacher’s qualifications as reflected in Table 4.2 below:
77 Table 4.2: Qualifications of teachers according to gender
Qualifications Gender Total Percentage Male Female
Diploma 4 3 7 58%
Degree 2 3 5 42%
TOTALS 6 6 12 100%
The researcher observed that there was an insignificant difference between teachers with Diploma and Degree qualifications as regards to gender. This information was a necessary variable in this study because one’s educational qualifications may also determine how the respondents view certain concepts such as the need for in-service training, staff induction and other forms of support. Data on the variable which looked into the subject departments of the respondents is presented in Bar Chart 4.1 and Table 4.3 below:
Table 4.3: Number of respondents per subject department
Languages Sciences General subjects Practicals Bar Chart 4.1
The results above indicate various subject departments in which the newly qualified teachers in this study belong. The findings revealed that all areas of specialisation in subjects offered at Community Junior Secondary Schools level were fairly represented. The implications of these findings were that the views of all subject departments would be made known since the newly qualified teachers under study came from different subject departments. The researcher also found that the respondents were teaching their subjects of specialisation. Each novice teacher was either teaching one subject or two subjects.
Subject Department No. of teachers
Languages 4 Sciences 3
General Subjects 3
Practical Subjects 2
78 There was a significant difference in the teachers’ workload. It was also found that the number of classes taught by novices under study ranged from three to six. The lowest teaching load was 15 periods ‘per cycle’; while the heaviest teaching load was 30 periods (see Table 4.1). Besides teaching, the majority of novice teachers indicated that they were expected to perform other tasks at their schools like being subject leaders, class teachers, ball sport coaches and subject club coordinators. Such findings are important because they reveal that the respondents did not have an equal teaching load.
Although some of the items in the interview and biographical data questionnaire may not necessarily be vital to the aims of the research, all are concerned with the integration of novice teachers in a new working environment and may have a positive impact on the teachers’ experiences. Because of their conceptual overlap, data were examined separately and simultaneously as part of the analysis.