Nurturing Resilience Amongst Pre-service Teachers: Critical Reflections of Teacher Educators in the South African Context

Conference: The Paris Conference on Education (PCE2022)
Title: Nurturing Resilience Amongst Pre-service Teachers: Critical Reflections of Teacher Educators in the South African Context
Stream: Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Suriamurthee Moonsamy Maistry, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Sylvan Blignaut, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
Lesley LeGrange, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Prevanand Ramrathan, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract:

A distinguishing feature of developing nations like South Africa is the extent of socio-economic inequality. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly exacerbated conditions especially for learning, in all sectors of education. The higher education sector, plagued by neoliberal accountability imperatives continues to demand performance from the agents (teachers and students) that have to give effect to its market-oriented enterprise. The teacher education sector is presented with particular challenges as it relates to programme delivery, especially given that pre-service programmes are designed to include a significant practical teaching component. Yet despite these constraints, both teacher educators and pre-service teachers have endured. In this paper we draw on Freirean inspiration to explore how this resilience and non-defeatism has come to manifest, with the view to developing insights into how to better nurture resilience, as well as resistance to unwavering neoliberal pursuits. Methodologically, we apply the tenets of collaborative autoethnography (CAE), a methodological approach involving two or more researchers combining their intellectual insights, energy and data to produce richer datasets (using personal memory data, reciprocal interview data and observations and analyses of each other’s narratives). We draw attention to critical incidents of resilience and resistance and offer theoretical (and practical) insights for nurturing and re-imagining in a time of ongoing uncertainty.

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