Johannesburg's Inner City Private Schools: The Teacher's Perspective (original) (raw)
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This study examines the conditions necessitating secondary school teachers' turnover in the Elliotdale Circuit of South Africa. The qualitative research approach was adopted. The design used was a case study. The purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample size of twenty-two (22) participants, which comprised twelve (12) teachers, five (5) principals, three (3) teacher union representatives and two (2) subject advisors. Permission was sought from the provincial and district education authorities. Face-to-face, in-depth individual interviews were conducted through audio recording. The questions used were open-ended. Collected data were transcribed and analysed manually using the deductive thematic analytical method. Findings on the conditions necessitating secondary school teachers' turnover in the Elliodale Circuit include the Department of Education's inadequacy in motivating existing and newly recruited teachers, delays in the processing of newly recruited teachers' salaries, teachers' feeling of being undervalued, unappreciated and not acknowledged by the District Education, poor socioeconomic conditions and the underdeveloped nature of the school communities, poor relations between the teachers and some of the departmental officials, strict monitoring of the teachers' work, long-distance travel to and from school daily coupled with the high cost of transport fares, the prevalence of crime, including burglaries and rape and inadequate opportunities for further studies and career advancement. Recommendations made were that the Dutywa Education District should work with the Provincial Education Office to process all newly recruited teachers' salaries at the earliest possible time, the district should create opportunities for all teachers to further their studies, rural schools should be provided with adequate infrastructure like well-furnished offices, science and computer laboratories and libraries and teachers should be provided with secured flats or houses with electricity and running water.
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Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa: A transient greener pasture
South African Journal of Education, 2017
Zimbabwean teachers constitute the largest group of migrant teachers in South Africa (Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET), 2013). The main reason South Africa welcomes migrant teachers is to ease the country's own teacher shortage. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Zimbabwean teachers' motives for migration to South Africa and their future career plans. Fifteen migrant Zimbabwean teachers in public high or combined schools (private schools) took part in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Several sampling techniques (purposive, quota, convenient and snowball sampling) were used to select the teachers in Gauteng Province. The data was analysed qualitatively using open coding. The findings revealed that the economic and political instability in Zimbabwe (a push factor) played a much stronger role in migration decisions of the migrant teachers than did pull factors such as the close proximity of South Africa, and the existence of a migration network in South Africa. The findings of the study also revealed that some of the migrant Zimbabwean teachers migrated to reunite with their families, as they preferred not to split their immediate families between two countries. Migration networks were effective in assisting the migrants to find employment. The future plans of the majority of the teachers were ambitious. They involved improving their academic qualifications, getting employment in the tertiary education sector, and migrating to other, better paying countries. Migrant teachers are playing a crucial role while balance is being sought between demand and supply of teachers in South Africa. They ought to be given fair contracts that would encourage those who want to stay on, to do so.
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Teacher migration is a phenomenon that gained international momentum more than eighteen years ago. South Africa was one of the developing countries within the Commonwealth which were greatly affected by the loss of homegrown skills in respect to teacher emigration to the United Kingdom. In the past ten years, however, South Africa has attracted teachers from neighbouring countries. Whilst there have been some studies on migrant teachers in South Africa, research on migrant teachers in primary schools is a neglected area. This paper reports on some of the findings of a qualitative teacher immigration study undertaken in Johannesburg which focussed on primary school teachers. The paper explores the economic, political, and social reasons for migrant teachers teaching in Johannesburg. The push and pull theory of the seminal scholar, Lee (1966) and Bett's (2010) insights into survival migration and chain migration provide the theoretical dimensions for this paper. Primary school teachers from both public and private schools participated in this research and data was generated through interviews and focus group discussions. Migrant teachers select Johannesburg, South Africa as a survival strategy for a range of economic, political and social reasons. Primary schools in Johannesburg have been overcoming their teacher shortages with this influx of migrant teachers, benefitting from this brain gain.
Migrant Zimbabwean Teachers in South Africa: Challenging and Rewarding Issues
Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2019
The research carried out regarding the experiences of migrant teachers in South Africa mainly highlights the challenges that these teachers face. This article reports on a case study that sought to document the experiences of 15 Zimbabwean teachers working in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Data were collected through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews and analysed qualitatively using open coding. The study revealed that migrant teachers encountered several challenging issues including: a lack of job security, short and unreliable contracts, difficulties in accessing loans for those employed on short contracts, exploitation, xenophobic discrimination, lack of induction, and lack of learner discipline. Professional development, good financial rewards, social acceptance, and political freedom were some of the rewards that they enjoyed in South Africa. Understanding the experiences of migrant teachers is crucial to the promotion of their rights, reduction of the risks associated with their migration, and to the improvement of their professionalism. Further research is necessary to find ways of protecting migrant teachers against discrimination and exploitation. It is also recommended that policy is drawn up that would facilitate the compassionate termination of migrant teachers' employment contracts once the required number of South African teachers has been reached.
TRAPPED IN A GARDEN OF GREENER PASTURES: THE EXPERIENCES OF ZIMBABWEAN TEACHERS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Most immigrants from African countries choose Johannesburg as a migration destination. They all perceive it to be location with many opportunities that would enable them to make a fresh start to a life outside their home country, and Zimbabweans are no exception. In South Africa, Johannesburg has a large percentage of foreigners at any given time, hence its inner city was chosen as a suitable location to investigate the extent and manner in which the experiences of migrant Zimbabwean teachers matched their expectations. Working in Zimbabwe was no longer sustainable for them. Most of them were married and had families whom they needed to support financially. After being in South Africa for a period ranging from under one year to over five years, many had achieved some form of economic improvement, having movable and immovable assets, and saving money. However, the same migrant teachers felt unsafe and unwanted in South Africa because of crime, discrimination, hostility and xenophobia. The results revealed a paradox of economic satisfaction accompanied by fear and social unhappiness in the lives of these Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa. The Zimbabwean migrant teachers have two juxta-positioned problematic situations: wanting the money, their initial reason for migrating and motivation to continue working; and feeling imprisoned, unsafe and unwanted, an incongruous reality, in South Africa. This paper examines the dynamics of these contradictions by presenting the two-pronged dilemma from both an economic and a social point of view. They want to be and not to be in South Africa at the same time – they are trapped in a contradictory existence, in a city and country to which they chose to migrate. Keywords: Zimbabwean migrant teachers, economic impacts, social impacts, crime, xenophobia, the Geography of Fear.
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