To what extent are we producing teachers who are better able to address the challenges of schooling? 

Many problems beset the South African school system, including, in many instances, poor management and leadership and the inefficient distribution of resources. But, even where institutions are well managed and teachers have access to sufficient resources, the quality of teaching and learning cannot rise above the ceiling imposed by low teacher capacity. This ceiling may be high in a minority of schools, but in the large majority teaching is often ineffective and learners fall progressively behind the expectations of the curriculum with each passing year. While there are undisciplined teachers who don’t make the best use of time, the majority are doing the best they can and would dearly love to be more effective. The cause of poor performance, by and large, lies not with teachers but with the teacher education system that produced them. While there were a number of excellent teacher education and training colleges during the apartheid years, recognition of the generally poor state of the sector, together with declining student numbers after 1994, led to its radical reorganisation in 2000. This entailed closing most colleges, merging the remainder with higher education institutions (HEIs), and making initial teacher education (ITE) the responsibility of HEIs. The question now arises as to what extent the current system of teacher education is meeting the demands of South African schools. Are we producing teachers who are better able to address the challenges of schooling? The purpose of the Initial Teacher Education Research Project (ITERP) is to investigate these questions.

A founding assumption of the project is that norms set by regulatory bodies such as DHET, CHE/HEQC and SACE can, at best, provide a broad framework of formal criteria (number of hours, knowledge fields to be addressed, mix of modules, etc.) but they can neither specify content nor guarantee quality. The quality of professional standards is best evaluated by experts in the profession, and therefore attempts to improve the quality of teacher education must start within the field itself. From this perspective, the research findings are intended to inform the debate about the quality of ITE, commencing within the terrain of initial teacher education, and in particular among campus-based practitioners. Evidence has accumulated over the last two decades to suggest that in-service interventions have had limited impact. This understanding, in turn, has led to a growing realisation that the greatest opportunity for improving the quality of schooling lies with ITE programmes.

Research reports

• Bowie, L. 2014. Report on mathematics courses for Intermediate Phase student teachers at five universities. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• Deacon, R. 2012. The initial professional development of teachers: A literature review. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• Deacon, R. 2015. Report on the 2013 survey of final year initial teacher education students. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• Deacon, R. 2015. Newly Qualified Teachers in South Africa: Report on the 2014 telephonic follow-up survey of the 2013 class of final year initial teacher education students. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• Deacon, R. 2016. Newly Qualified Intermediate Phase Teachers in South Africa. Final Report on the ITERP NQT Symposium, July 2015. Johannesburg; JET Education Services.
• Deacon, R. 2016. The Initial Teacher Education Research Project: Final report. Johannesburg: JET Education Services. 
• Reed, Y. 2014. Report on English courses for Intermediate Phase student teachers at five universities. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• Rusznyak, L. and Bertram, C. 2013. An analysis of teaching practice assessment instruments: A cross- institutional case study of five universities in South Africa. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.
• Taylor, N. 2014. An examination of aspects of the B.Ed curricula for Intermediate Phase teachers at five higher education institutions: Summary Report. Johannesburg: JET Education Services.

 Other Resources

• Bertram, C. 2016. What conceptions of teaching are conveyed by TP assessment instruments? Presentation by Carol Bertram (University of KwaZulu-Natal) to the LUMA conference, Sweden, 28 Sept 2016. based on ITERP research done by Lee Rusznyak & Carol Bertram.  
• Bowie, L, Reed, Y. 2016. How much of what? An analysis of the espoused and enacted mathematics and English curricula for intermediate phase student teachers at five South African universities. Perspectives in Education, 34(1): 102-119.
• Taylor, N. 2016. Thinking, language and learning in initial teacher education. Perspectives in Education, 34(1): 10-26
• Reed, Y. 2015. Epistemological transformation: Implications for educational research and practice. Keynote Address delivered at Rhodes University PhD Symposium, July 2015. 
• Rusznyak, L. and Bertram, C. 2015. Knowledge and judgement for assessing student teaching: a cross-institutional analysis of teaching practicum assessment instruments. Journal of Education, 60: 31-62.
• Taylor, N. 2015. Thinking, language and learning in initial teacher education. Presentation to the seminar Academic Depth and Rigour in ITE,
  30-31 October 2014, University of the Witwatersrand. 
• Taylor, N. 2015. Initial Teacher Education Research Project Phase II: From research to action. Presentation to the Education Deans' Forum, 11 November 2015.  

 Contact: Nick Taylor: ntaylor@jet.org.za