As noted earlier, negative views of the teaching activity can be looked at as those that represent unsavoury and unwelcome aspects of the teaching activity system on teachers’ lives. The negative views in the study gravitated around what could be regarded as poor work conditions of teachers. The negative views clustered around economic and social-cultural inhibitors in the settings such as low pay, teachers’ lack of incentives, behaviour of teachers in society, and lack of trust for teachers.
7.5.1 Perceived low pay and lack of incentives for teachers
Some student teachers viewed teachers’ salaries as low and that teachers did not receive financial incentives such as allowances. The comments by one student teacher portrayed the views about low salary and lack of incentives among teachers:
The benefits gained after finishing the course are minimal. For example, teachers are given low salaries. On top of that no other incentives like a night allowances are given yet in other profession, by conducting of meetings; they are given allowances while teachers’ meetings are not honoured (second year male student teacher).
One student teacher narrated an incident that had occurred during teaching practice to demonstrate the apparently unsavoury monetary context of teachers within the secondary school activity setting:
I met a friend who was doing very well in life. He was young and had a very good car but only had a diploma in clinical medicine. I started wondering whether I can be like him in this tiresome but low paying profession (second year male student teacher).
There was a veiled suggestion in the sentiments above that other individuals with similar qualifications enjoyed better financial opportunities compared to secondary school teachers. This seemed to raise some concerns about secondary school teaching. Individuals in other professions seemed to get favourable conditions in terms of material outcomes compared to teachers. This seemed to make teachers feel frustrated about the conditions of teaching. In addition, another student teacher witnessed a situation where a teacher was not respected. A vignette of a student teacher’s critical incident log portrayed this:
I was walking around the trading centre when I overheard a quarrel over monetary issues. One in the quarrel was a teacher and the other was a radio repairer…the radio repairer saying ‘teachers can have problems; you cannot believe they are working. We are just equals!’ Soon after, the teacher left. Looking at the repairer and how he put the story, I felt concerned (second year male student teacher).
The incident about the radio repairer’s lack of respect for teachers was interpreted to mean that teachers did not deserve a higher social status. (It should be pointed out that radio
repairers in rural areas are normally people without recognizable professional education. They normally carry out their activity under shop verandas. Radio repairers normally operate in isolation). The radio repairer seemed to suggest that the status of the teaching was lower because teachers experienced monetary problems.
Sugrue (1996) noted that teachers continue to enjoy social status and respect within communities particularly in rural settings. It was therefore surprising that teachers in some rural areas in this study did not seem to be accorded the social status and respect that they had been accorded in other rural settings. The status of teaching seemed to decline during pre-service teacher preparation and in the early years of teaching (Akyeampong and Lewin, 2002). Positive beliefs in the status of teaching are essential for those in teacher education to derive satisfaction from it.
Poor salary was also a topic of discussion even among teachers in relation to the teachers’ economic conditions. It appeared that salaries that teachers received created some negative feelings among them. The teachers seemed to acknowledge the poor salaries they received and felt that they would die poor if they continued to remain in secondary school teaching. One student teacher noted:
Some teachers were talking about what the teaching profession entails. They were saying it is too involving but less paying. This implied that only people without plans can die teachers (second year male student teacher).
The discussion of teachers above resonated in some newspapers. The views by student teachers were shared by a newspaper opinion columnist that teachers were generally underpaid in Malawi. For instance, a comment in one of the daily papers in Malawi portrayed teachers’ conditions of pay:
It is sad to observe that teachers in Malawi are paid salaries that are not sufficient for their survival throughout the month. Teachers in most parts of the country complain about inadequate salaries and delays in getting paid. This is discouraging the teachers from discharging their duties effectively resulting in poor performance by pupils in class. Instead of concentrating on the job, many teachers engage in extra activities to find money to supplement their meagre salaries (Malawi Nation, 2007).
The sentiments among teachers that they were poorly remunerated suggested that there was an issue within teaching that had to be resolved if teachers were to feel satisfied. There was a suggestion that teachers had to look elsewhere for alternative jobs to resolve their predicament. However, moving elsewhere was not resolving the structural salary problem of teaching. It has been argued among researchers that poor salary for teachers is among the major causes of attrition from the teaching profession in developing countries (Akyeampong and Lewin, 2002).
7.5.2 Perceived pressure on professional behaviour of teachers
In addition to low pay, some student teachers thought that teachers were expected to follow norms and regulations of teaching which they were not happy with. This meant that they were heavily controlled on a day to day and hour by hour basis and they were not autonomous in their status unlike in other professions. According to activity theory, norms and regulations govern members in an activity system. I found in the study that some student teachers regarded certain norms within the activity system of teaching as irritable and unwelcome. This was reflected by the views of two student teachers who said:
I feel the teaching profession is very much confining. Any behaviour contrary to teaching ethics will result to everybody’s readiness to take you to task. You just cannot behave care free. I am not very happy with this because you behave from other people’s point of view (second male year student teacher).
I wanted to put on my favourite clothes but the teaching profession will always have an influence over your dressing. You have to be exemplary always. I will think twice about the teaching profession due to such things (second year male student teacher).
According to a teaching practice handbook at Masambiro College, student teachers were expected to be exemplary to pupils and other members of the community. Some student teachers viewed some professional norms within teaching to contradict with their individual values. It would appear that such thinking might have been triggered by the fact that student teachers had not yet negotiated their individual identities with the professional identities of teachers as they were still undergoing teacher education programme. There appeared to be a clash of identities between the personal and professional within student teachers. It was fascinating to see that student teachers regarded the professional identity of teachers as limiting in some way as it did not allow them to mix it with their personal identities. This is where negative perceptions seemed to develop. The conflict between the personal and professional identities demonstrated that student teachers experienced difficulties achieving what has been called ‘wholeness’ in professional lives (Nias, 1989). As already noted, student teachers were still in the process of their professional development and the process of development may involve some resistance and renegotiation of identities.
According to activity theory, activity systems require norms to govern their activities. However, some members of a professional community may not stick to the agreed-upon norms. It might be a way of demonstrating that the norms are not preferable. Other members may attempt to find means to change ‘unlikable’ norms. In activity theory competing values may be espoused by individuals based on their beliefs about a professional activity and this may bring disturbances (see Kuutti, 1996). However, when norms become compatible with
individual needs, some members of society may regard the reorganized activity system as positive for productive professional and personal development.
7.5.3 Perceived lack of trust of teachers
Some student teachers felt that society did not appear to trust some members of the school teaching community in regard to their relationship with pupils. This lack of trust appeared to affect mainly male student teachers. Some student teachers lamented:
If you are a male like me, people do not really trust you as somebody worthy to be with the female pupils without having love relationships with them. This is a source of embarrassment when you feel you are not trusted (second year male student teacher).
As a young man, people could not trust me as it concerns my behaviour with female pupils. They think I am constantly in search of casual sex with pupils and as such made all sorts of allegations when I was with these female pupils. To avoid such forces I became quiet when it comes to interacting with girls and the very same people started accusing me of being very harsh to pupils especially girls (second year male student teacher).
The impact of disrepute among student teachers was that they could withdraw from social settings that suggested the likelihood of improper behaviour occurring whether real or imagined. The findings here contrast sharply with Holmes’ (1998) who found that primary school teachers in Gambia were respected and admired because they were doing right. Teachers were regarded as professionals holding moral stance and position and also upheld community values by acting as moral guardians through their own actions and behaviour (Holmes, 1998). The moral position of teachers (Holmes, 1998) was similar to that of Grace’s (1987) concept of teachers as social and cultural missionaries or secular priesthoods. In contrast, student teachers in this study felt they were not trusted by members of the community because of the perceived tendency by teachers to develop inappropriate sexual relationships with female pupils. Dunne and Leach (2005) reported of a case in Botswana where a school teacher was dismissed for making sexual advances in female pupils. Therefore, the lack of trust for teachers in the study could have been occasioned by precedents which the student teachers in the study might not have been aware of. On the other hand, the student teachers could have been aware of such cases but did not considered themselves to be equally untrustworthy.