Socialisation

“Occupational socialisation is the process by which a person learns to adopt, develop, and display the actions and role behaviours typical of and unique to a profession” (Isbell, 2008: 162)

This socialisation for teachers begins the first day they are enrolled in school as children. By the time they have completed their schooling in Grade 12, they have observed teachers at work for a minimum of 12 years and have been socialized to the norms of teaching. Lortie (1975) referred to this marvel as “apprenticeship of observation”.

The socialisation process that occurs prior to pre-service training is often called primary socialisation. This is when young children start to assume the roles and attitudes of significant others and internalise them. Secondary socialisation happens later when the same children acquire more role-specific behaviours and vocabularies and begin to respond to new group memberships in social institutions, such as university, or in teacher training courses. Pre-service teachers often begin their teacher training programs with impressions of the teaching career that are not in accordance with the impressions held by professionals and therefore, one of the

53 purposes of teacher training programs, is to convert these lay impressions into professional models (Isbell, 2008: 163).

Anderson (1995: 3) described the effects of teacher socialisation as follows: “After a period of stabilization which follow career entry, different teachers may move in different directions. Some may enter a period of experimentation and activism, while others may enter a phase of self- doubt and reassessment, when disenchantment with the system leads many to consider changing occupations. This self-doubt and disenchantment with the system leads many to stress and burnout.”

Many university music students enter university with strong musical identities that reflect the influence of significant people and events from their youth. As they progress through their studies, they become socialised into the teaching profession through some field experiences and methodology courses. Many of them become socialised, firstly as performers and secondly, as teachers. As a result, many pre- service music teachers have difficulties developing integrated identities that include elements of both musician and teacher/educator. To understand music teacher education, it is important to learn more about the people who choose to pursue music teaching as a career and the manner in which they develop a sense of identity as a music teacher (Isbell, 2008: 164).

When a novice teacher leaves university and becomes part of a school community and society of teachers, the process is called “teacher socialisation”. (Ballantyne, 2005: 28).

From Isbell’s study on occupational socialisation, it would appear that those students who decide to pursue careers in music education, did not experience much negative influences in their earlier socialisation periods, or were able to overcome any such negative influences, once they committed to a music education career and entered university. Isbell also maintains that adolescents with strong self-identities as musicians were more resilient to social pressure and were therefore more determined to achieve their musical goals (2008: 164).

The role of the secondary school music teacher as primary mentors is thus quite important for the positive influence they have on young people, since many pre-

54 service music teachers believe that their decision to become music teachers was supported by important people, such as family members and music teachers.

Isbell felt that:

“Music teacher educators should understand that although many influences from primary socialisation remain with pre-service teachers, nothing that students encounter before attending university appears to affect the strength of occupational identity to the extent that experiences during the undergraduate training do.” (2008: 173)

Music teacher educators and other significant people in the secondary socialisation phase can take advantage of their influence by designing and implementing curricula and encounters with the occupational identities of their undergraduate students in mind. Doing so may help future music teachers to develop an understanding of themselves as teachers, as well as musicians. University lecturers are encouraged to engage in conversation with their student teachers regarding their self-perceptions and how these may, or may not, correspond with the views of the lecturers (Isbell, 2008: 173).

It is very important for pre-service teacher training courses to nurture a realistic understanding of the realities of teaching in schools. Unrealistic expectations of the teaching career can result in novice teachers being unable to deal with the process of teacher socialisation in a dynamic manner once they enter the school environment. The discrepancies between teachers’ expectations of school life and the realities of teaching, often contribute to practice shock and if the teacher training course of novice teacher has not been effective, the teachers can easily reject the knowledge and skills that they have learned and adopt the knowledge associated with the teaching culture at their school (Ballantyne, 2005: 29). This is when novice teachers often go into survival mode, as opposed to learning how to teach more effectively in a positive manner.

It is also important that pre-service music teacher training programs prepare teachers for the emotional confusion that they can expect in their first years of teaching, thus providing them with skills to deal with difficulties that they are likely to encounter.

55 Socialisation can be addressed in schools in the following ways stipulated by Ballantyne (2005: 33 – 34):

 An induction process must be provided by schools that supports teachers in, especially, their first year of teaching. This is strongly linked to the presence of effective mentors during this period.

 Administrative support, networking and university support is necessary to foster growth in new teachers.

 Schools need to be safe places for “uncertainty”. This implies that novice and early-career teachers should not be afraid of being uncertain, or to make mistakes, because that is when they can examine their efficacy doubts and grow from them.

Socialisation can be addressed in universities in the following ways, as was stipulated by Ballantyne (2005: 32 - 33):

 Pre-service training courses need to have collaborative and integrated approaches to the curriculum. The breaking up of subjects and the cellular nature of higher education do not allow a connected and holistic view of teaching.

 Pre-service teachers need to be provided with an elementary understanding of the administrative life of schools, as well as the ability to develop the political skills to deal with the problems and challenges associated with the administrative burdens of teaching in schools.

 Pre-service teachers need to be provided with the skills to gain from socialisation occasions. This involves the continual examination and reconstruction of their self-image as a teacher.

 Pre-service courses should be linked with the secondary school curriculum and integrate both theoretical and practical knowledge.

 Pre-service teachers and novice teachers should be offered opportunities to evaluate and reflect on their own beliefs and implicit philosophies of learning.

 Pre-service programs should imitate the link between teacher efficacy and teacher effectiveness. If personal teacher efficacy is addressed in schools, it is bound to improve.

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 Teacher education programs should offer subject-specific method courses. This will enable teachers to learn how to teach specialised subjects.

 Teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning are based primarily on their personal observations and experiences, rather than on what they hear or read about the teaching profession. Impressions about teaching acquired in this manner, are highly resistant to change. Teachers progress through a series of stages from the beginning of their careers to the end.