ADDENDUM B: DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY / COVER PAGE

Students must sign the Declaration of Originality with the submission of any assessment as long
as

the signatory intends to sign the document and has put the mark on the document
themselves (source: SA common law). The signature will validate the document and thus make it
legal. It cannot be binding if a student does not sign the declaration of originality form.

FULL NAME: Refilwe Shingange DATE: 13 October 2023

DECLARATION

1. I understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the University’s policy in this regard.
2. I declare that this ………Assignment…… (e.g., assignment, essay, report,
project, dissertation, thesis, etc.) is my own, original work. Where other people’s
work has been used (either from a printed source, Internet, or any other source) this
has been properly acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental
requirements.
3. I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person
to hand in as my own.
4. I have not allowed and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of
passing it off as his or her own work.
SIGNATURE: R. Shingange

No written work will be accepted unless the declaration has been

Controversial issues I experienced during my Work Integrated Learning (WIL).

Honestly speaking, I was so excited and looking forward to being part of a school
that everyone recommended and still does. There are a few issues that I have
encountered at the school, and now that I must reflect, I find them very controversial.
When I got to the school, everything was fine; the nerves had already kicked in
because we did not know what to expect. When I say we, I am also including my
fellow peers. We attended the morning briefing, and firstly, we were not formally
introduced to the other educators.

Things started to unravel as soon as I got introduced to my mentor teacher, and the
very first comment that he made was that he was hoping for a male student teacher
and not someone as fragile as me because teaching is not for the faint-hearted. I
would say that the welcome was not so good because I literally had to ask for
everything, starting with the timetable, textbook, and ATP as well. To me, he did not
strike me as someone who is passionate, as he constantly asked me if I really
wanted to be an educator; this is not a good career at all. He further mentioned that
the learners are annoying and all the other negative comments.

When it comes to the teaching and learning phase, what he would do was read from
the textbook and give learners worksheets, which basically require the learners to
copy the definitions of the new words, and I believe that is not a way learners should
learn. History requires learners to be hands-on, participate in debates, have class
discussions, and allow different perspectives. Unfortunately, that was one of the
things my mentor teacher and I did not have an agreement on.

I took note of everything, including the way he does not dwell much on topics, which
led to him spending approximately 5 minutes. When it was my turn to teach, which
happened on the 4th day, The first thing that I did was write the date, page number,
and heading on the whiteboard before I could introduce the topic. I asked questions
based on the previous topic they covered just to test their prior knowledge. I used
that as a foundation to introduce the new topic. I explained the topic, asked the
learners questions, and then gave them an activity that would test the knowledge
that they had acquired.
My mentor teacher then said that I am wasting my precious time by going the extra
mile with these learners because they do not deserve it and they will all fail either
way. He always had nothing positive to say about the environment, career, or
learners. In other instances, he would just sit and allow the learners to be disruptive;
whenever I tried to intervene, he would tell me to leave them and let them be.

Another controversial issue was the segregation in the morning briefing, whereby
we, as student teachers, were separated from the teachers in terms of seating
arrangements. We were not even allowed to blend with other teachers. It felt like we
did not exist. We felt like a burden, especially when they would ask us to excuse
ourselves as they had important issues to discuss.

Instilling discipline was another problem because I tried to implement my own class
rules and issue demerits to those who were misbehaving for classroom management
purposes. My mentor teacher disputed all of that and mentioned that it does not
matter that I will be taking over his class, but I have no right to implement any rules
or even hold class discussions as I am not familiar with the learners; they could
behave like hooligans if they wanted.

The last issue is the lack of support coming to us as student teachers. Most teachers
were not as welcoming. I had another encounter with an Afrikaans teacher where
she came and verbally attacked me for sending a learner to her class. She kept on
speaking in Afrikaans that we as student teachers think we are special; we are only
there to overpopulate the school, and she went on about how she dislikes student
teachers.

What made the issues mentioned above controversial?

All the abovementioned issues are controversial because, when it comes to my issue
with the mentor teacher, I believe that teachers should always maintain a positive
attitude towards education because they are the face of education. If he does not
have anything positive to say about it, he is not advancing the learners in any way. I
was dreading going to school and continuing with my practical. He was supposed to
be a good mentor, encourage me to do well, and grant me the opportunity to use
different techniques when teaching.
My experience with the mentor teacher has shown me that there are still teachers
who enroll in education for extrinsic benefits. This simply means that these teachers
do not care about the learners but care about the salary and long holidays, and this
is something that he mentioned in passing: that he studied education because he
had no choice.

The morning briefing segregation was very controversial because we did not feel like
we were part of the team, which means whatever issues we had, we had to find a
way to deal with them on our own, which traces back to a lack of support and feeling
unwelcome. The issue of discipline and everything that came about it is also
controversial because it felt like my authority was undermined, and I was not the only
one who felt like that.

How I dealt with the controversial issues and the outcome.

The only way to deal with the issues I had with my mentor teacher was to change
classes, but obviously I could not do that without the deputy principal’s approval.
When I got to the deputy principal’s office, I made use of the content as an excuse to
move to a new grade. I really did not want to get anyone in trouble, so I did not say
anything about the issues that I had with my then-mentor teacher.

My new mentor teacher was very welcoming. She gave me the opportunity to teach
and use different techniques when teaching. She allowed me to experiment and fully
take over without constantly having to look over my shoulder just to see her reaction,
because that is what I used to do in the previous class. I was able to improve my
classroom management and my confidence as well, which had a huge impact when
my mentor lecturer came.

With the segregation issues, we, as student teachers, dealt with them by making
peace with the fact that we were only there for a few weeks and all we had to do was
have a positive impact and leave an unforgettable mark, of which I believe that we
left that mark and kept the UP flag flying. The overall outcome was that I was in a
better space, and my experience with my second mentor teacher outshined all the
bad encounters.
Was I prepared to deal with controversial issues in History as part of the B.Ed.
programme and what is it can be improved in preparing the student teachers
for their WIL?

Personally, I believe that I was not prepared enough because instead of assisting us
with relevant techniques to deal with controversial issues in history, we were told to
think of ways to implement ways to deal with the issues. However, that is not enough
as well, because we would not know what to opt for should what we have
implemented not work. It also goes along with the person’s understanding of how to
tackle certain issues, but tips from the institution—in this instance, our lecturers, who
were also once student teachers—would really go a long way.

With regards to work-related issues amongst teachers, one is not prepared because
we are usually taught to focus on ourselves, not knowing how focusing on ourselves
would impact other educators and how it would get back to us. For example, we
were always taught to be professional, be on time, put the learners’ interests first,
and so on and so forth, but when we do that, other teachers take that as a threat that
one is trying to be better than them. So we are basically not taught how to deal with
the consequences of controversial issues.