'An imperilled profession?' : teachers' perceptions of the significance of remuneration in entering and remaining in the teaching profession.

摘要

In view of the rapid decrease in the number of students opting to train as teachers and theudincreasing numbers of teachers leaving the profession; the teaching profession in SouthudAfrica is indeed what Duke (1984) termed “imperilled”. While quantitative researchudidentifies remuneration to be the foremost factor attributed to the dissatisfaction ofudteachers in South Africa as elsewhere; the main purpose of this study was to exploreudteachers’ perceptions of remuneration. Nine qualified women teachers aged between 25udand 35 years of age, who had been teaching for at least two years and less than ten,udvolunteered to take part in this study. The sample was drawn from government schools inuda suburban part of Johannesburg. This research was based on the information gatheredudfrom a short biographical questionnaire followed by in-depth, semi-structured interviews.udA process of language sensitive thematic content analysis was employed in order toudanalyse the data from the interviews. The research indicates that in the decision to enterudthe teaching profession, notions of the perception that teaching is a vocation predominate.udAn emphasis on the related intrinsic rewards to be gained from teaching was found toudreceive greater focus than monetary concerns on entering the profession. The participantsudexpressed that women are more likely to enter the teaching profession while even thoughudmen may share the passion to teach, they are seriously deterred by the poor levels ofudremuneration. The participants explained that as the contexts of their lives changed, soudtoo did their perceptions of remuneration, often resulting in an increasing emphasis on theudimportance of better remuneration to meet their and their families’ financial needs.udRelated to this, it was found that as South African teachers were exposed to an almostudoverwhelming number of challenges, the participants began to experience fewer intrinsicudrewards which seemed to impact negatively on their perceptions of remuneration. Thus ofudthe nine participants, only two indicated their long-term commitment to the teachingudprofession whereas the remaining seven all had plans to leave the profession in search ofudbetter remuneration.