Work-Integrated Learning and Self-directed Professional Learning in a Rural Setting: What Do Pre-service English FAL Teachers Need from Their Mentor Teachers?

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is vital in preparing pre-service teachers to become competent, dynamic, and effective in the classroom. To realize this, initial teacher education (ITE) programmes and government policies such as the Minimum Requirements for Qualification in Teacher Education (MRTEQ) stipulate various competencies that pre-service teachers must embody and adhere to once they join the teaching profession. This requires universities to devise quality teacher education programmes that sufficiently and effectively prepare pre-service teachers to meet, adapt and cope with workplace demands. Supervision or mentoring of pre-service teachers by qualified and experienced in-service teachers in schools forms an integral part of work-integrated learning in many countries, including South Africa. Mentor teachers are expected to induct and introduce pre-service teachers to the realities of classroom teaching, work ethic, and the teaching profession in general. However, the voices of pre-service teachers remain largely neglected when determining the kind of support and identifying areas in which they need to be developed during WIL in schools. This situation compromises the aim and quality of WIL and pre-service teachers’ abilities to undertake self-directed professional learning. Despite this, the research focusing on what pre-service teachers of English first additional language (English FAL) in a rural setting need from their mentors to enhance self-directed professional learning remains largely scant. By adopting the transformative paradigm, this chapter explores the developmental and pedagogical needs of pre-service English FAL teachers to enhance self-directed professional learning during WIL in schools. This qualitative study followed a convenience sampling and generated data through semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussion of eleven pre-service English FAL teachers in their third year of study towards a Bachelor of Education Degree (B.Ed.) at one rural university. An inductive approach to data analysis was followed. Framed within critical pedagogy; the study found that pre-service English FAL teachers have developmental and pedagogical needs. They need their mentor teachers to assist in the following areas: lesson planning, classroom management, learner-centered teaching, support and constructive feedback, and self-directedness.