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Are they really ‘ready, willing and able’? Exploring reality shock in beginner teachers in South Africa
Open accessAbstract
This article reflects on the experiences of 100 South African beginner teachers and contextualises their experiences of reality shock by applying the ‘ready, willing and able’ model of Shulman and Shulman (2004). A discourse analysis of critical reflection on experiences during their first year(s) of teaching provided insight into the challenges they faced and indicated a correlation between the results of this study and the aims of the ‘ready, willing and able’ model. In this qualitative study the question is asked as to whether tertiary institutions might have an extended responsibility to better equip beginner teachers for handling the academic and emotional realities they will face. This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on beginner teachers and reality shock through advocating an attitude of critical analysis and self-reflection that can empower beginner teachers to handle unpredictable situations, adapt and learn from experience and manage their experience of reality shock and stress during their first year(s) of teaching. The solution might be a shared responsibility that is guided by a commitment towards interdependence and inter-activeness within the system and all the role-players.
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“It is argued that some teachers are not able to translate what they have learnt in the university to address the needs of the present-day classroom (Botha & Rens, 2018).”
From The Impact of Mentoring in the Development of Pre-Service Teachers from a University in South Africa (2021) · cites this paper as Botha & Rens, 2018
In the citing paper
“For instance, the study conducted by Botha and Rens (2018) highlighted that beginner teachers experience reality shock when they encounter their lack of readiness on how to handle learners in the classroom without becoming negative about teaching.”
From The Impact of Mentoring in the Development of Pre-Service Teachers from a University in South Africa (2021) · cites this paper as Botha & Rens, 2018
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References 26 · Cited by 65
Research works printed but not linked: 28
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Metadata
- Authors
- School of Psycho-social Education, F. O. E., Botha, C. S., & Rens, J.
- Affiliations
- North-West University (ZA)
- Venue
- South African Journal of Education
- Published
- 2018-08-31
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1-8
- ISSN
- 0256-0100 (ISSN-L)
- 2076-3433
- OpenAlex
- W2890583256
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 10.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- South African Journal of Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Professional Development and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Education › Reflective Practices in Education
- Keywords
- reality shock, novice teachers, teacher readiness, teacher stress, critical reflection, teacher professional development, higher education institutions, teacher induction, South Africa
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- School of Psycho-social Education, F. O. E., Botha, C. S., & Rens, J. (2018). Are they really ‘ready, willing and able’? Exploring reality shock in beginner teachers in South Africa. South African Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v38n3a1546
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
