The liminality of new foundation phase teachers: Transitioning from university into the teaching profession

Abstract

This paper explores novice foundation phase teachers’ descriptions of their experiences in the liminal stage between being a student teacher and entering the professional world of the early grade classroom. The term “liminality” was popularised by anthropologist Turner (1969), building on the early work of Van Gennep (1960), in his work on rites of passage. The fluidity of the liminal period is characterised by instability and uncertainty with a diversity of factors affecting different novice teachers. In a generic qualitative study, based on individual, semi-structured interviews with 10 participants, findings show that the new teachers appeared to be somewhat unrealistic and/or unprepared in their expectations of what they would encounter in this period. The novices struggled to settle into the practice of a school classroom and largely blame the inadequacy of their teacher education programmes. They also cite the demands of tracking their young charges’ learning and the lack of support from senior teachers as compounding factors for the difficulties they faced. These issues may have serious consequences for the retention of teachers in this important phase of schooling and therefore require the attention of both teacher education and school managers.

Keywords: early grades; foundation phase teachers; liminality; novice teacher; primary school teachers; rite of passage; teacher induction