Teaching Teachers: The Struggles of Studying Education While Teaching

Last year, I decided to go back to school to upgrade my qualifications in education. This year, I became a BEd Honours student, specialising in Mathematics Education, which makes sense with me being a mathematics teacher. I’ve been doing it via the purple university situated in North West. I heard a lot of good things about their Faculty of Education distance programme, so I went for it.

Why go back to school?

Life-long learning has always been my followed motto. I read somewhere something about, “You stop learning, you start dying.” Very intense, but I like knowing that I’m advancing to the next thing. Between my undergrad + PGCE it had been two years since I was the one submitting assignments and being graded. It was a conscious decision. I wanted to focus my last two years of being a JGF Fellow on my teaching craft. Navigate what it is to be a teacher. Finding my teaching style and contributing to the school the best way that I could. Everyone told me that the first two years would be the hardest/most challenging. I wanted to give the challenge my full attention.

The truth of the matter is that in this economy, some jobs really do require you to have a higher NQF level to get initially hired or be promoted. I wasn’t necessarily hunting for a promotion. In fact, I asked for a demotion so that I could go back to studying. I just knew that schools make it very difficult for aged 20-somethings to actually be mathematics teachers. It’s all about a minimum of 5 years of experience, teaching Grade 12, and being an NSC marker. All of which is not completely possible at my young age. This was a strategic thing.

Another reason – I wanted validation. Obviously, postgraduate programmes are more about reading and doing research on other people’s work and writing essays on whatever topic of discussion. It felt good to learn new things while simultaneously seeing myself in those many academic articles, and knowing that I was doing something right in my teachings, I just didn’t have the vocabulary for it yet. I even included examples in my own academic writing from lived experiences over the 2 years (going into 3) of teaching. Felt like a case study on myself and some of the outcomes within my learners.

My realisations

It is challenging being a full-time teacher and part-time student. The stress of trying to prepare for your exams at the same time telling your kiddos to prepare for their own exams is weird to handle. Then, having to mark their exams while waiting for your exams to be marked also weird. I realised that I could use this as a moment of inspiration. With my Grade 12s, I asked them to write my assignments, but it didn’t work. Instead, whenever they complained, I would throw, “I’m also in school while working” back at them. Also, when I discussed and shared their results, I would share mine, too. I think me motivating them also motivated me. Otherwise, I’d have to share poor results, and they would ask.

University lecturers in the Facutly of Education don’t know how to teach teachers. I found this to be wildly crazy. There was a lecturer who made an effort to hold group and class online discussions. The rest, preaching about what makes a good educator, specifically a maths educator, while doing the complete opposite. Monotone lecturing, reading the lecture slides, and then saying, “Don’t rely on me to teach you things, you must go read more and more …” without stating more of what?

We experienced empty promises of things to be delivered and then had to beg for things we are paying for (yes, rightful entitlement). Lack of response to emails and communication. The highlight is not getting material on an entire unit of study that was included in the exam. And then receiving the exam scope, 3 days before the 1st exam.

Now, if a teacher who is practising in primary/high school did this 👀 … because shouldn’t my place of higher education be leading me by example? It can’t be that my BEd lecturers are this bad at teaching teachers, whether in contact or through online education. I question how I survived this first year. I see this as part of teacher training, and honestly, it needs to be better, says some of the academic reading I’ve done.

Reflecting on my first year as a BEd Honours student while juggling a full-time teaching career, it’s clear that the journey has been both challenging and eye-opening. The experience has revealed significant gaps between the teaching I receive as a student and the standards we, as future educators, are expected to uphold in the classroom. If we are to inspire and nurture the next generation of learners, the institutions training us need to lead by example. As much as I’ve grown and learned, it’s become evident that the education system—at all levels—needs to do better in equipping teachers with the tools, support, and guidance they deserve. For us to truly thrive as educators, we need an environment that models the very principles of effective teaching and learning. The road ahead may be difficult, but it’s a journey that must ultimately result in improvement for all involved.