South Africa’s schools still carry the imprint of apartheid, where resources, language and geography were deliberately divided according to “race”. Many communities today remain deeply unequal in terms of school infrastructure and resources.
For student teachers, this means that placement for practical experience in one school can feel worlds apart from a placement just a few kilometres away.
One school may offer smaller classes and well-resourced classrooms with access to textbooks and digital tools. Another contends with overcrowded classes, limited teaching materials and little to no digital infrastructure.
These disparities are not abstract. They shape daily teaching decisions, classroom management strategies and professional confidence. This makes one placement feel like a supported apprenticeship, and another an exercise in endurance and improvisation.
My doctoral research in education studies shows that many final-year student teachers actively avoid schools that differ from their own schooling backgrounds. Instead, they select placements that feel comfortable and familiar, even if this limits their professional growth and reinforces historical divides in education.
My research, drawing on in-depth interviews and institutional documents, reveals why this happens, and why it matters for equity, learning and justice in education.
Understanding student teachers’ choices matters for any country grappling with inequality and diversity in teacher preparation. Countries need teachers who can work confidently across different school contexts.
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Elite schools in South Africa: how quiet gatekeeping keeps racial patterns in place
The quiet pull of comfort
In the programmes I oversee as a teacher educator, student teachers are placed in schools twice a year for teaching practice blocks of four weeks at a time. This amounts to about 32 weeks over a four-year degree. Placements are formally coordinated by universities. However, operational pressures and the growing number of student teachers mean that, in practice, many students find the placements themselves. The options are often shaped, too, by whether schools are willing to host students from particular universities.
A policy framework that took effect in 2016 sought to standardise teacher qualifications nationally and provide learning across diverse schooling contexts. But when student teachers select schools for their compulsory teaching practice, they are able to fine-tune the placement programme to suit their own needs rather than its broader transformative purpose.
Their choice appears simple: go where you feel you will “fit in”, be supported and pass.
The students I followed over several years consistently chose schools that:
- resembled their former schools
- matched their language and cultural norms
- felt socially “safe”, meaning that these environments aligned closely with their own ethnic, class and racial backgrounds, and offered predictability, familiarity and reduced emotional risk during an already demanding practicum period
- promised minimum disruption to completing the four-year degree quickly.
Many framed their decisions in terms of pragmatism:
I just want to finish and qualify.
Others spoke honestly about their fears, including fear of failing, not belonging or being judged in communities unlike their own. As one student confessed,
Teaching is already stressful. Why add discomfort?
A sense of comfort reduced anxiety and helped them “get through” their degrees. But it also meant that many avoided the kinds of classrooms where they might have learned how to work across differences, the very classrooms they might encounter later in their careers.
My future research aims to examine how early teaching practice placements shape graduates’ later career choices.
Expedience over authenticity
Many students themselves came from historically marginalised and economically impoverished communities. But they still worried that more challenging placements might expose them to failure, conflict or unsupportive mentors. Some feared that schools with limited resources would make it harder for them to demonstrate their teaching competence, manage classrooms effectively and access the kinds of support needed to learn how to teach well.
Only two chose placements in unfamiliar contexts. For most others, the comfort of familiarity mattered more than challenge.
In effect, the practicum became a credential-seeking exercise rather than a transformative professional learning experience.
This is not a moral failing on the part of the students. It reflects:
- pressure to complete degrees quickly
- fears about employability
- uneven support systems across schools
- deeply embedded memories of their own unequal schooling experiences.
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Why this matters beyond the university
If teaching practice reinforces comfort rather than courage, it might narrow, rather than widen, what education can do.
My research and that of others suggests there could be three consequences.
- Persistent inequity in teacher confidence: in “unfamiliar” kinds of schools, teachers may feel unprepared, anxious and sometimes resistant.
- Reproduction of historical divides: placements could signal that some teachers “belong” in certain communities and not in others.
- Lost opportunities for professional growth: discomfort can encourage reflective learning.
Read more:
What student teachers learn when putting theory into classroom practice
But discomfort must not become harm
My findings also caution against romanticising discomfort.
A small minority of students chose unfamiliar placements in poorer, more diverse or conflict-affected school contexts. This was driven by personal convictions and a desire to challenge themselves. In interviews, reflective journals and post-placement discussions, they reported feeling more confident and adaptable as teachers and classroom managers. They had a deeper sense of professional purpose.
These positive outcomes were closely tied to strong mentoring and consistent university support. Without that, they reported feelings of panic, isolation and emotional exhaustion.
Exposure to diversity must be intentional, scaffolded and humane. When unsupported student teachers are faced with large class sizes, multilingual classrooms, limited resources, long and costly commutes, or concerns about personal safety, it could be a risk rather than a growth opportunity.
What universities and policymakers can change
The research suggests several levers for re-designing teaching practice.
- Structured placement pathways: ensure that every student rotates through at least one context that differs meaningfully from their own, with a clear rationale and adequate preparation.
- Mentor development: invest in mentor-teachers who understand how to support novices across cultural and socioeconomic divides.
- Shared responsibility for placements: universities, schools and education departments must collaborate to distribute opportunities equitably.
- Reflective supervision: create guided reflective spaces where students make sense of discomfort rather than flee from it.
- Transparent expectations: frame teaching practice not as a hurdle to clear, but as an ethical apprenticeship into public-serving professionalism.
South Africa’s education system still reflects deep structural inequality. If future teachers primarily work in schools that resemble their own histories, those divides could be cemented into the next generation.
Clive Jimmy William Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Blink
Fun South African Fact: The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the world’s six floral kingdoms – and the only one which is wholly contained within a single country.
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