Confronting Reality: Pre-Service Teachers' Lived Experiences of Teaching Practicum in Sialkot
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/rl.v5i1.26170Keywords:
Pre-Service Teacher Education, Teaching Practicum Challenges, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Resource-Constrained Classrooms, Mentoring RelationshipsAbstract
The study is based on an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the experiences of pre-service teachers undertaking a mandatory teaching practicum in Pakistan. Five pre-service teachers were enrolled in in-depth semi-structured interviews to give a portrait of their daily lives and struggles, and how they dealt with the struggles. Five themes of group experiences were found in the transcripts, which were theory-practice disjuncture, managing large classes, resource constraints, manoeuvring mentoring relationships, and managing workload stress. The main reason why the participants were deeply distressed by the thought of having to apply the pedagogical philosophies of the university in the classrooms where access to resources is minimal, there is constant overcrowding, and mentoring is unreliable. These findings show how teacher education in Pakistan shapes how pre-service teachers understand hardship as they construct professional identities in constrained conditions. This study can be valuable to the practicum research regarding identifying the challenges in resource-constrained scenarios, and the research implications of enhancing teacher education curriculum, strengthening the mentoring system, and enhancing the institutional support system in Pakistan, as well as in other emerging educational settings.
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