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Abstract
This paper considers the identity of Ghanaian student teachers
as they begin training. It begins with an outline of the educational context. It
then goes on to note the importance of the contextualised self, which teachers
bring to training, formed by home environment, school experience and other
factors. In exploring this contextualised self, both survey and qualitative
methods were used and key findings are as follows: trainees are often young,
unwilling recruits with no teaching experience (or limited informal teaching
experience), weak grades, and are generally from poorer backgrounds. They often
express altruistic reasons for being a teacher and some positive attitudes as to
their potential impact in the classroom, alongside more instrumental motivations
such as the desire for further study and using teaching as a gateway to other
parts of the profession or out of it. The transmission model of teaching
predominates in training and many articulate a desire for more teaching practice
and methodology. Many experienced hardship in their family life. Positive
experience of schooling often related to teachers who connected to their own
lives or were caring. Negative experiences often related to use of the cane. The
paper ends with a call for teacher education to reflect more closely, and engage
with, the cultural realities of schooling in Ghana, and the experiences of
trainees.
