3io
The issue of pupil identity is a live one for several of these students.
Four of them at that time were researching and writing on aspects
of the theme. It is perhaps no coincidence that teaching difficult
areas, often essential ones for student teachers requires the confidence
that comes from their teaching experiences. Equally important they
require distance from the experience to give a quite different atten-
tion to the nature of the children they teach. In the next extract
the pressure of time is quite clear and it is often such pressures
that are used to justify the dismissal of theoretical work as irrel-
evant to the main task.
School A 21.5.82 P8∕9 vi
Ssl ..... because the real question for us going
into classrooms twenty-five times a week is
what we’re going to take into it and does
it helps us, do you think he helps work out
what we're going to take in.
SS2 I think in details of how you relate to people
in schools it’s helpful - concern for each
other and so on is helpful. (Refers to White 1982)
RE That’s right.
SS2 But there again in School A, it does clash
with exams and things because it’s only a
partial answer to what the aims of the school are ∙
Res He would say if you leave it alone - if you
Tutor don’t consciously think about it as teachers
whether in relation to your own subject or
much more generally, it’s going to happen
anyway as it’s always happened in school anyway.
It will happen by default - there will be aims
there and there will be definitions.....
SSl I start with the individual - not because
it's the most important but it's slightly
easier - if we can't talk about the individual
then how can we talk about society - I think
I'll put the kettle on -