TEACHING AND LEARNING – WHAT IS THIS IN TROUBLED SPACES?

Teaching for five, 10, 15 years. Why are you still teaching? Why are you still teaching science subjects? So, what is it about teaching that attracts you or in other words – What is in it for you? Most importantly, what is in it for the learners, the community and the world? Teaching is a double-binded affair with yourself and with others (learners, colleagues and others). With every aspect of what you do the introspective and reflexive questioning and responses to why you teach how and what you teach has a historical and almost umbilical cord to your first days of teaching or even learning how to teach or becoming a teacher. Reflecting on these days may reveal much about the decision to teach or was it just an act of putting pen to the teacher degree application form because there was nothing else? Or was it – “My daughter has been working for an insurance company for five years and she is now unemployed. I told her to do teaching because she will always have a job” (a conversation with a school principal).