Kankam boadu
CHAPTER FIVE TUTORS’ AND TEACHER TRAINEES’ PERCEPTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
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- Ages of tutors in the colleges of education
- Tutors and teaching experience
- Tutors’ perception on citizenship education
CHAPTER FIVETUTORS’ AND TEACHER TRAINEES’ PERCEPTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATIONIntroductionThis chapter takes into consideration the cross-tabulation of tutors and teacher trainees of the sampled colleges of education, against their background characteristics such as age distribution, sex and teaching experience. It also considers tutors’ and teacher trainees’ perceptions on the term “citizenship education”. Details of the respective issues are shown subsequently. Ages of tutors in the colleges of educationIn an attempt to consider the perceptions of tutors on citizenship education, the ages of the tutors in the colleges were examined. It has been established that the maturity of people in terms of age influences their perception (Ackerman, 2000: Ackerman & Rolfhus, 1999). Against this background, the age of tutors from the various colleges of education in Ghana was collected from the surveys. Information obtained is shown in Table 3. Table 3: Ages of tutors in colleges of education
Field study 2010 Analyses of the age distributions of tutors in Table 3 reveals that in general, tutors within the ages of 26-30 and 41-45 are very few. Thus, 3 (9%) representing each of the age bracket the total being 6 (18%). Ages 36-40 had the highest number of tutors which shows that majority of the tutors 11 (33%) are in their youthful stage. If the study conducted by Ackerman (2000) that revealed aging professionals have more experience in the performance of their work is anything to go by, then it can be accepted in my findings that because most of the tutors are youthful, and have less experience in their teaching roles. It is hoped that those who are older and more experienced from the Wesley College may help their counterparts with ideas during workshops and marking sessions organized by the Institute of Education. The study also shows that there are more tutors at the colleges of education who fall within the ages 36-40. It can be deduced from the analyses that the majority of the tutors have more years to spend in the teaching profession and can therefore sustain the teaching of citizenship education before they finally retire. Research has revealed that the longer people work in their profession, the better the tasks they perform (Ditchfield, 2002). Tutors and teaching experienceThis research collected information on the teaching experience of the tutors in this study. Some have suggested that the more experienced tutors are, the better they will understand and be aware of citizenship issues and also become more competent in their teaching (Dieker, 2000; Peterson, 2009). The teaching experience of the tutors is shown in Table 4. Table 4: Tutors’ teaching experience in colleges
Field studies 2010 Table 4 shows that for tutors having teaching experience between 1-5 years, Komenda College has the highest number, 4 (80%) out of a total of 5, whereas OLA, ST Monicas and Bagabaga Colleges had none. Within the teaching experience of 6-10 years, Bagabaga College of education had the highest number of tutors, 3 (100%), while OLA College of education had no tutors within that bracket of teaching experience. For 11-15 years of teaching experience, Table 4 reveals that ST. Monica’s College of education has the highest number of tutors, 3 (60%) while Offinso, Bagabaga, Bimbilla, Wesley and Komenda Colleges registered none. For 16 years and above teaching experience, Wesley College had the highest number of tutors 2 (28.6%) whereas Komenda, Monica’s, Offinso, Bagabaga and Bimbilla had none. It can be inferred from the analysis of Table 4 that tutors teaching social studies at Wesley College of education are more experienced, followed by OLA and Fosu Colleges of Education respectively. It can be deduced that experienced tutors are comparatively found in Wesley College of education. Perhaps, it is a college with comparatively better facilities, sited in a region where cost of living is relatively low. One therefore expects that tutors would remain there for a number of years. The experiences that tutors have acquired in the teaching profession may make them well grounded in their area of specialty. Davies et al (1999) expressed the need for teachers of citizenship education to have practical experience that puts them in a good position to approach citizenship education confidently and skillfully. Tutors’ perception on citizenship educationThe perception that one has in a subject will determine one’s ability to contribute to the discussion and the development of the subject area (Nelson & Kerr, 2005). Darling-Hammond (1998:12) puts it “What teachers know and can do makes the most difference in what children learn”. An effective tutor must be able to integrate content knowledge with the specific strengths and needs of students to ensure that all students effectively obtain and apply the knowledge and skills to and perform at higher levels. Understanding tutors’ perception on citizenship education is crucial since they are the “attacking troops” in the classroom and also at the centre stage of developing the conscious mind of students. Bishop (1992) stresses that teachers know the dynamics of the classroom situation and therefore gauging out their perception in citizenship education is crucial. There are obviously many different activities and skills that could be included in citizenship education. In order to determine what might be included in citizenship education based on the tutors’ perception, one part of the research survey presented eight different areas of content that might be included in the teaching of citizenship education. Table 5 provides the data from the respondents. Table 5: Tutors’ perception on citizenship education
Table 5: Tutors’ perception in citizenship education
When responding to the stem question: “Citizenship education means:” Table 5 shows that the entire group of thirty four tutors agreed that all eight of the activities and areas of knowledge listed are aspects of citizenship education. Generally, in all the eight colleges of education, the tutors perceive that citizenship education means developing ideas, beliefs, desirable behaviour and attitudes of students; citizenship education means providing students with sufficient knowledge and understanding of national history and politics. The findings of these participants support those in Martin’s (2010) study which explored teacher education students’ views about citizenship education. Martin’s study indicated that the participants expressed similar views on citizenship education. Blege (2001) saw citizenship education as the instructional preparation of the younger generation towards making students good and effective persons in society. Once the tutors gain that perception, then it is anticipated that citizenship education will be handled well in the colleges of education and will therefore be able to transmit to the teacher trainees who are to teach at the basic schools where citizenship education has been introduced as core subject. It can be inferred from the analysis that in all the individual colleges of education, almost all the tutors from the colleges of Offinso; Wesley; Komenda; Fosu; OLA; Bagabaga; and Bimbilla agree that citizenship education is meant to making deliberate effort to offer the young generation , moral, social and intellectual knowledge about cultural heritage. One expects that tutors will translate their perceptions about citizenship education into effective teaching so that the teacher trainees will get better understanding. The finding of the study confirms the study conducted by Arnot et al. (2000) which examined the perception of teachers on citizenship education in Greece, Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom. The findings revealed that in all the four countries, teachers admitted that citizenship was meant to offer young generation moral, social, intellectual knowledge about cultural heritage.
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