Experiences and Attitudes of Student Teachers Towards the Organizational Culture of a Faculty of Education

Abstract

Literature suggests a symbiotic relationship between organizational culture, organizational effectiveness and heightened stakeholder performance. Whereas a lot has been written on organizational culture, little, if any, especially in the context of South Africa has been documented about university students’ attitudes and experiences of organizational culture and implications for the transformation of higher education, as well as its impact on student teachers’ well-being, morale and performance. Yet, organizational culture contributes immensely to the teaching and learning environments and has a tremendous influence on whom and what students become: their identity- after they graduate. Furthermore, organizational culture has an effect on students’ motivation, retention, and success rates. The purpose of this research study was to investigate the attitudes and experiences of first to fourth year student teachers of the organizational culture/climate of their Faculty of Education. The objective was to uncover their deep-seated feelings about various aspects of this culture, and to suggest implications and recommendations based on the results found. Critical theory and Bandura’s social learning theory underpinned this study. For this study, quantitative and qualitative data were collected through close-ended questionnaires and interviews from approximately 600 Bachelor of Education student teachers. The sample was purposive and convenient. Results revealed that some students found some aspects of the culture enabling while the majority experienced the culture as traditional, bureaucratic, and toxic, and stifling their creativity, autonomy, spontaneity and development. These results point to the need for radical transformation of the mindset of the faculty leadership and staff.



Author Information
Zilungile Lungi Sosibo, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

Paper Information
Conference: IICEHawaii2019
Stream: Education

This paper is part of the IICEHawaii2019 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon