Demystifying foundation phase teaching: Male student teachers’ motivation to enroll for B.ED. degree in foundation phase at a rural university

Abstract

Female teachers have historically been associated with teaching profession at the Foundation Phase (FP). It is a societal belief that female teachers provide motherly love and care and are naturally soft towards infants compared to their male counterparts. This article explores a new trend that is developing at a rural university where male student teachers are increasingly enrolling for a Bachelor of Education programme where they specialise in the foundation phase (FP) teaching. The article gathered male student teachers' views for choosing teaching in the foundation phase as a career at a rural university in Limpopo Province. This qualitative case study adopted a purposive sampling procedure to sample sixteen (16) male first year B.Ed. Foundation Phase student teachers to complete open-ended questions. Content analysed data reveal that even though male student teachers were intrinsically and altruistically motivated and positive about their FP career choice and hope to demystify FP teaching, a few of them admitted that FP was a default career choice. A longitudinal cohort study is recommended in order to decipher the motivations, experiences and career paths of male FP teachers.