Abstract
M.Ed.
The focus of the study is aimed at the personal and professional identity of the educator in the ever-changing milieu of specialised education. Since 1994, numerous changes have started to take place within the South African teaching profession, resulting in far-reaching implications for all educators. These changes include: the introduction and implementation of outcomes based education, a newly structured curriculum, modified assessment practices, the redefinition of the roles of educators and renewed educator appraisal systems. All of these impacted on educators in specialised schools. With the announcement of the Education White Paper 6: Special Needs Education – Building an Inclusive Education and Training System, the education system changed to one National Inclusive Education System, which would henceforth acknowledge the fundamental right of each person. The Medical Model, used in the past as relevant classification model for learners with special needs, was replaced with a bio-ecological system theory with several new support structures. Educators in special education, having to redefine their personal and professional identities, experienced a sense of insecurity and personal frustration.
Erik Erikson‟s psycho-social theory was used as literary reference, in order to determine whether the shaping of identity was influenced by the transformation process. The relevant study was approached from a qualitative, phenomenological basis, to ensure that the life experiences of the individuals in specialised education can be understood and interpreted. Selected educators and managers with a long-term commitment to specialised teaching, and involved with in-practice teaching institutions, took part in the study. Their descriptions, interpretations and critical self-reflection were captured using structured interviews, participatory education and personal journals. Autobiographical narration was used as a form of story-telling, in order to verbalise the deepest thought processes and feelings of the participants. Four alternating identity dimensions that influenced the shaping of the personal and professional identities of specialised educators, were identified. It was established that the fundamental , developing and transformative identity dimensions alternatively function as integral dimensions, while still promoting a certain personal and professional educator identity within the unique context. The argument, however, has arisen that the optimal ecosocial identity dimension has not been achieved. Hope, competence – which includes an
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active caring for a fixed community – and the proficient concern to lobby for the survival of a certain group, has not been accomplished.
Due to the fact that the unique group of educators can no longer function optimally in the social community and framework, and as a result of a disturbed and changing support network within the specialised education milieu, it has in conclusion been established that the disintegration of relationship structures has impacted negatively on the optimal shaping of identity.