Challenges Faced by Prospective Teachers in Teaching Practicum: A Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

Teaching practicum is an activity that provides prospective teachers a platform where they practice teaching in a real classroom environment. The purpose of this qualitative (descriptive phenomenology) study is to explore the challenges and opportunities in constructing the professional identities of prospective teachers based on their lived experiences. Six final year students of B.Ed. (Hons.) were purposively selected as sample of the study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically which yielded two major themes each comprised of four subthemes. The first theme was challenges in teaching practicum and its subthemes were overcrowded classrooms, multigrade teaching, classroom management, and poor infrastructure. The second theme was locating the challenges in development of professional identity of prospective teachers and its subthemes were gaining confidence in new role, strengthening teaching skills, problem solving approaches, and integration of new perspective. Future studies may be conducted on the other aspects of practicum for constructing different perspectives of prospective teachers’ professional identity.