The paper reports on research aimed at providing an overview of practices, problems and innovative ideas within the teaching practice component of the Bachelor of Education (BEd) teacher education programme at nine teacher education institutions in South Africa in a period of policy changes and transformation. In this paper we report research related to a survey of various institutions regarding practicum practices, issues related to practicum and improvements envisaged. The research is framed in relation to theoretical ideas relevant to the teacher education practicum and mirrored against theoretical discussions regarding the improvement of the practicum. Results indicate that in most institutions very little attention is paid to teacher education theory and policy guidelines. Instead institutions seem to be introducing changes in a piecemeal fashion and not focusing on policy or theoretical ideas as guidelines. We contend that this could be due to the fact that educationists are in the early days of policy development and implementation in relation to the new policies drafted since 1994 or because established practices have become dominant and almost taken for granted in an uncritical manner.
From: SARE, Vol. 14 no. 1/2 (2008)
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