Reflections on a year in PGCE Land: what I wish I’d known

Making a quick inspection of my Twitter feed it seems that many a prospective PGCE student for September 2012 is being furnished with a ‘survival pack’. Included in said packs have been such items as chocolate, writing materials, alcohol and educational necessities – stickers etc. Considering my own PGCE experience (of which I am just reaching the end) I was prompted to think about what else, in retrospect, might need to be included in such a survival pack. Some of these are fairly abstract but hopefully helpful.

1.      A realistic perspective of what the PGCE is and the satisfaction it will bring you.  Going into the PGCE I had some notion that I would really enjoy the challenge – that because I enjoyed spending time teaching one-on-one and adored the school I had done extensive observation in prior to applying I would also enjoy teaching in my placement schools. What I hadn’t bargained for is the fact that you really need (or at least I really need) to feel a close connection with the children I’m teaching in order to be enthusiastic/any good at the job. I felt this at my observation school – perhaps because it was in my home county – but struggled to feel this in my placement schools. Towards the end I definitely developed this relationship but it took a long time. It was easier with the Sixth Form by a large degree. This experience both made the PGCE difficult but equally demonstrated where I should be teaching in the future. I spent most of Friday being really choked saying goodbye to the students leaving Sixth Form – we bonded, I felt responsible for them and a bit awed that they were going off into the world with my help. I’ve seen lots of tweets from people excited about this kind of relationship: it does happen, it’s amazing, but it’s rare. I’d say that at least 70% of the classes you teach you’ll feel almost nothing for all but a few. That’s fine, just be prepared that it’s not all yummy lovely feelings.

2.      A realistic perspective of the extent to which you’ll use your academic knowledge. Just so you know, it won’t really happen. What you teach in lower school (11-16) is unlikely to challenge your brain. Differentiating for ability will challenge you like hell, not to mention adding many hours to your lesson planning. But content-wise don’t expect to need your prowess in the most esoteric, complex aspects of your subject. I was proud that I managed to introduce my Sixth Form classes to Judith Butler, Mikhail Bakhtin, J.L.Austin, performativity, queer theory and the carnival but that isn’t representative of the majority of my teaching.

3.      A realistic perspective of the conditions in teaching. Teaching is a profession with high highs and low lows. You will need to be good at classroom management. You will also need to realise that this doesn’t mean shouting. You will also sometimes need to shout at them. This means that you can often be stressed – but the stress becomes so assimilated into your being you don’t identify yourself as stressed, you just feel it. Teaching is also a profession where you don’t get paid for the hours you put in. Yes, there are decent holidays but believe me they are well needed and deserved. By the time half term rolls around you will be begging for it. It’s like nothing else. Teachers put in more work than is ever appreciated by other people, including at times other teachers, students and parents, not to mention society. To work long hours in a stressful job where your intentions are entirely geared towards helping others do better in life and then be castigated as the site of so many ills of society, as undeserving of a decent pension, decent salary and respect, bites hard. To have your career at the whim of the Secretary of State for Education (especially when that person is Michael Gove) bites even harder.

4.      Friends outside the teaching profession who are sworn never to speak of teaching. After days, months, weeks of discussing your placement school, students, colleagues, fellow students, assessment for learning, formative assessment, monitoring of progress, differentiation, lesson planning and all the rest of it, you will need someone – anyone (God even just randoms on the tube….) – to discuss topics far, far away from teaching and pedagogy. Towards the end – well, from about October onwards, most talk of teaching that happened outside of school grated on me. You need some clear brain space.

5.      A contingency plan. What will you do if you love teaching – where will you get a job – state or private? Do you want to work in an Academy – what kind? Could you teach another subject, another age range? How will you cope financially – it could cost a lot to travel to your placement schools. How will you fit in friends and interests outside of the PGCE? On the flipside, what will you do if you hate the course? Stick it out, see what happens – or take a break of study, or quit altogether. This happens frequently. Lots of people will leave and not everyone who stays to the end will want to be in teaching. If you’re thinking that teaching is your destiny (as I did) how will you cope if it becomes apparent that the reality doesn’t match your expectations?

I don’t think this is an entirely comprehensive summation of how to approach the PGCE but hopefully it gives some flavour of the actuality of the experience. in addition to the above you’ll also need many green pens (for marking), good notebooks for subject studies, decent files for your teaching folders (invest, don’t buy them from Poundland), a ton of printer ink, comfortable smart shoes. For the most part I didn’t enjoy the PGCE. One of the aspects that I found most difficult was the conception of ‘professionalism’ in the job. I felt extremely alienated by and from my professional persona. I found the acting part of the PGCE stressful (this is something to be returned to more fully later). I’m now going back into academic work since as one of the aspects of the programme that I actually did enjoy were the academic essays on pedagogy. It gave me a flavour of social science research that makes a future using qualitative and quantitative research not entirely terrifying. It also allowed me to realise that I love teaching post-16 and whilst my Year 7s and 9s were awesome, it’s not for me. I prefer the road more travelled, I’m glad I know the outcome of taking on a PGCE, but I wish I had a better grip on the reality beforehand.