Retired Educators’ Career Transition as a New Life Role of Underwriting Career Development in Botswana

Four themes emerged from the study. These were meaningful experiences for retired educators; retired educators experiencing inspirational leaders; recommendations for future education programmes; and retired educators’ issues for retirement.

Theme 1: Meaningful Experiences for Retired Educators

Theme 1 had two sub-themes, which were Transitions and turning points and Exposure for skills development.

The participants highlighted that meaning and impact of experiences came from feedback from mentoring, being given autonomy, experiencing values such as caring in different cultures and being valued. In the process, these, brought about the development of necessary soft skills and knowledge such as self-discovery. A participant said,

“I was 24 years. I was promoted to a position of a deputy school head…my experience…taught me that as a young man I have to change the way I was thinking.” (FGD 3: 11–14)

Another participant, on the other hand, argued,

“It all came from those two experiences: one, the culture which I found there, a culture of great caring and passion for your work and passion for the children. The other influence, the key one, that statement that … made about working as a team. See, and so those two things guided me all my working life.” (Ind 8:161–165)

The reflections on the above experiences by retirees imply that self-awareness, learning what was expected, such as working in a team and learning of one’s capabilities were important in their career development. These were results of mentoring in different cultures and through positions of responsibility.

Furthermore, another participant had this to say,

“Professional development is critical in the life of a professional, no matter at what level you are trained. You need to continuously refuel … conferences, … benchmarking were critical to this experience and I found that to be very useful in the life of an educator. Yes, looking back I realise that it played a critical role in helping me become successful in the services that I provided to the teachers.” (Ind 2:70–82)

Conferences and benchmarking are highlighted here as methodological ways which can be used for mentoring young professionals into effectively performing their duties. Experiences of the retired educators are likely to transfer into their mentees.

Theme 2: Retired Educators Experiencing Inspirational Leaders

Laying the foundations for mentoring was the only sub-theme in theme 2. The experiences that the participants in the study could remember were those from leaders who were inspirational in the field of education. The leaders were passionate about education, dedicated, knowledgeable, were visionaries, team players and commanded respect. Therefore, the retired educators’ leaders played the role of mentors.

The following excerpts highlight some issues relating to inspirational leadership and mentoring:

“So, I was totally lost and shocked and scared and all the negatives. I knew absolutely nothing …He said one profound thing and that’s what guided me throughout my whole career.” (Ind 8: 71–78)

Another individual said

“During those days, the school head was a jack of all trades, a parent, a role model, a community leader and so on, and I must say, I am quite pleased that the gentleman is very much around. He is so old, but he is still there in the village, and those foundations he laid are still in me.” (Ind 16: 386–390)

Additionally,

“Ma G became a serious role model for me and pushed me into becoming a teacher for children with intellectual disabilities and later on with learning disabilities, because of how she carried herself. She wouldn’t look at herself just as a teacher in the classroom. She would be a housemother where I was a dormitory mother myself and I was under her and later on she gave me that role of being a housemother.” (Ind 15:793–800)

The roles played by mentors are not limited to acting as parents, role models and teachers. Participants are clear in that mentors needed to lead by example in order for mentees to emulate expected behaviour as a professionals.

Theme 3: Recommendations for Future Education Programmes

The theme was defined as ways in which knowledge and skills acquired by retired educators can be made practically available to career development programmes. These career development programmes were not isolated to schools but to growing professionals as well. Two sub-themes emerged as Areas of expertise and Ways of utilising the knowledge and skills of retired educators. Excerpts included:

“I’m saying let’s develop a mentoring training programme and… let’s agree what this person is going to do in this school and train them and develop a system for structuring the way they will contribute and the way you will monitor this contribution.” (Ind 12: 451–457)

The above extract highlights that mentoring has to be relevant for its purposes. It is worth noting that the retiree here was aware that their engagement should be measurable and monitored. Another retired educator said

“A retired educator can be helpful to an upcoming professional through forming maybe some kind of associations .. when we are together as professionals, we can come up with programmes that can benefit these young people.” (Ind 10:255–259)

The quote above highlights the need for reflective meetings that could benefit young people. Yet another had this to say,

“Get that database and say what could be called watershed moments. If these are the major landmarks in the history of the development of education, we can then link these landmarks with the database and find out from the databases who were the key actors, who were involved in the development of education training in Botswana. As I said, we are not talking about a few officers or permanent secretaries, but a whole lot of teachers and school heads, and I think most of those will have a story to tell.” (Ind 16:483–489)

The above except emphasised the value in keeping databases for exceptional events, key players and key results that can be referenced in the future post retirement of innovators and actors. With the number of teachers passing through the education system, including retired educators, so would the events which could be recorded. Another participant, however, pointed out that,

“There seems to be an attitude in the Ministry [of Education] at the moment that nothing happened before the present, batho ba ba leng teng (people currently in place). Nothing happened before we came here, so everything is starting afresh.” (Ind 8:832–835)

The statement of the participant seemed to suggest that current educators assume there was no baseline in education activities. If they did not, the educators now could engage with retired educators. Thisparticipant emphasised,

“I don’t think we’ve got a lot of resources to waste and a number of people out there can really contribute ideas and I think we need .. a very structured way of engaging with these different stakeholders for different things… I think when they are engaged in a meaningful way, they can contribute a lot.” (Ind 12:414–418, 424–428)

The point was that retired educators are a valuable resource. The participant pointed out that if retirees’ engagement is organised, much can be harnessed from their being.

The participants stipulate how they could influence career development programmes through mentoring. From the study, the retired educators seemed to suggest that they would prefer to make their contribution in in-service training of young professionals and in policy reforms. Retired educators highlighted their expert knowledge and skills such as policy development and leadership. Furthermore, the retired educators specified how they thought their knowledge could impact career growth programmes. Examples detailed included the use of databases, reflective forums, training and mentoring (Mokgolodi 2015).

Theme 4: Retired Educators’ Retirement Issues

This theme was defined as factors that relate to retirement and the termination of services as an educator. Retired educators’ experiences that led them to retire and their reflections on their retirement at the time of the interview in this study are included. Factors that affected retirement and post-retirement activities of retired educators were sub-themes.

Retired educators retired for different reasons. These included mainly challenges they had with leadership or when the retired officer at the time of work felt they were no longer able to make a difference. These issues were directed by how the retired educator felt at the time of the interview as they reflected on their experiences; hence, one participant claimed that,

“There’s a lot of rigidity in our education system and rigidity sometimes thwarts creativity and innovation, yes, the red tape … what pained me and probably even made me leave the MoESD (Ministry of Education and Skilled Development) was the failure to implement policy and the failure to take professional expert advice. When people have put you in a place and you have the technical know-how and the professional know-how, they need to get guidance from you.” (Ind 7:425–433)

The above except reveals how lack of creativity and innovation as a result of lack of applying one’s knowledge and skills can lead to dissatisfaction and frustration, hence early retirement. More importantly, the retiree is skilled, technically and professionally, enough to give mentorship to both young professionals and leadership. The aforementioned excerpt for this last theme is indicative of an employee who retired not because of age, but mainly because they were frustrated with the system they worked for. They could no longer use their skills and knowledge to support the education structures. Therefore, retirees saw the education system as not being progressive to stay in. The study highlighted that some participants retired because the educational environment was not conducive for one to continue as an educator, which is consistent with Larschan’s (2016) argument that his retirement was also effected by administrators concerned with the bottom line rather than standards.

In the post-retirement sub-theme, the researcher discussed retired educators’ current occupations post-retirement. It seemed retired educators were engaged in varied activities, some related to their occupation prior to retirement, while others were engaged in different work roles. For instance, a retiree continuing with what they did prior to retirement highlighted,

“I’m in counselling. I’m a marriage and family therapist and I’m enjoying my job in that I work at my own pace as a retired person. The adjustment wasn’t very severe. I may not have enough in terms of resources, but I feel fulfilled in that I had reduced the severity of leaving formal employment by preparing beforehand.” (Ind 9:515–519)

But a retiree whose experience led them to change said,

“I had already said I don’t want to do anything in special education. I want to do something completely different and I went into the …. I was a … chairperson.” (Ind 15:869–872)

The implication is that retirement can be pleasant or severe, depending on one’s experience during their career and the level of preparedness towards it. The preparation could be psychological, financial and in terms of activities the retiree has in place for continuation after retirement. Engaging in a similar line of work, working at own pace implied a happy and more relaxed retiree. Both retirees on the above two quotes can use their experiences as mentors of young professionals.

Other retired educators are engaged as teachers on contract in schools (FGD 1, 2, 3).

“I was at a certain school for three months last year; I volunteered there.” (FGD 3:822–823)

This engagement post retirement is an example of how retired educators can continue to mentor young people.

The qualitative aspect of the survey questionnaire (Question 22f), from the first phase, indicated that only 21% of the retired educators are involved in education-related activities. On the other hand, the majority (64%) of them were involved in farming, community work and homemaking (Mokgolodi 2015). The retired educators engage themselves in different ways post retirement, as mentors as volunteers, contract employees and farmers. The data indicated that retired educators spent minimal time in education-related activities, where their acquired skills would be more valuable according to them. This was not surprising, given what the participants alluded to the Ministry of Education ignoring them. Additionally, the literature contends that retirement has effects such as withdrawal from society because of the perceptions that the retirees have about what others think of them (Owton 2011).

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