Between Policy and Placement: Student Teachers' Constructed Meanings of Structural Contradiction in Pakistani Pre-Service Teacher Education

Abstract

Pre-service teacher education in Pakistan faces a persistent tension between prescribed professional standards, pedagogical approaches, and assessment requirements as prescribed in policies and what is expected to be present in practicum schools. This paper shares the findings of a qualitative study that explored the meaning-making of BS Education student teachers encountering dilemmas between policy and classroom practice during teaching practice placement in schools in Sialkot, Punjab. Semi-structured interview data subjected to reflexive thematic analysis to generate four themes: collapse of idealism before placement, structural constraints on the authentic teaching opportunity, policy as prescription and classroom as reality, and learning through contradiction. The results reflect that the contradiction of policies and practices does not occur randomly; it is reproduced as a structure, the position of student teachers at the bottom of the institutional hierarchy, and the limitation of institutional mediation encountered by them as they negotiate this contradiction in their practice. Professional learning is, therefore, more limited in scope than policy intends, while being adaptive and resilient. The paper offers an interpretive and participant-centred perspective in an area that has been dominated by macro-structural analysis and can be directly applied in the field of programme designing, scheduling of placements, and practicum policy reform in Pakistan.

Keywords: Student Teacher Perceptions, Policy-Practice Gap, Teaching Practice, Reflexive Thematic Analysis, Pre-Service Teacher Education, Pakistan, Professional Identity