Relation- Centered Education Network |
RCEN NEWSLETTER 01/2025 |
The Relational Dimension of the Teaching Profession by Dr. Ann-Louise Ljungblad
Summary written by — Alexander M. Sidorkin, Dean and Professor, College of Education, California State University Sacramento
| In The Relational Dimension of the Teaching Profession, we follow four teachers who meet their students in a particularly evolving way. Deploying what is described as pedagogical tact and stance, the author has filmed teachers in order to observe how they create pedagogical meeting spaces wherein the teachers and students meet as people, thus developing an understanding of trustful, relational teaching in practice. The relational dimension of the teaching profession is something that has hitherto played a hidden role in teacher education. Nevertheless, well-functioning teacher-student relationships are a fundamental part of successful teaching. Including a multi-relational perspective on teaching and education (Pedagogical Relational Teachership, or, PeRT) as well as a taxonomy with an observation scheme for student teachers and researchers, this book is aimed at student teachers at undergraduate and advanced levels and is also suitable for teachers in practice. |
"Dr. Ljungblad’s new book is a significant contribution to the emerging field of relational pedagogy. Both her theorizing and her exquisite empirical work amply demonstrate what a possibility opens if we take relationships in education seriously. It is a must-read for all interested in the teaching profession and in education." |
Teacher students' emotional experiences as a pedagogical phenomenon by Mette Helleve
| The overarching research question for this thesis is: In what way can student teachers' emotional experiences be considered a pedagogical phenomenon in teacher education? This overarching research question is explored through the following two sub-questions: • What characterizes student teachers' emotional experiences during their teacher education? • How can these experiences be taken care of in teacher education as a condition of possibility regarding the students´ Bildung process? The study's theoretical perspectives are mainly based on John Dewey's (1980; 1895) concept of experience and his understanding of emotions as a changeable, integrated, and necessary phase of every experience. In addition to this, the theoretical framework is phenomenologically informed, starting from Knud Ejler Løgstrup's (1956;1984; 1987;1996) concepts of omnipresence and attunement, in Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (2009) perspectives on intentionality, and in Dan Zahavi's (2003) perspectives on intersubjectivity. Furthermore, in Peter Goldie's (2000) understanding of the intentionality of emotions and finally in existential phenomenology with Søren Kierkegaard's (2014) and Paul Tillich's (2000) definitions of the term existential anxiety. |
Except for the concept of omnipresence, these theoretical concepts are referred to in the thesis' three articles. Methodologically, the study is placed in a qualitative and phenomenographic research tradition. The study is article-based and consists of three articles and a dissertation in which the findings of the three sub-studies are summarized and discussed against the thesis's overall research question. The empirical material has been analyzed using an abductive approach where the theoretical framework has developed in step with the development of the research questions, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the empirical material. The empirical material is firstly based on the experiences of four groups of student teachers, a total of 29 students over four years in connection with the students' three-month internships in Namibia and Uganda respectively. The material consists of practice reports, logbooks, and a group discussion in addition to field notes taken from a three-day guidance workshop. Secondly, the empirical material is based on qualitative in-depth interviews with 11 student teachers, focusing on their emotional experiences during teacher education. | Key Findings As an answer to the overall research question, the thesis contribute with a conceptualization of three different insights to describe what characterizes student teachers' emotional experiences during teacher education. These three insights are shown in the conceptualization of 1) global awareness as an emotional matter, 2) the emotional phase of students' experiences, as a kind of sentimentalization and 3) anxiety as a condition of opportunity in teacher education. Based on the results of the thesis, the thesis contributes with concrete suggestions on how teacher education can take care of the students' emotional experiences as a condition of opportunity for the students´ Bildung through teacher education. Link to Full Text or Resource: ODA Open Digital Archive: Lærerstudenters emosjonelle erfaringer som pedagogisk fenomen |