A deeper form of reflection: perezhivanie as a tool for teacher development

Abstract

ABSTRACT Crediting Vygotsky in introducing perezhivanie, I argue that perezhivanie acts analogously to reflection in problem solving and much beyond that and can be used as a developmental tool for teachers. Analyzing teacher’s perezhivanie, a mentor can better understand their practice. Teachers’ perezhivanie is a psychological reaction to a problematic situation in the classroom, comprising several stages from cognitive dissonance to meaning making, and performing a new activity to resolve the problem. My argument is based on a narrative study into 10 university language teachers’ experiences. Using the structural elements of the narrative, data from one participant were iteratively analyzed and presented in this article to discuss the teacher’s perezhivanie when she tried to solve emerging problems in the classroom. The analysis traces the relation of two immanent characteristics of perezhivanie, its process and content, to teachers’ agency. The article suggests how perezhivanie can be meaningfully incorporated into in-service mentoring programs.