Creating Security In The Teacher-Student Relationship From The Perspective Of The Existential-Analytical Approach

Abstract

Education today is focused on the development of a personality that is capable of exerting a personal attitude towards the world and oneself and dealing competently with various issues. Full-fledged development of a personality is possible only in good safe conditions. A significant role in the formation of a safe protected environment for the development of a student's personality is assigned to the teacher. From the perspective of the modern existential analysis, the participants of educational relationships need, on the one hand, protection, space, support, and, on the other hand, intimacy, time, and interaction in order to form a sense of security. This research was conducted using the qualitative phenomenological descriptive design. The phenomenological approach made it possible to understand the experiences of primary school teachers in their relationships with students in the context of holistic human experience. The interview was focused on the issues of primary school teachers providing personalized care to students in the aspect of creating a sense of security. The results of the qualitative analysis include the following observations significant to teaching practice: teachers experience difficulties in defining and understanding the concept of personalized care; good relationships, intimacy and time do not correlate with the perceptions of security of all educational stakeholders; care in educational interaction is perceived and implemented from a functional role of a respected teacher, there is a distance associated with a professional role, and as a result, a trusted contact often turns into a method of task-solving, while no space is left to access the feelings and their expression; good relationships are considered to be a practical asset; there is a lack of time for interaction with students. The key factor in the inability of teachers to personally deal with the teaching reality is not so much the lack of professional skills, but rather a personal factor – insufficient maturity of a teacher's personality, rigidity of attitudes, lack of phenomenological openness, the complexity of integrating experiences and the need to solve problems. The article also considers the issue of advanced professional programs for personal development of primary school teachers.