Passing the Buck, or Thinking about Experience? Conditions for Professional Development among Teachers in a Norwegian Middle School

Ellen Ramvi

doi:10.4236/jss.2017.52014

Abstract

This paper uses psychoanalytic ideas to explore obstacles and conditions for learning from experience among teachers. In specific, this is about consequences of failure in relationships. A particular situation that happened during an ethnographic study in a middle school in Norway is used to get as close as possible to a teacher’s feelings and perceptions of a frustrating situation. The situation is followed up to understand how the individual teacher tried to deal with the problem and how her colleagues and the school management tried to support and help her. Interpreting the situation to involve violation of all dimensions of the teacher’s subjectivity (personal, professional and cultural), the problem seems to be too complex to deal with in the school organization. It seems as if teachers and leadership unconsciously avoid unbearable feelings, with the consequence that violation of the teachers is not recognised, and thus not possible to learn from. Problems were repeated rather than understood.

Highlights

A particular situation that happened during an ethnographic study in a middle school in Norway is used to get as close as possible to a teacher’s feelings and perceptions of a frustrating situation
The situation is followed up to understand how the individual teacher tried to deal with the problem and how her colleagues and the school management tried to support and help her
This article focuses on a case, which represents one of many smaller or bigger events I experienced during fieldwork conducted at two different middle schools in Norway over one school year

Summary

Introduction

This article focuses on a case, which represents one of many smaller or bigger events I experienced during fieldwork conducted at two different middle schools in Norway over one school year. I conducted an interview with Maria to gain an understanding of how it all began She told me that she was the sole class teacher at that time. Maria felt that the school management was the opposite of supportive They had asked her how they could help, but she could not express what she needed, she said. She felt, that they did not understand her situation. Two of the boys in question (David and Samuel) were new to the class last year. Both were non-native speakers and came from more or less difficult backgrounds. “I don’t know what we’re supposed to know really.”

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion