Teacher Participation in the Constitution of the Educational Self

Abstract

The school is an important social arena for the promotion of coexistence, within which teachers are a point of reference for the constitution of identity and the formation of citizens. This study aims to understand the participation of teachers’ voices in the constitution of the educational self of an adolescent in the third year of secondary school, through an analysis of his school trajectory. The work is based on the Cultural Psychology principles of semiotic orientation, principally on the concept of the educational self and the notion of the life trajectory from the perspective of ruptures and transitions. It is an interpretive and exploratory research study of an idiographic nature in which data was collected through memory research and semi-structured interviews using simulated situations. The study participant was a 16-year-old male pupil studying in the third year of secondary school at a state-funded school in Sergipe, Brazil. The results demonstrate the presence of normative and non-normative ruptures throughout the pupil’s school trajectory, with teachers participating in certain transition processes subsequent to these ruptures. A reframing of academic life experiences and relationships with teachers also occurred. The pupil’s school trajectory was marked by tension between the following I positions: diligent versus inattentive. Teachers are involved in the projection of the future educational self, and principally function as life role models and motivators for entrance to university and the labour market.