The boundaries between personal life and professional role: a proposal to apply some principles of the Structural Family Therapy by Salvador Minuchin to teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to apply some principles of the Structural Family Therapy by Salvador Minuchin to teachers. Specifically, we considered the teacher as a system consisting of two communicating subsystems – one pertaining to personal characteristics and skills, and one pertaining to characteristics and skills related to the professional role – and we explored the boundaries between personal life and professional role, proposing the existence of three types of boundaries that are in line with the original classification by Minuchin: rigid, diffuse, and clear. Moreover, through a semi-structured interview, we conducted an initial empirical investigation about the perception and the representation of the boundaries between personal life and professional role in a sample of 9 kindergarten, primary, and middle school teachers (M professional experience = 16.33 years, SD = 9.60 years). The emerged results, even if limited in number, encouraged the development of further dimensional assessment strategies, as well as the development of training courses on teachers’ emotional and relational competence in which they can reflect on the importance of clear boundaries that allow an adaptive exchange of information between personal and professional areas.