The Collective Dimension in the Activity of Physical Education Student-Teachers to Cope with Emotionally Significant Situations

Abstract

The entry into the teaching profession is identified in the literature as a special, complex, and emotionally intense stage. Some teachers adopt turnover or attrition as coping tactics. The aim of this study is to understand the effect of the collective dimension on the professional development of physical education student-teachers in how they deal with emotionally significant situations. To avoid dropping out and to foster their well-being, beginners should develop their abilities by sharing their experiences. A mixed research design using a questionnaire and implementing a clinical activity procedure was adopted. Student-teachers (n = 139) had to write about 2 emotionally significant situations that they experienced during teaching, and they then shared or not with others. The second part of the study involved following up five student-teachers over the course of one year. A total of 32 filmed lessons with an emotionally significant situation served as support to self-confrontation and crossed interviews. The data were processed using the method of Bruno and Méard. The results show that student-teachers experience many emotionally significant situations, and this highlights the importance of using a collective dimension to help them cope with this emotional overload. Finally, these results open the potential value of a hybridised teacher education model of student-teachers, particularly when considering the emotional nature of the teaching profession and the necessity of sharing experiences in order to better deal with them.