Publish at October 18 2023 Updated October 19 2023
This summer, I had the opportunity to chat with a former student. We were talking about "atypical" teachers, i.e. teachers who don't work like the others. She mentioned a teacher in her high school who had been extremely inspiring, creative and caring. So I asked myself: what is it about a teacher that leaves a unique impression on an individual? Unique to the point that this memory remains and leaves a "mark" on a person.
We've all had that kind of teacher, and I've even had the feeling that I only worked according to the teachers I had in front of me! For the same subject, depending on the teacher, I could have results ranging from very average to excellent!
You may have heard of Daniel Pennac, former dunce turned teacher turned writer, whose French teacher "succeeded in breaking the dunce lock", and others too:
"The love of their subject, which they mastered perfectly, and the passion to pass it on. They never gave up on us, to the point of making us appreciate the subject. (...) The maths teacher who took me from zero to average in one year was all about math. He was obsessed with it. He took me for what I was, a child convinced, rightly, that he knew nothing and, wrongly, that he would never know anything. And, valiantly, he took everything from the ground up, building on the meagre knowledge I might have had, striving to restore my self-esteem, little by little, by dint of progress. "Source: télérama
This is also the subject of Vincent Rémy's book"Un prof qui a changé ma vie" (A teacher who changed my life), in which D. Pennac and others talk about their school memories.
Taking part in the training of future primary school teachers, I wondered how they might have been influenced by their peers. How could certain teachers' practices have positively influenced their students to the point of them thinking about becoming teachers?
I collected testimonies from MEEF (Master professorat des écoles) students and called it "The Super Prof survey". I asked them to write a few lines about "A teacher who made a positive impression on you from kindergarten to university". 66 students responded!
(Here are the first results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming publication).
Some of the answers come from very old memories, going all the way back to kindergarten. Even more recent memories from higher education are in the minority!
A teacher who leaves a positive imprint, still present years later (sometimes 20 years later!) is a teacher who appears to have built a special relationship with his or her students. A minority are teachers who are passionate about their subject, or, as Pennac would say, "inhabited by it". The majority express a special bond. Care for the teacher-student relationship built differently according to teachers' personalities
For example, this middle school French teacher:
"this teacher said the most beautiful words of kindness and encouragement for my future".
or this motivating and supportive primary school teacher:
"I've never enjoyed school so much".
The examples are quite varied, and all, without exception, point to a particular "posture" on the part of the teacher concerned, irrespective of the subject, context or level of teaching. I have qualified the postures that describe a particular educational relationship, a continuum of benevolence and attention.
These postures are "empathetic", "framing", "humorous", "playful", "supportive", "encouraging", "stimulating", "complicit", "rewarding", "caring", "inspiring"...
Dominique Bucheton has shown the link between teachers' postures and students' postures. For example, a controlling or even "counter-supporting" posture may encourage a "school-like" or even "refusal" posture in the pupil. The teacher's "accompanying" or even "letting go" posture will favor the student's "creative" or even "reflective" posture.
Alexandra Brunbrouck proposes tools to help teachers develop their posture through four stages:
In 2013, Jean-MIchel Meyre presented his thesis in which he seeks to understand why a PE (Physical and Sports Education) teacher is appreciated by his students. He developed the concept of assertiveness (socio-conative assertiveness). In other words, a posture of self-confidence enhanced by empathy will create a bond in which students feel good enough to appreciate their teacher, whatever his or her personality and way of doing things!
The importance of empathy in education has also been highlighted by pediatrician Catherine Gueguen. It's what puts children in the best possible position to develop their brains!
In other words, empathy in education is what enables the child to learn, and the teacher to learn how to be a teacher! CQFD. Being a teacher is something you build and learn. It's the path of a lifetime. A path sometimes strewn with pitfalls, doubts and second-guessing.
So, becoming a teacher is not a trivial choice, and requires a substantial investment. I wonder whether this choice could be partly due to these somatic markers, in other words, an experience that has had a positive impact could guide the choice to exercise a profession that is much more complex than it seems, and often not considered at its true value.
Illustration: Nordique - Flickr (Amanda Gorman - Poet)
Source:
"But how can a dunce be cheerful?" Interview by Michel Abescat Télérama October 13, 2017 https://www.telerama.fr/livre/20620-mais_comment_un_cancre_pourrait_il_etre_joyeux.ph
Dominique Bucheton (2011) "Les postures enseignantes" https://eduscol.education.fr/document/16219/download
Alexandra Brunbrouck (2018) Tisser des liens. La relation au coeur des apprentissages. Paris: éditions Retz
https:// www.decitre.fr/livres/tisser-des-liens-9782725637730.html
Antonio Damasio (1999) L'erreur de Descartes. The reason for emotions. Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob
ttps://www.decitre.fr/livres/l-erreur-de-descartes-9782738103031.html
Catherine Gueguen (interview) "How empathy structurally develops a child's brain" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scEMPMX-94s
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