VIRTUAL Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

This research explores how student teachers emotionally experience school placements during a postgraduate teacher education programme. Previous literature on teacher emotions focused on how there are emotional experiences around the five emotional geographies identified by Hargreaves (2001). However, little investigation has been done into how student teachers experience these geographies. Through this research, I have identified what emotional experiences impact student teachers and provided a new perspective on emotional geographies. The school placement experience should be more than just a practical experience; it should allow student teachers to take chances to enhance their teaching styles’ development. Developing relationships with colleges may lead to professional learning, growth, and development of teaching practice (Graham, MacDougall, Robson & Mtika, 2018). This study presents the emerging role of emotions with student teachers in the context of their school placements. Understanding student teachers’ interpretations of their own emotions is an essential step towards further development and understanding of student teachers’ development of their teaching practice. Student teachers may feel emotions during their school placement can emerge from their teaching beliefs, goals, and standards (Schutz, 2014). An interpretive paradigm methodology approach was used throughout the data-gathering process to understand the seven student-teacher participants’ emotions and actions. Through guided reflections, semi-interviews, and focus groups, data from seven participants was collected over a year while on two primary school placements in a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE). A qualitative approach allows the researcher to extract and make meaning of the detailed, rich, and thick data based on the participants’ views (Muzari, Shava & Shonhiwa, 2022).