Social representations of teachership

teachers belonging to gender and ethnic minorities in English language children’s picture storybooks and argued that narrow portrayals of teachers might convey messages about who belongs at school and who does not. Thus, visual representations of teachers may participate in the social construction of how we understand teachership (Alhamdan et al., 2014; Goldstein, 2011).

Mitchell and Weber (2005) consider the fictional teacher representations in popular forms of media as misguided and irresponsible because they do not take teachers’

actual experiences into consideration (see also Weber & Mitchell, 1999). Furthermore, Breault (2009) and Sandefur and Moore (2004) regard it as important for teachers to be aware of teacher stereotypes circulated in media since they might inform teachers about the way teachers are perceived in society. A better understanding of teacher representations in media as well as their mechanisms and potential influences might help teachers to adopt a critical stance to media representations of teachers and avoid internalizing distorted and discriminatory portrayals (Zemke, 2007). In a similar vein, Vandermeersche, Soetaert, and Rutten (2013) emphasize that scholars of media representations of teachership need to go beyond labeling stereotypes as distorted and harmful and disapproving of them. Instead, they should challenge distorted media representations and critically discuss the reasons for their inappropriateness as well as their functions and implications (Goldstein, 2011).

The theory of social representations has been widely used to explore diverse topics related to education. Such topics include, for instance, conceptions of different subjects (Castellotti & Moore, 2002; Gorgorió & de Abreu, 2009; Okemba, Essono, Moulongo, &

Massamba, 2016), teaching methods (Ailincai & Gabillon, 2018; Carneiro & Monteiro, 2018; Kilpiö, 2008; Prasad, 2018), intelligence and educability (Carugati & Selleri, 2011; Räty, 2014; Räty, Komulainen, & Hirva, 2012), education in general (Koshkin, Abramov, Rozhina, & Novikov, 2018; Miettinen, 2012), inclusive education (Linton, Germundsson, Heimann, & Danermark, 2015, 2016; Tuval, 2014), multicultural education and racism (Carignan, Sanders, & Pourdavood, 2005; Howarth, 2007;

Howarth & Andreouli, 2015; Kudo, 2016), parental engagement (Boulanger, Larose, Grenier, Saussez, & Couturier, 2014), trust and justice between students, teachers and school personnel (Berti, Molinari, & Speltini, 2010; Pirttilä-Backman, Menard, Verma,

& Kassea, 2017), social representations of the European Union in school curricula and textbooks (Sakki, 2010, 2016) as well as perception of school premises (Rajala, Itkonen,

& Laine, 2015), to name but a few.

Teachers’, student teachers’, and students’ social representations of teachership

Studies conducted among Brazilian teachers have detected diverse and even contradictory social representations of teachership. For instance, da Silva, Dias, and Pimenta (2014) found that academic competence in terms of substantial knowledge and rationality dominated Brazilian public school teachers’ social representations of teachership. Da Silva and Camargol (2017), in turn, identified responsibility and commitment as key constituents of social representations of teachership among youth and adult-education teachers. Osti and Brenelli (2012) found that elementary school teachers associated learning with the absence of errors and regarded it as an individual process, whereas Velloso and Lannes (2010) noticed that university professors’ – similar to undergraduate students’ – social representations of teachership emphasized teachers’ knowledge of the subject of teaching. Even though Gebran and Trevitzan (2018) recognized social representations of teachership that can be associated with both teacher-centered and student-centered pedagogic approaches, traditional teaching arrangements emphasizing face-to-face contact instead of e-learning and teacher-centered methods seem to prevail (Carneiro & Monteiro, 2018; da Silva, Dias,

& Pimenta, 2014). For this reason, it is a challenge for teacher education in Brazil to train teachers in skills of arranging more diverse and motivating learning experiences for students (da Silva et al., 2014).

Quite different social representations of teachership were identified by Ens, Eyng, Gisi, and Ribas (2014), who found that Brazilian elementary school teachers’ social representations of teachership include such negatively valenced aspects as low wages, student misbehavior, lack of working conditions, and low investment in education.

The researchers assume these negative images might be the reason why young people are becoming less interested in the teaching profession in basic education in Brazil. In addition, the conception that it is an innate calling of women to educate children in Brazil has led to the common-sense understanding that teaching in basic education is a female profession (Fischman, 2000; da Silva, 2012). Fischman (2000) argued that men who challenge this stereotypical setting and strive for a teacher’s position in

primary schools violate heteronormative expectations and might become subject to gender prejudice.

Research on social representations has been conducted not only among teachers but also among student teachers. Pardal, Albuquerque, Lopes, and Ferrão (2013) studied social representations of teachership among student teachers in Argentina, Brazil, and Portugal. They found that even though knowledge of the subject matter was regarded as important, teachers’ skills in promoting students’ emotional well-being was often regarded as a more important constituent of professional competence. For this reason, the participants associated teachers with psychologists. Also, a study conducted by Campo-Redondo and Labarca Reverol (2009) among education science students in Venezuela draws conclusions from similar social representations of teachership that emphasize the importance of taking students’ needs into consideration. In her study on the social representations of Brazilian student teachers regarding teacher identity and work, da Silva (2012) found that male student teachers emphasized teachers’

ability to communicate with students more than did female student teachers, who regarded teaching and learning as key activities. According to da Silva (2012), this finding deviates from a common representation of female teachers being caring, mother-like figures.

In their study on Brazilian high school and university students’ social representations of teachership, Triani, Magalhaes, and Novikoff (2017) found that knowledge of the subject occupies an important position in conceptions of teachership. Martinez-Sierra’s (2014) study, conducted in Mexico, and Cândido, de Assis, Ferreira, and de Souza’s (2014) study, conducted in Brazil, reached similar findings but, in addition, noticed that elaborate and motivating ways of teaching and interacting with students formed another key constituent of students’ social representations of teachership.

Additionally, the study conducted by Pardal and his colleagues (2013) in Argentina, Brazil, and Portugal emphasized the role of teachers’ interactional skills. Carvalho and de Andrade (2013), in turn, found evidence that Brazilian high school students’

social representations of teachership might be subject-specific; while students mostly considered teachers as facilitators of learning and providers of learning possibilities, teachers of mathematics and history, for instance, were understood as traditional distributors of knowledge.

When the findings of South American studies on teachers’, teacher students’, and high school students’ social representations of teachership are compared, one can note different biases. As is typical, different groups of people may have different social representations of the same object (Moscovici, 1961/2008, 1998; Moscovici

& Marková, 1998). Whereas acting teachers’ social representations of teachership communicate traditional and teacher-centered pedagogy as well as insufficient conditions and resources allocated to teaching (Ens, Eyng, Gisi, & Ribas, 2014; da Silva et al., 2014; Velloso & Lannes, 2010), student teachers’ social representations tend to be more positive and refer to student-centered pedagogy that takes into account not only students’ knowledge and skills but also their emotional well-being (Campo-Redondo & Labarca Reverol, 2009; Pardal, Albuquerque, Lopes, & Ferrão, 2013).

One is inclined to relate these different biases to the change of pedagogic ideals as well as to the different amount of practical experience of classroom teaching among practicing teachers versus teacher students (da Silva & Camargol, 2017). Students’

social representations of teachership, in turn, indicate that for their understanding of teachership, both teachers’ substantial knowledge and pedagogic skills in terms of creating learning possibilities are central (Carvalho & de Andrade, 2013;

Martinez-Sierra, 2014). Since social representations of teachership are actualized and constructed in daily educational practices as well (da Silva & Camargol, 2017), one might ask whether students’ social representations of teachership that include student-centered aspects might signal that a transformation of teaching practices is gradually taking place in the South American context (Valencia-Peris & Lizandra, 2018).

When reviewing research on social representations of teachership conducted in Europe, both similarities with and differences from South American research can be identified. In their study on social representations of teachers’ professional identity among teachers in Italian primary, middle, and high schools, Rochira, Guidi, Mannarini, and Salvatore (2015) identified the following five themes around which social representations were clustered: teachers’ pedagogic competence to teach effectively, deterioration of the image of the school system and teachers, teachers’

authority and asymmetric relation to students, supportive pedagogic relationships with students, and trust in teachers’ skills and competence to promote students’

critical thinking and personal growth. The researchers relate the diversity and partial controversy of these social representations of teachership to the different levels of education included in the study as well as to the reforms taking place in the Italian school system that teachers experience in different ways.

In their study on Romanian high school and university students’ and teachers’

social representations of teachers’ social competence, Mazilescu and her colleagues (2010) found that pedagogical sensitivity, consistency, self-control, and confidence were appreciated the most. Minervini and Fontani (2003) conducted a study among Italian special support teachers examining the social representations of their profession.

The researchers identified four main themes that can be summarized as passion toward the profession, a supportive approach to education, teaching competence, and a patient and sensitive personality. Geka and Gregoriadis (2018), for their part, studied Greek kindergarten teachers’ and student teachers’ social representations of their professional identity. They found that kindergarten teachers’ and student teachers’ social representations of teachership drew on their childhood experiences of preschool teachers and their own teaching experiences, cultural knowledge, and teacher education. The role of academic knowledge and apprenticeship in the formation of student teachers’ social representations increased in the course of studies.

Consequently, Geka and Gregoriadis (2018) concluded that kindergarten teachers’

professional identity was a dynamic construct, or a process, in which social and cultural knowledge of children and education merged with knowledge and skills achieved through training and experience in work life.

In Finland, Räty and his colleagues (2011, 2012) studied schoolchildren’s conceptions of intelligence in Finnish and Russian Karelia from a social representations perspective using children’s drawings as research data. While the 2011 study focused on children’s conceptions of an intelligent pupil, the 2012 study examined children’s conceptions of intelligent men and women. Intelligence was strongly associated with education in both studies. Some of the participating children represented intelligent men and women as teachers or professors – intelligence being signaled by eyeglasses, formal and neat clothing, as well as teaching tools, such as a pointer. However, Räty and his colleagues (2011, 2012) found that Russian children’s drawings were more strongly associated with educational setting than Finnish children’s drawings. Thus, for Russian children, the prototype of an intelligent woman seemed to be a neatly dressed school teacher, and the prototype of an intelligent man seemed to be a bald-headed

professor wearing eyeglasses (Räty et al., 2012). Thus, teachership was associated with education, knowledge, and intelligence.