Teacher’s imaginative elaborations on adolescence: a winnicottian reading

Abstract

Adolescents in situations of social vulnerability demand a type of care, from parents, teachers, and society, that protects them from the additional risks to which they are exposed, without compromising the development of their autonomy. This qualitative study aimed to investigate the imaginative elaborations of 30 teachers about adolescence using an Interactive Narrative approach as an investigative resource. The narrative material was analyzed interpretively, searching for the affective-emotional senses underlying the elaborations of the participants, resulting in the following fields of meaning: “Do not turn adolescence into rocket science” and “Adolescence: a sign of danger”. In addition to the pedagogical issues, the participants expressed difficulty in dealing with issues that are specific to the adolescent’s emotional development, oscillating between stereotyped conceptions and an empathic posture in the face of adolescent immaturity. It is concluded that teachers experience ambivalent feelings towards adolescents, assuming either an authoritarian or a patronizing posture, understanding adolescent conflict as natural at this development stage.