Browsing by Author "Vanhanen, Vilma"

Aims. Touching is an essential part of human life and well-being: touch is a way of communicating in human interaction, and touching has positive influence on growth and development of a child. Thus, touching should also be a part of school life in interaction between a teacher and a student. On the other hand, many studies discuss concerns that teachers have regarding touching students. In this study, the aim was to discuss primary school teachers' attitudes towards touching as a pedagogical tool: is it allowed to touch children, do teachers want to touch in the first place, in what kind of situations do teachers touch, and how is touching discussed in schools. The purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of touching in schools. Methods. The research data was gathered by interviewing six class room teachers, and I applied theme interview in the interview. This study was a qualitative study, and I applied phenomenography study's analysis model in the analysis. Phenomenography is based on different kinds of ways of understanding the same phenomenon: therefore I observed primary school teachers' different views about touching in school. Results and conclusions. Primary school teachers associated six different meanings with touching: touching as natural and common thing; as a tool for calming and guiding; as caring; as a worry; as an object of avoiding; and as restricting. The factors that influence teacher's decision to touch are the norms of society and community, context of the situation in which touching occurs, teacher's own touching history, characteristics regarding a student, instructions or pedagogical freedom, and conscious decision making or spontaneous action. As a summary for these results, there was formed five different roles for teachers as touchers: teacher as an educator, as a communicator, as a restrictor, as an avoider, and as a victim. Even though the results cannot be generalized to apply every primary school teacher, the results imply possible ways of comprehending touching as a pedagogical tool.