Humanistic intervention on the formation of teaching identity

Abstract

The study aimed to design a proposal of group intervention for students of a Normal School to favor their growth and awareness of their teacher identity and mission. The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) was used as a tool to measure person’s areas or self-realization. Twenty-one students from second and third years participated in the study. The name of the workshop was “To the encounter of the teacher that I want to become”. The group experience was five hours five sessions from nine to thirteen hours. The activity took place in the Normal School facilities. The workshop had the purpose to raise awareness in the students on how they prevent themselves to develop their whole potential as teachers. Principles of the Humanistic Psychology were followed, making emphasis on positive features of the individuals (Seligman & Csiksentmihalyi, 2000). A preexperimental, pretest-postest, without group control was used. The intervention contributed to develop student´s human potential to face challenges inherent in teaching. Results indicated that, when comparing the pre-test with the post-test, significant differences were found for one of the scales y three of the sub-scales of the POI; the Self-support scale, Existential, Self-acceptance, and Synergy sub-scales. During the workshop the processes of change were observed in the participants, increasing awareness of their self, which facilitated their freedom to start and continue their teaching activities where responsibilities and value discovering are central to their teaching jobs.