The Specialist Teacher Mediate the Relationship to Parents

Author(s):

Elvire Gaime(presenting / submitting)Serge Thomazet Corinne Mérini

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

15. Research Partnerships in Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

15 SES 09, The Notion of Partnership: Case Study II

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-20

11:00-12:30

Room:

FCT - Aula 14

Chair:

Philippe Masson

Contribution

In France the “Maître E” is the teacher responsible for providing support to primary school pupils with learning difficulties. In recent years, the role of these specialist teachers changes: in addition to their core activity of direct support to pupils, they are required to coordinate efforts and cooperate with partners (Marcel al. 2007) which leads them to develop a special relationship with parents. This link with families is far from being completely described by educational policy, so we tried a better understanding of the nature of cooperation with the parents and how this cooperation is constructed by experience and integrates professional gestures of these teachers.

Method

Our presentation is based on a qualitative research, instrumented and longitudinal. We rely on (1) the analysis of 101 collaborative writings, (2) simple or crossed self-confrontation interviews (Goigoux, Margolinas and Thomazet, 2004) and (3) discussions of our results in a research collective (Carpentier-Roy & Vézina, 2000) including researchers and professionals. This group has been active for two years in diverse configurations. Our analysis is based on the tools and concepts of sociology of the decision (Sfez, 1981), ergonomic psychology (Leplat, 1980) and sociology of experience (Dubet, 1994).

Expected Outcomes

We will show that these professionals have both a position and professional gestures which could facilitate the relationship with parents, and, as such, they often act as mediators between pupils, parents and class teachers. For each pupil with learning difficulties, they build a team (involving parents, teacher…) in order to give analysis and responses. The evolution of these teacher’s work can be seen here, especially in the increase of their partnership activity (Thomazet Ponté & Merini). The Maître E will then translate professional gestures built initially for direct assistance to pupils to serve this “new job”. Solutions to make parents cooperate the support program.However expanding the support system for new partners in the educational community generates several professional dilemmas, such as helping parents and not intrudes into family life. In this “new job” of Maître E, the way the assistance to families can occur is a built-in process, for example coaching homework, helping families to enter the educational space which was previously the property of the actors of the school community. The relationship between parents and professionals is an actual question that French specialist teachers share with a lot of professional from other countries.

References

Carpentier-Roy, M., & Vézina, M. (2000). Le travail et ses malentendus: enquêtes en psychodynamique du travail au Québec. Presses Université Laval. Dubet, F., (1994) Sociologie de l’expérience, Paris : Seuil Goigoux, R., Margolinas, C., & Thomazet, S. (2004). Controverses et malentendus entre enseignants expérimentés confrontés à l'image de leur activité professionnelle. Bulletin de psychologie, 57(469), 65-70. Leplat, J. (1980). La psychologie ergonomique. Paris: Presses universitaires de France. Marcel, J. F., Dupriez, V., Périsset Bagnoud, D., & Tardif, M. (Eds.). (2007). Coordonner, collaborer, coopérer: De nouvelles pratiques enseignantes. Bruxelles: De Boeck. Sfez, L. (1981). La critique de la décision. Paris : Presses de la Fondation Nationale des sciences politiques. Sirota R. (1990) « Approches ethnographiques en sociologie de l’éducation : l’école et la communauté, l’établissement scolaire, la classe. » in : Sociologie de l’éducation ; dix ans de recherche, Paris INRP L’Harmattan, pp. 175-195. Thomazet S., Ponté P., Mérini C., (2011) L’enseignant spécialisé chargé d’aide à l’école primaire : un métier en reconstruction, Recherche en éducation (11) 106-116

Author Information

Elvire Gaime (presenting / submitting)

IUFM d'Auvergne, Université Blaise Pascal

ASH

Chamalières Cedex

Serge Thomazet

Blaise Pascal University

IUFM d'Auvergne

Chamalières Cedex

Corinne Mérini

IUFM d'Auvergne, Université Blaise Pascal, France

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