Teacher Creator: Practices of Creating Educational Contexts

Abstract

By exploring certain perspectives, it is hoped that teachers can be helped to create inclusive educational contexts by transforming the learning environment into a third educator. Based on the Reggio Emilia approach, we hope to reveal the ways and means by which the spaces of the educational institution can be interpreted, prepared and in some cases created, in order to encourage children to explore and express themselves. This study presents the concept of context as a modern educational space and draws attention to several essential aspects for the creation of educational contexts: educational provocations and invitations; the use of materials and tools to create them; the learning documentation and learning visibility; and the nature of the adult-child dialogue. A qualitative research model was applied that produces information in the form of descriptive data records by providing clear and systematic descriptions. The data collection techniques used were literature studies and narrative interviews with pre-school teachers. Twelve pre-school teachers participated in the study and criteria-based selection was applied, with thematic analysis being used to analyze the data (Soderberg, 2006). The experiences of pre-school teachers in creating contexts are summarized by distinguishing the following aspects of the thematic analysis of contextual development experiences: the change in the role of the teacher, the nature of the child’s activities and the process and principles of creating contexts. The results indicated that the context helps to engage the child and establish an authentic “dialogue” between the child and the materials and tools used, which is then developed with the adult. Educational contexts help develop the creation of an educational environment and allows teachers to create unique learning situations in any scenario.