The functioning of a work discussion group as a peer group in preschool education: a reflective account

ABSTRACTIn the field of education, work discussion groups focus on teachers’ emotional experience with their students and offer a safe environment in which professionals can freely interact and explore the dynamics and relationships in their workplace. A psychoanalytic therapist usually leads them. They are considered particularly important for preschool education, as young children provoke intense emotional reactions in adults. Although the effectiveness of work discussion groups in preschools has been positively evaluated, their application is considered financially unaffordable. This paper presents the function of a work discussion peer group in preschool education, that is with a preschool teacher as facilitator. To do so, the facilitator’s point of view is presented in this paper in the form of a reflective account. A group consisting of six kindergarten teachers was formed. It met for seven sessions. After each group meeting, the facilitator kept a reflective diary. The topics of the meetings included the facilitator’s struggle to be seen as a peer, the group dynamics, the development of the group and the importance of supervision, which are all discussed.KEYWORDS: Peer groupspsychoanalytic groupsteachers’ groupsearly educationreflective accountwork discussion groups Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. This point is discussed further in the ‘Group dynamics’ section.2. The nursery itself had just started to operate face to face, after the lockdowns (there were two strict lockdowns in Greece). However, only the students, teaching and administrative staff were allowed to enter school premises (always wearing masks and practicing social distancing). All meetings (just like the work discussion group presented here) were held online. The extent of deprivation inherent to the various levels of functioning of the nursery due to the pandemic measures was significant, but it is beyond the scope of the present paper.Additional informationNotes on contributorsTheofania AntypaTheofania Antypa is a licensed nursery teacher and has an M.Sc. in Counselling in Education. She runs peer work discussion groups with teachers in the Peer Counselling Center of the Department of Early Childhood Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.Lida AnagnostakiLida Anagnostaki is an Assistant Professor in Psychodynamic Perspectives in Developmental Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a full member of the Hellenic Association of Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Her research interests include psychoanalysis and education, trauma, and parent–child separation.