Images of the profession of pre-primary teacher in the drawings of Czech female student teachers

ABSTRACT

A deeper understanding of the pre-primary teacher’s profession is made possible by the use of pictures in pedagogical research, i.e. the hermeneutic analysis of symbols visually representing this profession. The study seeks comprehension through quantification of the thematic motifs in the students’ pictures (n = 132) as well as a detailed qualitative analysis of selected artefacts (n = 8). An interesting tension arises from the juxtaposition of the authors’ descriptions and the expert team’s interpretations. Thus, aspects of the profession that are at first glance absent from the research, such as spirituality, love, atmosphere, colour, airiness and horizon, emerge.

KEYWORDS:

• Picture
• hermeneutic interpretation
• relationships
• environment
• pre-school
• Czech Republic

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Magda Zycháčková, Renata Matušů and Klára Křivánková for their help in data processing and analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2022.2093336.

Author contributions

Ivo Jirásek: Conceptualization; Methodology; Investigation; Roles/Writing – original draft; Writing – review and editing; and Supervision; Jana Majerčíková: Data curation; Formal analysis; Project administration; Visualization; Roles/Writing – original draft; and Writing – review and editing.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.