Exploring Touch in Physical Education Practicum in a Touchy Latin Culture
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Physical Contact in Latin Contexts
1.2. Risk Society, Surveillance and Moral Panic Contexts
2. Materials and Methods
- Pay attention to your body during the practicum (e.g., how your body reacts and adapts to different circumstances).
- Whenever you ‘feel your body’, pay attention to it and write down what happened and how you felt.
- Immersion: a general sense of the body journal narratives was developed after several readings and familiarisation with the data, allowing the researchers to adopt an empathic position.
- Search for and identification of themes: several raw data themes were identified, which were later ordered in a table.
- Connection and ordering of themes: the clusters of raw data themes were organised into six meaningful categories: ‘Appreciating and fostering touch’, ‘The discomfort of touch’, ‘Acknowledging emotions and feelings’, ‘The influences of others’, ‘Negotiating touch?’ and ‘Touch changes throughout the practicum’.
- Cross-checking: the data themes and clusters were thoroughly re-examined to verify that all themes and categories were represented.
- Confirmation: one of the authors who was not present during data collection but has expertise in qualitative research, reviewed the analysis.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Appreciating and Fostering Touch
We are working towards the festival and the students are rehearsing the choreography. I approach them [students] and there is physical contact, as I pat them on their shoulders … sometimes we dance together, grabbing our hands … In those moments, I feel relaxed.(Paul, male, week 3)
I am getting to know students better now and that makes me want to show that I’m closer to them, patting them on their shoulders or backs when I talk to them … I feel very comfortable with students now, as they have showed me trust. They tell me about their stuff, their interests, etc. I show that I’m close to them patting them on the shoulder or making a joke, so they realise they can trust me and that I am an accessible person.(Sarah, female, week 3)
After observing early childhood students, I realised the importance of being close and touching young children. The teacher needs to be close to them and needs to be available for them at all times.(Ann, female, week 2)
We have done an activity where we cover our eyes to work on textures and touch with the students. I think this is a bodily aspect that is quite forgotten in PE lessons and in our daily lives too. I participated in the activity; touching the students and they also touched my hands … those forms of touch mean being closer to them.(Cathy; female; weeks 4, 5)
I’d like to be a close teacher who fosters trustworthiness in the classroom, that’s why I believe that physical touch is fundamental. The fact that touch might be seen incorrectly may modify my practices and how I am with the students.(Mary, female, week 3)
3.2. The Discomfort of Touch
Generally, when I am touched, I feel tenderness and I appreciate that students do that, as it makes me feel appreciated. But sometimes a lot of students come to hug me at the same time and I feel a bit overwhelmed and I’m not sure how to respond or act.(Mary, female, week 2)
Kristen is running towards me! I notice how her small hands touch my back and she hugs me very hard in front of the whole class … and I’m not sure what to do! I felt out of place … I didn’t know how to move her hands. I blushed, I was shaking and my forehead was sweaty. I grabbed her hands and pulled them away from my back slowly, as I wasn’t sure about the distance that I should keep from her. I asked her, ‘Is there something wrong, Kristen? Are you okay?’—‘Yes, profe3‘, she replies—‘Okay, so sit down Kristen, we need to continue with the class’. Have I done the right thing?(Paul, male, week 3)
There was a moment when a girl had a question about an exercise and, as the teacher was busy with another student, she came to me to check the exercise. My first instinct was to touch her arm and pat her head but as this is my first week I thought twice about it and I just asked her to wait in her place for the teacher.(Gareth, male, week 1)
3.3. Acknowledging Emotions and Feelings
There are different types of hugs. Gratitude hugs are often warm, last for a few seconds and move you inside. Joy hugs are more energetic and unexpected; they are stronger and the hugging back is solid too. Those hugs wake you up and energise you. There are some other hugs for protection, for example, during a game. During those ones, I notice how the little ones [children] surround me looking for a place to hide. They are shaking with emotion and nervously laughing … it’s contagious so I start laughing too and get involved in playing. There are also crowded hugs, those ones that overwhelm you. First one child, then another and another … it ends up in a massive hug and the ones in the middle feel a bit distressed.(Joan, female, week 9)
PE has an emotional component. Bodily expression and closeness are important aspects of those emotions. There is a need to work on this bodily closeness, particularly in today’s society, where social and mass media do not promote ideal personal development.(Christopher, male, week 2)
I don’t think teachers need to hug their students if they don’t feel like doing that. But I do think it is important to show that you’re physically close to the students and, to a certain extent, allow emotions and energy to run freely and that there is an atmosphere of love in the classrooms.(Alfred, male, week 3)
3.4. The Influences of Others
In certain spaces, I feel more watched than in others. I feel more exposed and that people may misunderstand the touch with students. Usually, those are the more open spaces, where parents and other teachers are present.(Mary, female, weeks 4–5)
School breaks are pretty uncomfortable. I am ‘bodily limited’ and I never know what to do. I don’t know if I should keep moving all the time to avoid students surrounding me, or if I should stay quiet and deal with all their hugs and questions. In the classroom, it’s easier to limit their actions and be more distant. During the break, it’s harder and there are also people looking at you and that makes me feel even more uncomfortable.(Gareth, male, week 2)
When they [students] came to say goodbye, they hugged me all together and I almost fell over. I felt a bit overwhelmed for a while, I didn’t know what to do. I felt watched and I haven’t responded much to their shows of affection because I was embarrassed.(Ann, female, weeks 10–11)
3.5. Negotiating Touch?
During my classes, I need to continuously communicate and interact with students and see which is the best way to approach students … It’s difficult for them [students] to consider me their ‘teacher’ after their attitudes of touching my hair and hugging me. Now it’s more difficult to have authority in front of them.(Ann, female, week 3)
When teachers arrive and I am introduced to them, I keep a distant attitude, crossing my arms, as I feel weird … I do something similar with students, I keep some distance on the first day of classes, as I’m not sure if it’s something good to be close to them and have physical contact … When they [students] do something good, I prefer to reinforce it with a thumb up or a smile … Then, I progressively move to some physical contact, such as a ‘high five’ or I mess up their hair, when we trust each other more.(Gareth, male, week 3)
The trust that students have for me allows me to feel comfortable being close to them. I get closer to them with no issues but I keep some distance and don’t invade their personal space.(Paul, male, week 2)
The lesson starts and I notice that students are overexcited. I try to deal with the situation, adopting a serious pose to avoid losing authority. I stand in front of them and I don’t want to seem too approachable. I don’t let them hug me and I maintain some distance. I realise it works, so I relax a bit and go back being more affectionate.(Paul, male, weeks 4, 5)
The second lesson is with a different teacher and with a different group of students. As this is not my primary group, I get close to students and sit with them but I don’t have any physical contact. I don’t want to invade their comfortable zone, as I’m a ‘stranger’ to them … With my primary group, I feel very comfortable. I use more gestures of closeness, such as touching their shoulders, patting their heads and hugging them. I am closer with them and more affectionate than with the other groups that I don’t see too often.(Paul, male, week 3)
In one of the PE lessons with the first graders, we were going downstairs and I went to pat one of the students on the shoulder. He dodged my hand, turned around and said, ‘no one touches me, only kids’. I was shocked by those words. After that, I wondered if it was only that child or if all of them were thinking the same thing and I was doing something inappropriate. I shared this with my tutor and we concluded that this child’s family, or someone close to him, must have warned him that no one could touch him … The feeling of not knowing where the limit was scared me and since then, I have been more cautious about touching students.(Charles, male, week 6)
3.6. Touch Changes throughout the Practicum
When I started the practicum, physical contact with students was one of my concerns, as we have covered the topic during university classes and had some apprehensions. Also, in my case, I am not a touchy person, even less so when I don’t know the people. On the first day, some students came and hugged me … I didn’t know how to respond. However, I got used to it and I started to appreciate their affection towards a person that they actually didn’t know and yet appreciated. My prac tutor was acting normal about all the touch, which helped the concerns to slowly disappear.(Mary, female, weeks 4, 5)
The last days of practicum are fast approaching and I can see the sadness in children’s faces, because they know that we are not going to be with them anymore. I get emotional seeing them like that and tears roll down my cheeks … All the students feel like we are leaving but the youngest ones show their affection through hugs and kisses. I also think that I have been more affectionate with the youngest ones, as they elicit more tenderness from me.(Cathy, female, weeks 10–11)
I have a lot of accumulated exhaustion that I can notice in my slow movements, tired face and feeling lost in my first morning class. Because of this, I feel uncomfortable and insecure. I don’t feel too touchy lately … because of the exhaustion but also because I’m not sure if I seem professional and that increases my insecurity levels.(Paul, male, weeks 4, 5)
The pracs are ending and everyone feels more vulnerable regarding their feelings and emotions. We hug a lot. Some students grab my leg and insist that I not leave the school. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed but very happy with this show of affection.(Paul, male, week 10)
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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1 | For example, in most countries, including Spain, professionals who work with people under 18 years of age are required to undertake police checks that confirm the lack of sexual assaults prior the commencement of their jobs. |
2 | These undergraduate students were required to teach PE and other subjects in schools to complete their degree programme. This professional practice period is commonly known as ‘practicum’ or, in its short form, ‘prac’. Students undertook pracs at primary and early childhood levels. During this time, participants engaged with classes from different levels. However, they were requested to focus primarily on one group for their reflective exercises. |
3 | Students from Spanish-speaking countries often use the term ‘profe’ to refer to teachers at all levels (i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary) in an affectionate way. The term comes from ‘profesor’ but it does not refer to the ‘professor’ title used within Anglophone academia. Rather, it refers to all teachers, lecturers and tutors. |
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Varea, V.; González-Calvo, G.; Martínez-Álvarez, L. Exploring Touch in Physical Education Practicum in a Touchy Latin Culture. Societies 2018, 8, 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc8030054
Varea V, González-Calvo G, Martínez-Álvarez L. Exploring Touch in Physical Education Practicum in a Touchy Latin Culture. Societies. 2018; 8(3):54. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc8030054
Chicago/Turabian StyleVarea, Valeria, Gustavo González-Calvo, and Lucio Martínez-Álvarez. 2018. "Exploring Touch in Physical Education Practicum in a Touchy Latin Culture" Societies 8, no. 3: 54. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc8030054