Experiences of a teacher in relation to the student’s feelings of learned helplessness

Abstract

This paper is based on the concern of a novice physical education teacher to reinforce the self-esteem and motor competence sensations of students during lessons. This concern arises from the experiences gained as a student. I draw on autobiographical narratives to delve into how these experiences led me to develop a feeling of learned incompetence, a sense of failure within the educational system and, consequently, an obvious difficulty to shape my personal and professional identity. However, it is these same experiences that condition professional development and teaching practice. Thus, I attempt to break from pedagogical models and to offer a dignified and democratic education to students. I attempt to engage the reader by communicating the subjectivity of different moments in a provocative, fragmented, physical, and emotional manner. Thus, I share the concerns, reflections, and manner of working, as a teacher, in the form of autobiographical reports and class journals. The intention is to understand how this manner of working responds to the feelings of incompetence learned by school children.