Teachers and their Habitus – a few Reflections on Educational Activity

Abstract

In the study, the author refers to R. Kwaśnica’s concept of two rationalities and to P. Bourdieu’s constructivist structuralism. She assumes that the teacher’s activity takes place within the limits of two (adaptive and emancipatory) rationalities in a specific “field”, with a particular social, cultural and human capital, and with a developed habitus which determines educational practice. A research report is presented. This is done in the form of a record of the current state and socio-civilizational changes which have influenced teachers working in the southern part of the Polish-Czech borderland. Research results show both the continuity and change of the teacher’s behavior and activity from the perspective of social time and social change. They allow for a closer insight into the structure of pedagogical activities and their effects. The strategy of longitudinal comparisons was applied. Diagnostic polling and the interview were used along with the (repeatable) panel method. The studies were conducted in time spans (1998, 2008, 2016) and they concerned the measurement of the teacher’s perception of the “other” learner in class, self-reflection upon the role applied by the teacher, and the teacher’s competences. The obtained research results allow for discovering the characteristics of the teacher’s habitus, for understanding the mechanisms of its functioning and for the effective design of educational activity.