A Study Of Teacher Love Image:Problems And Possibilities

Education is a career which is full of love.Teachers' love is often regarded as the primary requirement of being a teacher.However,in the real education settings,many of the teachers' love behaviors are not acknowledged and responded to by students,and even confronted with resistance.Only by exploring the actual practice of teachers' love,and analyzing the existing problems and the possibility of improvement,can teachers love students correctly and can students acquire better love.It is in the fertile soil of the teachers' love that students can develop the capability of caring and loving other people.This study conducted a semi-structured interview with 10 teachers and 8 students of a middle school in S city.In addition,the relevant cases and materials were collected from 30 students by using the open questionnaire.In this way,we can explore the complex practice of teachers' love,especially the existing problems and the possibility of improvement.This study believes that teachers' love is the professional spirit and professional emotion that teachers take care of students and make efforts for their growth and development in education practice.The research framework of this study refers to Fromm and Noddings' definitions of love,and the connotations of teachers' love in other relevant literatures.Given the problems revealed by empirical data of this study,the theoretical framework of teachers' love includes three parts,namely :(1)Motivating students' potential abilities is the purpose of teachers' love.(2)Respecting students is a necessary requirement for the process of teachers' love.(3)Teachers need to distribute their love resources to all students fairly.Based on the collected observations and interview materials,this study found the following problems existing in the practice of teachers' love:(1)Teachers' love which is for the sake of the student's good,slids into what Fromm criticized as “possessive love”.It shows a tendency to possess students,setting obstacles to students' development.(2)Due to lack of trust and respect for students,teachers consider unilateral and strict control as a way to show teachers' love.That makes teachers' love turns into controlling behaviors,neglecting the independence of students.It shows domineering image of teachers' love.(3)Facing to all students,teachers may ignore that teachers' love is professional love,which has fairness requirement.It shows the unfair distribution of teachers' love.In order to improve the above problems,we should understand the connotation of teachers' love from the standpoint of professional ethics,and manage to:(1)Pay attention to the students' current feelings and real needs,and stimulate students' development momentum and potential abilities.That can make teachers' love more productive.(2)Pay attention to the tension between regulating students and respecting student's freedom,and make respect be the foundation of teachers' love.(3)Overcome interpersonal prejudice,and recognize the strength of each student.By improving professional knowledge and skills,teachers should make every student feel loved.