A qualitative study of teachers' embodied teaching experiences in the context of teacher-student relationships

This research aims to explore embodied teaching experiences of primary school teachers in the context of teacher-student relationships with experiential and phenomenological approach. Embodiment refers awareness of the subjective experience arising from the body through how thoughts, emotions and feelings are simultaneously experienced with a reference to the physical body. The body accompanies each thought with changes in physical sensation, muscle, posture and breathing rhythm. Thus, embodied experiences reveal authentic experience by enabling the exploration of the layers underlying the words. Due to nature of the research objective embodied qualitative research method has adopted. Semi-structured body-oriented in-depth interviews were conducted with teachers working at seven primary school in Istanbul. In line with the embodied research ethics, attuned and engaged connection with the participants was maintained during the interviews and their inner resources were integrated. The data set of the study was composed of the participants' verbal narrative and embodied experiences during the interview, as well as observed nonverbal data such as observed body postures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. The participants' experiences were analyzed through descriptive phenomenological analysis based on the interaction of embodied and verbal data. As a result of the analyses, main themes of teacher's body awareness, teacher-student relationships from the teacher's perspective, emotional dimension of teaching and bodily sensations as a source of information and related subthemes were reached. Findings showed that body-oriented practices are needed for a holistic and sustainable well-being of teachers. The idea that embodied experiences can be a resource and transformation centre for the construction of a more egalitarian, accessible and holistic social world was supported. It is suggested that theories and practices based on the autonomic nervous system should be integrated into teacher education programmes for more effective learning, heart-centred teacher-student relationships and supporting teachers' emotional labour. Key words: Embodied experiences, teacher-student relationships, emotional labour, emboided research