TEACHING AND GUILT - EXPLORING THE FEELINGS OF TEACHING

The paper argues that in research on teachers' mental states, studies of teacher feeling as compared to teacher thinking have been relatively neglected. It analyzes the nature and importance of guilt as one such feeling which connects the self of the teacher to the system in which the teacher works. Two kinds of guilt are discussed: persecutory and depressive. In relation to two studies of elementary teachers' working lives and of teachers' perceptions of employee assistance programs, four guilt traps of teaching are then identified. These are the commitment to care, the open-endedness of teaching, accountability and intensification, and the persona of perfectionism. Solutions to the guilt traps of teaching involve easing the accountability and intensification demends of teaching; building communities of colleagues who can set their own professional standards and limits at school level and thereby reduce the open-endedness of teaching; and reducing the dependence on personal care and nurturance as the prime motive of elementary teaching.