Images of the profession of pre-primary teacher in the drawings of Czech female student teachers

Abstract

A deeper understanding of the pre-primary teacher's profession is made possible by the use of pictures in pedagogical research, i.e. the hermeneutic analysis of symbols visually representing this profession. The study seeks comprehension through quantification of the thematic motifs in the students' pictures (n = 132) as well as a detailed qualitative analysis of selected artefacts (n = 8). An interesting tension arises from the juxtaposition of the authors' descriptions and the expert team's interpretations. Thus, aspects of the profession that are at first glance absent from the research, such as spirituality, love, atmosphere, colour, airiness and horizon, emerge.