School is an educational institution, where teachers play the primary role in bringing up and educating children. Teachers are often parents as well, but they rarely teach their own children.
The aim of the master's thesis is to conduct a qualitative research and, based on interviews, identify the reasons why teachers in Slovenia usually decide in favour or against teaching their own children in their classrooms, and to explore certain possible consequences of such decisions. The research aims to establish how one could ensure that all children in such classroom are treated as fairly as possible, and also to identify the potential problems and sensitive areas as well as ways of their elimination.
The interviews were carried out with a total of 12 teachers, six of whom taught or are currently teaching their own children, and six of whom had the opportunity to do so but either decided against it or were not allowed by the school. It was established that child’s appropriate involvement in a pedagogical process especially at the lower secondary level is affected by interpersonal relationships. If a teacher who teaches their own child decides that they could both function in the same classroom, then the teacher must thoroughly prepare both themselves for classroom interaction. At the lower secondary level, the teachers' colleagues pose a greater problem in terms of their attitude towards that particular teacher and their child.
The results provide a better understanding of the complex relationships and emotional decisions involving both the teacher as one of the parents and the student as the teacher's child.
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