Practical training placements within the specialisation programmes for special needs teachers (TFA), in accordance with Ministerial Decree 249/2010 (MIUR, 2010), are regarded as the key training tool for combining theoretical knowledge with classroom practice, which presents open-ended challenges daily. From this perspective, the classroom, as well as being a fertile physical space, represents an ecosystem within which the future special needs teacher inevitably exerts an influence through proxemics, posture and spatial positioning. Drawing on Watzlawick’s well-known maxim, namely “one cannot not communicate” (Watzlawick et al., 1971), the training of special needs teachers takes the form of a deeply embodied experience, in which the educational relationship is geared towards enhancing the dialectic between the body, emotions, cognitive aspects and context, in accordance with a transformative vision. This paper highlights how the teacher’s body serves as an identity-forming mechanism and a crucial tool for the construction of inclusive and informed knowledge, within a specific space of reflexivity. The study adopts a qualitative approach of a narrative and self/co-evaluative nature, derived from the analysis of a textual corpus consisting of logbooks and reflective narratives produced by a group of trainee special needs teachers from the 10th cycle of the TFA programme at Link Campus University. The study emphasises the importance of structuring teaching practice placements - in the broadest sense of teacher training - as workshops focused on bodily and relational awareness, to rebuild educational bridges between theory and practice, which are essential for fostering ever more far-reaching pathways towards educational and social inclusion
The teaching placement of trainee special needs teacher as an embodied process of professional development
Mirca Montanari;
2026-01-01
Abstract
Practical training placements within the specialisation programmes for special needs teachers (TFA), in accordance with Ministerial Decree 249/2010 (MIUR, 2010), are regarded as the key training tool for combining theoretical knowledge with classroom practice, which presents open-ended challenges daily. From this perspective, the classroom, as well as being a fertile physical space, represents an ecosystem within which the future special needs teacher inevitably exerts an influence through proxemics, posture and spatial positioning. Drawing on Watzlawick’s well-known maxim, namely “one cannot not communicate” (Watzlawick et al., 1971), the training of special needs teachers takes the form of a deeply embodied experience, in which the educational relationship is geared towards enhancing the dialectic between the body, emotions, cognitive aspects and context, in accordance with a transformative vision. This paper highlights how the teacher’s body serves as an identity-forming mechanism and a crucial tool for the construction of inclusive and informed knowledge, within a specific space of reflexivity. The study adopts a qualitative approach of a narrative and self/co-evaluative nature, derived from the analysis of a textual corpus consisting of logbooks and reflective narratives produced by a group of trainee special needs teachers from the 10th cycle of the TFA programme at Link Campus University. The study emphasises the importance of structuring teaching practice placements - in the broadest sense of teacher training - as workshops focused on bodily and relational awareness, to rebuild educational bridges between theory and practice, which are essential for fostering ever more far-reaching pathways towards educational and social inclusionI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
