Teachers’ Perceptions of Gratitude in Classroom Interactions: A Case Study from Finland
Keywords:
Gratitude; classroom interactions; stimulated recallAbstract
Over the past two decades, gratitude as a scientific topic has
been growing in interest. Little is known about its importance in
educational environments and classroom interactions. The present
article offers an account of a qualitative study that identifies gratitude as
a moral value and uses stimulated recall methodology to explore the
experience of gratitude in a school environment. Two first-grade
teachers from an urban area of Finland were recorded during normal
lessons. Deductive and inductive content analyses of a total of 26 critical
incidents were conducted to explore expressions of gratitude and the
reasons for them. The data shows that teacher-student relationships,
material benefits, class routines and self-sufficiency are reasons to
experience gratitude. Also, verbal, concrete and connective expressions
of gratitude in classroom interactions were identified. The study
contributes to the sparse knowledge about gratitude in school
environments and provides important insights for understanding the
phenomenon in this specific context.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.5.6
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