Gestaltperspektief op die belewing van welstand by laerskoolonderwysers : verkennende studie

Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore how the contact making process influence the awareness level of primary school teachers. The study was mainly explorative with elements of a descriptive study. With a qualitative study the researcher explored how awareness influenced primary school teachers‟ experiences of wellness. The theoretical point of view of this study is the Gestalt therapeutically philosophy with phenomenology as base. Perls, the father of Gestalt psychology saw Gestalt as the only psychotherapy that is exclusively based on phenomenology. The central Phenomenology principal is that a person is free with the responsibility to influence his/her own environment. Data for this study was collected through a focus group consisting of seven people, (teachers of Gauteng) with whom semi structured interviews were conducted and open-ended questions were asked. This is only an explorative study and therefore the researcher is not really looking for a representative sampling. Findings of this study include that sensory awareness can be used to change wellbeing. Age played a role in resistance and even though the teachers knew about wellbeing it became clear that they were not aware of how to create wellness in their own lives. It came about that some of the participants had to deal with contact boundary disturbances. The study also showed that burned out people operates automatically. The researcher makes the statement that contact boundary disturbances lead to auto actions as in the case of burned-out people. The study showed that awareness makes a shift on the continuum of burnout and wellbeing. In this study it was not always a positive shift, but the researcher feels that the people who had a negative experience will be more secure if this research is conducted in a therapeutic environment. The study also indicated that it is necessary for teachers to learn skills to be good for them selves without feeling guilty.