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This thesis examines the concept of teachers acting as moral models in education and how the role of empathy in teacher-pupil relationships plays a part in this process. In particular it examines how teachers understood these issues and whether those same understandings could be seen at work in classroom practice. The thesis integrates the traditional literature in this field with recent research into neuroscience. This combination highlights the effect of emotion on engagement in learning, decision-making and a sense of attachment and responsibility in interaction and relationships. Following a pilot study and exploratory work with both methodology and subject, grounded theory was chosen as the methodology and a conceptual framework was created from the data. Empathic teachers and student teachers were interviewed and observed, in different contexts in both primary and secondary phases, including teachers who support special needs students and students of English as another Language. The thesis presents a detailed exposition and classification of empathy at work in teaching and learning. Empathy is revealed as a highly complex phenomenon, which develops over time and with frequency of interaction and which is highly dependent on the actors and the context of the interaction. The thesis confirms and expands the powerful effects of profound empathy on self-esteem, relationships and learning. Empathic teachers are revealed as highly moral individuals who attach themselves mentally and emotionally to their pupils generating similar responses in return, in effect modelling and evoking morality in their personal interactions with pupils and colleagues. Positive personal interaction supports high quality learning, engagement and behaviour in valuing relationships. This has implications for both face to face and e-learning. However, the constraints of class size, time, curriculum, policy and management distort the moral model offered by teachers. These constraints are conditioned to a large extent by economic and competitive considerations. The thesis identifies a phenomenon entitled functional empathy, which teachers use to create mental connections with whole classes. Functional empathy is of a lower moral order and in conjunction with shallow levels of personal empathy and feigned empathy has implications for the moral model offered to large numbers of students, throughout their education. The thesis therefore has significant implications for the moral order in general.

This study examines the relationships between foreign language learning beliefs and preferences of 2 Vietnamese learners and beliefs and practices of 2 Native English speaking teachers in a private English school in Vietnam. The learners were not satisfied with learning English in public schools and had many expectations on the course and the teachers while the teachers had to make their learners pleased. Beliefs were reviewed as determinations of actions; beliefs entail knowledge, values, and attitude, and relate closely to identity and experience. The researcher adopted an interpretivist paradigm and three qualitative methods: Repgrid interview, Stimulated recall interview, and The COLT as an observation schedule. The interview data was coded inductively with content analysis method to build up the subjects’ beliefs and belief systems. Then, the systems were compared to find the relationships between their beliefs. To see how their beliefs related with learning preferences and teaching practices, the researcher analysed what they said and made use of the video record of their classroom activities; besides, the teachers’ beliefs were compared with the timing calculation of the activities in their classes. The results showed that beliefs about language learning affected strongly the participants’ preferred ways of teaching and learning and there were tight matches between the teachers’ beliefs and actions in class. There were influences of beliefs of the teachers and learners on each other, they were not direct influences but through their interpretations of the classroom events. However, the influences from the teacher were much clearer. After the course, the learners’ preferences and beliefs about some learning activities were changed and became more reflective. They also started to recognize the benefits of different ways of learning English. Meanwhile, the teachers’ interpretation of their learners’ expectations, learning preferences, and levels strongly affected what and how they taught.

Quelle relation adulte / enfant est mise en œuvre par les maîtres de maternelle contemporains ? De 1986 à 2008, au niveau prescriptif, cette relation a été de plus en plus pensée à partir du modèle de la relation enseignant / élève. Mais quid des pratiques contemporaines ? C'est que cette thèse montre que d'autres modèles de la relation adulte / enfant ont émergé au cours de l'histoire de l'école maternelle : cinq figures de l'enfant, qui consistent en autant de manières de se représenter l'enfant, ont été distinguées. Plusieurs de ces figures de l'enfant sont critiques du rapport scolaire à l'enfant, défendant par exemple un rapport à l'enfant inspiré de la psychologie de l'enfant, ou encore un rapport d'inspiration maternelle à l'enfant. Une enquête sur les pratiques contemporaines a été menée, à partir d'entretiens, d'observations dans les classes, et d'une analyse de rapports d'inspection. Cette enquête a montré qu'en continuité avec le curriculum formel, le modèle relationnel scolaire jouit d'une légitimité bien plus grande que les autres rapports possibles à l'enfant, liés à d'autres figures de l'enfant. Cette thèse explore les conséquences pédagogiques de ce primat du rapport scolaire à l'enfant (importance de la contrainte de l'enfant, déclin de l'influence de l'éducation nouvelle, apprentissages précoces mettant à l'écart de la classe certains enfants), ainsi que ses conséquences affectives (logique disciplinaire dans certaines classes, perte de légitimité du rapport affectif à l'enfant, distanciation et froideur générales par rapport au corps enfantin). L'ensemble de ces éléments contribue à la recherche sur le statut de l'enfant dans la société contemporaine, c'est-à-dire à la sociologie de l'enfance. / Which relationship between adult and child is implemented by schoolmasters in french preschool ? From 1986 to 2008, in official texts, this relationship has been more and more thought out from the relationship model between a teacher and a pupil. But what about the contemporary practices ? As a matter of fact, this thesis shows that other adult / child relationship models have come out from french preschool history : five child figures, which consist in so many child representations, have been characterized. Several child figures are critical of school relationship to the child, standig up, fo instance, for a child relationship inspired by child psychology, or for a relationship based on maternel relationship to the child. A survey on contemporary practices has been conducted from interviews, observations in classrooms, and from an analysis of inspection reports. This survey has pointed out that, connecting with formal curriculum, the school relationship model enjoys a much more important legitimacy than any other possible relationships to the child, linked to other child figures. This thesis investigates pedagogical consequences of this child school relationship primacy (importance of the child compulsion, decline of Progressive Education influence, early learnings leaving some children aside of the class), it investigates as well affective consequences (diciplinary logics in some classrooms, loss of legitimacy of the affective relationship to the child, general detachment and coldness towards children's body). These elements as a whole contribute to the research on child status in the contemporary society, that is to say to childhood sociology.