Teacher's imaginative elaborations on adolescence: a Winnicottian reading

Abstract Adolescents in situations of social vulnerability demand a type care, from parents, teachers, and society, that protects them the additional risks to which they are exposed, without compromising development their autonomy. This qualitative study aimed investigate imaginative elaborations 30 teachers about adolescence using an Interactive Narrative approach as investigative resource. The narrative material was analyzed interpretively, searching for affective-emotional senses underlying participants, resulting following fields meaning: "Do not turn into rocket science" "Adolescence: sign danger". In addition pedagogical issues, participants expressed difficulty dealing with issues specific adolescent's emotional development, oscillating between stereotyped conceptions empathic posture face adolescent immaturity. It is concluded experience ambivalent feelings towards adolescents, assuming either authoritarian or patronizing posture, understanding conflict natural at this stage.