The basis of professional gestures

Dating back to the nature of teacher-learner relation, we need to recall their funda-mental connection as human beings. Apart from their own roles in the school context, they both are independent individuals carrying their own histories and cultures, emotions and imaginations, and of course their own identities. These shared elements should be prelimi-narily taken into consideration before moving on to any contextual activities. Among vari-ous roles of teachers, humane accompaniment ranks ahead and could last in a long run.

Mutual confidence, for instance, is an essential establishment from the very beginning of reading between teachers and pupils. Only by obtaining this mutual confidence could it be possible for pupils to overcome their own fear of challenges and step into an unknown world of reading. Moreover, they need to keep in mind that every risk that they take in reading will be secured and backed up by their teachers, especially during the initial period of reading. No prejudgment or embarrassment could stand in his or her way of making progress. Also, teachers would thus better comprehend and even predict pupils’ difficulties;

this knowledge would, in turn, contribute to the value and efficacy of their accompaniment.

For children in difficulties, especially those who lack adequate self-confidence or hold cer-tain negative self-images, this humane communication ahead of any learning activity could be helpful and even be indispensable (in some cases) to repair the potentially pre-existing psychological fragility.

131 A posture is a pre-constructed schema of "think-say-do", which the subject responds to a given situation or school task ... the subjects have one or more postures to negotiate the task. They can change their posture during the task according to the new meaning they attribute to it. The posture is thus both on the side of the subject in a given context, but also on the object and the situation, which makes the seizure difficult and prohibits any labeling of subjects (Translated by DL).

…Il est responsable de la création d’un espace de sécurité permettant à l’accompagné de s’exprimer sans crainte de conséquences négatives (non-jugement, confidentialité) et par ailleurs un facilitateur de la prise de risques. En effet, la garantie de sécurité permet à l’accompagnateur de la prise de risques nécessaire au partage durant l’accompagnement¹³² (Bucheton & Soulé, 2009, p. 38).

As for the manners of the humane communication, which also constitute the main communicational means between teachers and pupils in the school, languages should hard-ly be overlooked, no matter the verbal language or the non-verbal one. The latter has been named as « corps parlant » (speaking body) by Anne Jorro, body language « speaks » in every way other than the acoustic manner. Through this body gesture, pupils will gradually be aware of what personality resembles when it comes to embrace the reading and the con-trary (A. Jorro & Mercier-Brunel, 2016, p. 27). « Tout usage humain du corps est déjà une expression primordial » (Merleau-Ponty, 1960, p. 108). As Merleau-ponty indicated, teachers’

body presentation and its performance in class could already serve as a messenger (or se-miotics) from which pupils perceive, interpret, ponder over and finally influence their be-haviors in class. This seemingly objective body display in class could possibly reveal what has been invested subjectively by teachers. From this perspective, this corporeity of teacher is regarded as part of his demonstration of professional gestures. This « micro physique du pouvoir » (micro physical power) (Anne Jorro, 2006, p. 6) lays the foundation of the co-activity between teachers and students in a didactic situation.

…le corps constitue une ouverture originaire au monde. La pensée dé-pend d’une phénoménologie du corps, puisque le sujet agissant appré-hende ce qui l’environne non pas comme un simple fait objectivable mais comme un phénomène qui traverse son existence et qu’il investit subjec-tivement … ¹³³(Anne Jorro, 2006)

Apart from the physical power, verbal communication occupies an absolute principle role in this co-activity. Professional gestures are mainly transmitted by the mediation of

132 ... He is responsible for the creation of a security space allowing the accompanist to express themselves without fear of negative consequences (non-judgment, confidentiality) and also a facilitator of risk-taking. Indeed, the guarantee of safety allows the accompanist to take risks necessary for sharing during the accompaniment (Translated by DL).

133 ... the body constitutes an original opening to the world. The thought depends on a phenomenology of the body, since the acting subject apprehends what surrounds it not as a mere objectifiable fact but as a phenomenon that passes through his existence and which he subjectively invests ... (Translated by DL).

language. It accompanies children in an all-around way from the very beginning of reading.

As Bucheton explained, verbal expressions from teachers invisibly shape their presence in class: to introduce pupils into literacy, to organize classes, to launch questions, instructions and discussions, to dialogue with pupils in and out of class, to seize every punctual mo-ment, such as calm down pupils back to silence after the recreation, to guide them up to a creation and reflection level etc. These school activities can barely be accomplished without teachers’ language performances. They are the windows to the development of elaborated significations and the main lever of the development of targeted reflection and conceptual-ization (Anne Jorro, 2006, p. 5).

Bucheton & Soulé pointed out the term « la présence du professeur » (the pres-ence of teacher) to indicate the importance of teacher’s body presence, verbal expressions, humane communications (mutual respect and confidence) etc. This presence of teacher contributes to create a consolidated arena to implement varying professional gestures in class later on.

« La présence du professeur »… orienter les élèves dans l’étude, de les inciter à approfondir leur réflexion et leur demarche…mobilise dans son propre discours une terminologie propre au champ investi, dialogue avec l’élève en l’incitant à expliciter sa demarche, à argumenter son point de vue, à refuter celui d’un pair, à questioner un texte…¹³⁴(Bucheton &

Soulé, 2009, p. 31).

134 "The presence of the teacher" ... to orient the students in the study, to encourage them to deepen their reflection and their approach ... mobilizes an appropriate terminology of the invested field in their own speech, dialogue with the student by encouraging him to explain his approach, to argue his point of view, to refute his peer’s views, to question a text ... (Translated by DL).

2.5.2. Theoretical model of professional gestures –