Society and Its Challenges: The Teacher’s Perspective on Students at Risk

Abstract

(1) This study focuses on exploring and characterising the beliefs of Spanish teachers in relation to their attitudes and professional practice concerning students who may be at risk at school. A generational perspective is adopted and the stages of pre-school, primary, and secondary education are considered in order to analyse these beliefs. (2) This is a descriptive study with a qualitative methodology. The information was collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 60 teachers belonging to publicly funded schools at pre-university levels. The data collected were subject to a thematic analysis and analysed with the qualitative data analysis tool ATLAS.ti (version 22). (3) The results show the diversity of student needs referred to by the teachers, positive relationships and attitudes towards them, and a favourable predisposition to the adaptation and adjustment of teaching practices. (4) The conclusions of the study highlight the importance of teachers’ beliefs for the development of educational processes based on justice, democracy, and equity, and how these beliefs can be used to offer the most appropriate responses to the needs presented by the students.

Keywords

• teaching beliefs
• professional practice
• diversity
• students at risk