Typical Image of the Teacher in Bulgaria: Secrets of Body Language

Abstract

Historical bachground and analyzed data within the 21st century context about nonverbal in-class communication, such as dress code impact, body posture, gesturing features "around the voice" lead us to the conclusion that some radical changes have modified the typical image of the Bulgarian teacher during the last 20 years in a politically flexible mediator of collaborative teaching within a mobile world. A total of 115 fifteen-year-old pupils from two secondary schools participated in the survey: 90% of them attended a state language school where almost all subjects are taught in a foreign language and 10% attended a private school. Both groups of interviewed respondents, teachers and pupils, mainly described the typical Bulgarian teacher. Only a small part described the ideal image.
The modernization of everyday life and the interaction procedures of dynamically changing social and economic processes within a federatively developing Europe has transformed his role from a traditional protagonist who ‘brings light’ into a mediator of participatory learning where students can be regarded as 'game partners'. However, social interplay indicates remnants of traditional classroom scenarios indicating signs of resistance to change, subconsciously supported by school teachers and administration employees, belonging to the so-called 'digital immigrants'.