Abstract

Problematic students burden primary school teachers and school counselors with many challenges. For this reason, we believe that investigating teachers’ perception of these students can create the basis for a better focus of training programs aimed at equipping teachers with the practical skills they need to support young school-age students to adapt as best as possible to specific tasks and reach their potential. This study examines the social representation that preschool and primary school teachers have of students who exhibit problematic behaviors and encounter difficulties in adapting to the school environment. The participants (n = 132; average length of service = 8.9 years) completed a standardized task based on the free association technique. The universe of associations was structured using lexical-semantic analysis, as well as prototypical analysis. In the universe of representation that the surveyed participants highlighted, two dimensions were detached: a) the vulnerabilities of the problematic students; b) the efforts that teachers must invest to respond to a wide range of difficulties these students face with. The findings are analyzed with reference to some measures that can be adopted in order to manage problematic students.

Key words: Free associations; problematic behaviors; prototypical analysis; school maladjustment; social representation; young school-age students