Foto kui emotsionaalne enesepresentatsiooni vahend esimeses kooliastmes. Õppematerjal

Abstract

A Photo as a Means of Emotional Self-Presentation at the First Stage of Study. Teaching material. Keywords: Self-presentation, Emotions, Photo-Story, Teaching material Cause for writing this research was experience-based recognition that the students at the first stage of study have problems with expressing themselves, that means self-presentation. The primary goal set by me was to study the nature of self-presentation, an emotion as one of the most important components of self-presentation and a photo-story as a possibility for selfpresentation. Self-presentation as Erstad and Wertsch (2008) have stated is one of the key elements in the evolution of man. Goffman (1969: 19) considered self-presentation to be an impression – making process, when people manipulate with their self-image and behaviour in order to create a certain image of themselves. Several studies (Siibak 2009; Nyboe & Drotner 2008 ) have shown that young people using the Internet nowadays present themselves in structured web portals. Powerful means for presenting themselves are narratives, that are easier to create when you can base on examples (Gergen 2009). One of the basic components of self-presentation is an emotion which is the state of an organism by Allik (2007) involving physical changes and an acting impulss by Goleman (1995: 20) to cope with your life. In my research I pointed out several theories of emotions. These theories show us that emotions are necessary for coping with everyday life and communicating with other people (Mägi 2009). They reveal in babyhood (Schmith et al 2008) and as children from 7 to 8 years can interpret emotions guite well, their skill of understanding more complex emotions needs to be developed. One of the means to present themselves is a photo divided into an ordinary photo and an artistic photo by Rünk (2003). Tooming (1983) has pointed out a creative photo, a photo session and a photo-story. The photo in which everything is under the control of a photographer is called a staged photo. The special type of this photo is a photo-perfomance. Besides these types mentioned above, Linnap (2007) has also pointed out a photo sequence, a photo film and a slide program. Another goal of this research was to carry out a school project based on theoretical startingpoints involving year 2 students. In these lessons students where given practical tasks interpreting and expressing emotions through photo-stories. These lessons helped to bring out those “backstage students“ who always try to avoid being in the spotlight. The task for the teacher is to notice, support and encourage these children to express themselves. During the research I noticed that students are willing to tell their stories in a familiar and pleasant way by using computers and cameras. The third goal of this research was to make a teaching material for the first stage students to encourage their teachers to develop self-presentation skills of their students using photostories. I hope this research could be used as a source of inspiration at school.