Background/Purpose Emotionally safe environments enabled students to engage in interpersonal interactions because they felt safe, connected, and encouraged. This ethnographic research, based on Noddings' Ethic of Care, examined characteristics of an emotionally safe environment created by three middle school physical education teachers.
Method The study examined the students' emotional safety. It was based on classroom observations, written questionnaires (N=162), and interviews with three physical education teachers and their students (N=28). Data were analyzed using open and axial coding that resulted in the identification of themes and categories.
Analysis/Results Each school and teacher provided a unique educational environment, and encouragement of interactions among students varied. Students' perceptions of emotional safety appeared to be determined in part by each teacher's efforts to maintain discipline and classroom control, the nature and quality of teacher-student interactions, and the extent to which the teachers modeled and encouraged student support for each other. One teacher used his loud voice to prevent student interaction. Another teacher was overwhelmed by the distraction of groups. However, the third teacher focused on each student individually, encouraging them to interact. Her students reported that they encouraged each other to improve their performance in physical education.
Conclusions The students who had minimal opportunity to relate to others in class felt safe physically, but expressed some fear of the teacher. On the other hand, encouragement for various positive interactions among students and with their teacher facilitated relationship development and feelings of self- respect necessary for growth and learning.