Teacher sensitivity as a bridge to emotion regulation for students with special educational needs in their emotional and social development in physical education

Analysis of the six emergent patterns reveals teacher sensitivity as the pivotal factor shaping teacher-student relational dynamics. Co-constructed agreements foster a secure base for students, supporting functional emotion regulation, whereas rigid rule-enforcement perpetuates cycles of marginalization. Strikingly, some students rationalized aggression as a subjectively functional strategy (e.g., enforcing reciprocity fairness), clashing with systemic norms. Ultimately, the embodied context of PE emerges as a dual-natured relational microcosm: it can offer socioemotional growth when teacher sensitivity is high, but carries escalation risks when subjective-normative discrepancies remain unaddressed.