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Marjeta Šarić
Teachers’ emotions: a research review
from a psychological perspective
Abstract: The emotional dimension of teaching is gaining recognition as an important aspect of the
teaching profession. The aim of this article is to present a review of empirical research on teachers’
emotions from a psychological perspective. The definitions of the emotion concept in psychological
literature are inconsistent, so I first briefly outline the definition in the field of teacher emotion research, and then critically examine the methodological issues. Several differences exist between the
theoretical and methodological approaches to teacher emotion research; therefore, it is difficult and
problematic to compare the research findings from different research avenues as they provide many
possible interpretations that are not always compatible. Nevertheless, in the main part of the article,
I examine those findings and organise them in three main research themes: discrete emotions in
teaching, teacher emotion regulation and the effects of emotions in teaching. The literature provides
considerable evidence that teachers’ emotions are related to the quality of teaching and, consequently,
to students’ learning and learning outcomes. Finally, I review the Slovenian psychological research
in the field of teacher emotions and propose some implications for teaching practices and directions
for further research.
Keywords: emotions, teachers’ emotions, teaching, emotion regulation, teachers
UDC: 37.011.3:159.942
Scientific paper
Marjeta Šarić, Ph.D., teaching assistant, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Educational Sciences, Aškerčeva cesta 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia;
e-mail for correspondence: [email protected]
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EDUCATIONAL STUDIES 4/2015, 10–26
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 11
Emotions are an integral part of teachers’ professional lives. The research
of emotions in education encompasses various areas, such as the role of students’
emotions in learning, the development of emotions in children and students, and
emotions and the power relationships in the classroom. In this article, I focus on
teachers’ emotions from a psychological perspective.1 Therefore, the literature
review consists mainly of articles and chapters within a psychological framework.2
Compared to advances in the research of teacher practical theories, expectations,
perceptions, conceptions and related teacher cognitions where there is a wealth of
available research, teacher emotions have only recently begun to draw research interest, with no integrative theoretical frame as yet (Frenzel 2014; Pekrun et al. 2007).
Everyday classroom experiences as well as recent research findings suggest that
teacher emotions are not negligible components of quality teaching. In the last
10 to 15 years in the field of psychology and other fields, research interest in the
emotional aspects of teaching has been growing (e.g., Schutz and Zembylas 2009;
Sutton and Wheatley 2003). The aims of this article are to call attention to this
neglected part of teaching and to show different ways in which teachers’ emotions
are shaping their professional endeavours.
Psychological research of teachers’ emotions: definitions and
methodological approaches
Definitions of the concept of teachers’ emotions are considerably inconsistent because a common understanding of the basic concept of “emotion” does not
seem to exist. In the current psychological literature, there is an ongoing debate
1
Emotions are the object of inquiry of many different scientific disciplines; aside from psychology,
they are an important issue in philosophy, sociology, pedagogy and others. Similarly, the specific field
of teacher emotion research attracts the interest of many different scientific disciplines.
2
However, because of the shared area of enquiry, not all included authors are psychologists, and
thus, would be incorrectly categorised, e.g. Hargreaves, Oplatka, Zembylas, who are sociologists or
philosophers in their theoretical orientations. With the aim of keeping the review as cohesive as possible, the selection of the literature was guided by the relevance of the examined themes and not the
original scientific discipline of the authors.
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on the basic nature of emotions (Russel 2014), mostly concerning the question
of the existence of basic emotions as present in essentialist accounts (e.g. Izard
2007), and on the other hand, the thesis that emotions are constructed categories,
constituted by certain dimensions of the human experience, which in a concrete
situation represents a specific instance of emotion (e.g. Barrett et al. 2007). These
theoretical dilemma are not present in the field of teacher emotion research –
authors are rather uniform in defining emotions as they unquestionably assume
the existence of specific kinds of emotions, such as anger, anxiety, joy, excitement
and so forth (e.g. Becker et al. 2014; Demetriou and Wilson 2009; Sutton and
Wheatley 2003). Scientific accounts of teachers’ emotions often lack the explicit
definition of emotions; nevertheless, in the rare instances of defining emotions,
the prevalent conceptualisation is the multicomponential perspective on emotion
(Sutton and Wheatley 2003). This approach defines emotions as a process which
typically includes appraisal, subjective experience, physiological change, emotional
expression and action tendencies (action readiness). Psychological theories differ
in their conceptions of the essential nature of this process, as well as in their understanding of the relationship between its components (causality, co-emergence,
etc.). Social psychological theories offer an important aspect to defining emotions,
namely, that emotions cannot be properly understood without understanding the
social context in which emotions emerge (Boiger and Mesquita 2012).
Researchers in the field of teacher emotions are, for many reasons, faced with
many difficulties when deciding on the research methodology. One of the reasons
for this is the abovementioned conceptual ambiguity, and the multicomponential
definition which asserts the constitutive elements but does not establish the fundamental nature of emotions. In addition, measures of individual components of
emotions in the classroom are highly complex; for example, ordinary conditions in
the classroom do not allow for measures of skin conductance response, heart rate or
other physiological measures. It is also difficult to imagine an experimental design
with artificially aroused emotional states of teachers, and recording/analysing
techniques of facial expressions are highly expensive, altogether contradicting the
need for the research design to be economically justified as well. The most commonly
used research designs include interviews (e.g. Bahia et al. 2013; Cross and Hong
2012; van Veen and Sleegers 2006), diary studies (e.g. Coleman 1994) and qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis. There are some rare examples
of quantitative research designs, such as the diary study by Becker et al. (2014).
They used an experience-sampling method, collecting the data of the immediate
emotional experience of the research participants (students). Mobile electronic
devices randomly signalled students to report on their momentary emotions and
perceived teachers’ emotions in the short 3-item questionnaire. Furthermore, the
studies on teachers’ emotions use longer questionnaires with Likert-type items
(Näring et al. 2012; Taxer and Frenzel 2015), observational schemes (Prosen et
al. 2011), video recording and stimulated recall interviews (Schutz and Pekrun
2007; Sutton and Wheatley 2003). Some scientific publications give more space to
introspective, first-person reports; typical examples are the analyses by Winograd
(2003) and Shapiro (2010). These kinds of articles offer a deep and qualitative
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 13
understanding of the complexity in teachers’ emotional lives. They are characterised, however, by very broad conceptions of emotions, therefore making it rather
difficult to categorise, compare or otherwise analytically consider their findings.
The widespread use of self-report measures in empirical teachers’ emotion
research can be problematic for many reasons. Firstly, there is the question of
the different levels of an emotional experience. We can only report on something
that is available to us on a conscious level. Thus, we might have an emotional
experience but no awareness of emotion (Lambie 2009). There are different reasons for an emotional experience to remain outside of awareness: for example,
there could be a mistaken categorisation of one’s psychical state, or repression as
a defence mechanism could be at work. Furthermore, in self-report data collection
in emotion research, the memory of the research participants is relied upon to a
great extent. However, the strong connection between emotions and our mind’s
memory function are worth considering. Phelps and Sharot’s (2008) review of
studies that examined these connections show that we are better in remembering
emotionally charged events than neutral ones. Inversely, emotions have an impact
on the subjective sense of the accuracy and vividness of remembering. People
reported strong confidence in the accuracy of their recollections of an emotional
event, while experimental findings show that the belief in this accuracy is overestimated (Phelps and Sharot 2008). The intensity of an emotional event enhances
our subjective sense of vividness and the accuracy of the memories of that event.
The next difficulty in the use of self-report measures in emotion research
pertains to the use of language. Using words in emotion research poses a question as to whether we measure emotional experience and other characteristics,
or “only” the participants’ vocabulary of emotion words (Barret 2004). There are
important differences in the emotional vocabulary among people; furthermore,
differences exist when describing emotions in both valence (positive or negative)
and the intensity of the emotional experience (Barret 2004). Therefore, the differences in language use of the research participants should be considered when
interpreting the research findings.
The literature on the research of emotions in teaching is particularly characterised by a wide variety of diverse emotional vocabulary. Many examples exist
of related terms, such as emotion, affect, mood, etc., being used incongruently.
Oplatka (2007), for example, uses moods, feelings, and specific emotions, such as
anger, joy, guilt, pride, in the same emotion category. Another example of concept
merging is Shoffner (2009) who uses affect and emotional states synonymously,
without defining either of them. In some cases, the researchers are more exact
(e.g. Schutz et al. 2009); however, the lack of consistency and congruence in the
use of emotion concepts makes it very difficult to compare the research findings.
Coleman (1994), for example, speaks of an emotional state of “being a teacher”,
which includes positive experiences emerging from a smooth-running class. Another
example is Hargreaves (1998) who includes diverse terms in the emotion category,
such as love, fatigue, frustration, liking kids, care, pride, mutual respect, worry,
anxiety, excitement, a feeling of freedom and passion. His article contains a rather
loose understanding of the teacher emotion concept, especially because it is titled
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and introduced as the Emotional practice of teaching. The report is based on reports of teachers’ perceptions and beliefs about certain structural changes in the
school system, which is followed by an investigation of these beliefs and conclusions
about very diverse emotional contexts of teachers at work. The conclusions are
oriented towards the importance of teachers’ emotional connections to students
and the socio-emotional competencies of students, supporting the argument that
emotions lie at the core of teaching and learning (Hargreaves 1998). All of the
abovementioned issues show that examining such a complex phenomenon as an
emotion is not a simple task, and even less so is studying it in concrete professional
situations. Nevertheless, considering the important role of teachers’ emotional
lives, the research in this area is growing and gaining recognition. In the following
sections, I review some of the key research findings on teachers’ emotions. Teachers’ emotions
A review of theoretical assumptions and research on teachers’ emotions by
Sutton and Wheatley (2003) over a decade ago still represents a common reference
in the educational psychological literature in this research area (i.e., they are cited
in the introduction sections by Becker et al. 2014; Frenzel et al. 2009; Jennings
and Greenberg 2009). Sutton and Wheatley (2003) base their review on the multicomponential definition of emotions, already briefly addressed above. According
to the literature review, the most prevalent emotions of teachers are affection, love
and caring, which develop from the teachers’ relationships with their students.
Furthermore, among the positive emotions are joy, satisfaction and pleasure,
which are associated with the perceived progress in children, especially those who
struggled initially. Teachers also feel satisfied when they get positive feedback on
their work from their former students, colleagues and others. This satisfaction is
often accompanied by a feeling of pride. Further positive emotions of teachers are
excitement and enthusiasm that are derived from the unpredictability of teaching
– it is impossible to accurately anticipate all the possible variations of teaching
a class. Among the negative emotions, according to Sutton and Wheatley, anger
and frustration are the most common. They mostly arise when goal attainment is
obstructed. Common hindrances include students misbehaving and violating the
rules, and the non-cooperation of colleagues or parents. Anger can be aroused by
the belief that students’ low achievement is associated with controllable factors
(e.g., laziness or inattentiveness). Other negative emotions experienced by teachers are anxiety (especially with beginning teachers, as a result of uncertainty
in complex teaching situations), and feelings of helplessness, guilt and sadness
(Sutton and Wheatley 2004).
Similar conclusions as above come from a literature review several years later
by Shapiro (2010). She maintains that the common positive emotions teachers
feel in relation to their work are affection, care for students, passion, excitement,
satisfaction, joy and pride. Similarly, the prevailing negative emotion among teachers, according to Shapiro (ibid.), is anger, which is frequently associated with
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 15
students’ indifference and misbehaviour. Anger also arises when teachers feel a lack
of support by their institution or wider community, and when they are frustrated
in their attempts to accomplish their goals. In addition to anger, Shapiro (ibid.)
notes other negative emotions experienced by teachers, such as loneliness, which
emanates from teachers’ isolation in their individual classrooms with little or no
immediate interactions with colleagues, as well as scarce feedback on their work.
Researchers are not only interested in the specific emotions of teachers, but
also in the different ways teachers try to regulate their emotions, and the impact
of teachers’ emotions in the classroom and beyond, themes I will address in the
following chapters.
Emotion regulation in teaching
Teaching as a profession is inevitably characterised by the emotional dimension, and teachers are expected to plan and control their emotions that are socially
and organisationally desired in interpersonal relationships as the key aspect of
their job (Schutz and Zembylas 2009; Sutton 2004). Current perspectives on the
relationship between emotions and their regulation are diverse and are related
to the understanding of the basic nature of emotion (Prosen and Smrtnik Vitulić
2014). One of the key questions is whether emotion generation and emotion regulation are two different processes, occurring sequentially or simultaneously, or are
they so intertwined that it is impossible to separate the two. Another important
question that adds to the complexity and inconsistency of the research concerns
the degree to which emotion regulation is a deliberate and conscious act and, on
the other hand, how much of our emotion regulation is unconscious, implicit or
automatic (Gross and Thompson 2007; Prosen and Smrtnik Vitulić 2014). A further
unresolved issue is the determination of emotion regulation efficiency, since the
criteria for assessing the efficiency of a specific regulatory strategy vary (Prosen
and Smrtnik Vitulić 2014).
The initial thesis in the teachers’ emotion research is that teachers try to
up-regulate or down-regulate their emotions when striving to achieve their professional goals; down-regulating is more often employed for negative emotions. A
series of studies on teacher emotion regulation by Sutton and colleagues (Sutton
2004; Sutton and Harper 2009; Sutton et al. 2009) was based on Gross and
Thompson’s (2007) cognitive process model of emotion regulation. This model
differentiates five families of emotion regulative strategies according to their
position in the development of an emotion episode: situation selection, situation
modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change and response modulation.
Examples of teachers trying to regulate their emotions by selecting and modifying
the situation are well-prepared lesson plans, adjustments in their lessons or direct
communications with students about their distress (Sutton 2004). This family of
strategies is related to the understanding of interactive nature emotions, namely
that the origin and the development of an emotion include interpersonal influences
because interactions with other people change the trajectory of an emotional expe-
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rience. Sutton (ibid.) illustrates this with teachers’ reports of telling a joke in an
ongoing emotional episode or delaying a confrontation with a disruptive student
to a time after class. In the midst of an emotional episode, teachers try to deploy
their attention such that they, for example, ignore minor misbehaviours, instead
of ruminating over their own anger when two pupils are chatting. In their intent
to influence emotions, teachers also transform their interpretations and beliefs
about an emotional episode (cognitive change). An example is a teacher who tries
to remember possible explanations for a student’s aggressive behaviour towards
him or her and withdraws, for the only possible reason that the student attacks
him is personal, which results in anger and sadness. However, when the teacher
considers the students’ current situation at home or the fight with the best friend
the day before, and thereby widens the understanding of the students’ motives for
aggressive behaviour, the strength of the emotional experience of anger declines.
Even in a full-blown emotional situation, teachers try to modify their emotions
by modifying their response. A direct anger outburst is controlled, for instance,
by deep breathing, pausing or visualisation. After the emotional episode, the
teachers’ feelings sometimes linger for a day or two, and they try to influence the
emotional impact by conversing with colleagues or family members. By doing so,
they may attain two outcomes; on one hand, there is a sense of relief by venting,
while on the other, it is possible that through dialogue, a teacher gets a clear look
at the emotional episode from a certain distance, and considers different possible
perspectives and dimensions of the situation that brought about that particular
kind of emotional response (ibid.).
The role of beliefs in teachers’ emotion regulation
Researchers’ interests are not only focused on the emotion regulation strategies themselves, but also on teachers’ beliefs about them. Teachers report that
they regulate their emotions in order to better achieve their academic goals (Bahia
et al. 2013; Sutton and Harper 2009). They believe that emotion regulation contributes to higher effectiveness in their teaching because the use of regulation
strategies influences the emotional climate in the classroom, which in turn leads
to achieving better academic and interpersonal goals. The perceptions of students
are similar; research indicates a correlation between perceived teachers’ emotions,
teaching strategies and students’ emotions (Becker et al. 2014). By withholding
or suppressing an emotion, teachers try to minimise the intrusive impact of the
emotion on the course of the lesson or the learning climate (Sutton and Harper
2009). On the other hand, teachers highly value the trust and authenticity in
their relationships with students, so they eventually express their emotions, but
consciously direct their expression, sometimes even highlight their behaviour, as
a model for students (Bahia et al. 2013; Sutton and Harper 2009).
Emotion regulation stems from the alignment of a teacher’s own behaviour
with his or her idealised image of a good teacher (Sutton 2004). Teachers have
certain inner standards and ideas about “good” teachers that are related to the
ways emotions are experienced and expressed (Kelchtermans 2005). Emotion
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 17
regulation is considered an inevitable part of their work, whereby teachers demonstrate and enact their professionalism. The idealised self-image of teachers
(e.g., “a good teacher doesn’t lose his temper in front of students”) can nevertheless
generate conflict when teachers simultaneously give importance to the authenticity
in their relationships (e.g., “I am nonetheless teaching as a human and not as a
robot”) (Sutton 2004). These kinds of inner conflicts are rather encumbering and
can contribute to the development of teacher burnout (Sutton and Harper 2009).
Frequent emotion regulation can lead to feelings of being spurious and reduce
the level of personal commitment to the quality of their work, hence increasing
the potential for burnout. The correlates of frequent emotion regulation are lower
energy levels, feelings of emptiness and a decrease in perceived work efficiency,
all of which again increase the likelihood of teacher burnout (Näring et al. 2012;
Sutton and Harper 2009). Based on these findings, it is important to highlight the
relationship between strategies of emotion regulation, its aims and the criteria
for its efficiency.
The cultural context and the corresponding beliefs of a given social group play
an important role in teacher emotion regulation; thus, central to this discussion is
the role of the culture of teaching and the corresponding expectations, beliefs and
normative rules about teaching behaviour (Hargreaves 2001; Nias 1989; Oplatka
2007; Zembylas 2007). Oplatka (2007) discerns two types of emotional work. The
first, called “emotional labour” (Hochschild in Oplatka 2007), concerns those jobs
where the employees are expected to express certain emotional states. Expressing
particular emotions is required as part of their job, such as kindness and smiles on
the face of a flight attendant. Emotional labour concerns the job demands that are
directly related to the aims and profits of a work organisation. The second type,
“emotional work”, again refers to emotional states stemming from work demands;
however, the employees are autonomous in managing their emotions in the workplace. Exact emotion displays are not prescribed and do not have consequences
on the employees’ income or the company’s profit. Considering teachers’ emotion
management, Oplatka (2007) concludes that teaching is characterised by the second, more autonomous type of regulating one’s own emotional states. However,
complete autonomy over teachers’ emotional states is not present – some kind of
external control exists in the form of cultural expectations. Therefore, teachers
are limited in their emotional expressions and subjective emotional experience
by the cultural norms, such as expectations to care and show concern for their
students, to be empathic and willing to help, etc. Effects of teachers’ emotions
Increased interest in teachers’ emotions comes from the assumption of the
potential impact of those emotions on various aspects of teaching. Meta-analyses
of the research on teachers’ emotions show a considerable degree of correlations
with the cognitive, academic, behavioural and emotional outcomes of the students
(Cornelius-White 2007; Roorda et al. 2011). A meta-analytic review by Corne-
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lius-White (2007) showed that teachers’ personal attributes, such as warmth,
empathy, genuineness, as well as cognitive factors, such as higher order thinking
and demanding learning tasks, are correlated with student outcomes on academic
(e.g., critical thinking) and emotional-behavioural (e.g., motivation for learning,
students’ cooperation and satisfaction) levels (average correlations in different
combinations of factors were between r = .30 and r = .55). Roorda et al. (2011)
examined more specifically the effects of the emotional aspects of the teacher-student relationship. The emotional aspects of the interpersonal relationship
were found to be associated with student engagement and learning outcomes,
whereby engagement showed a moderating effect. When there is a positive emotional relationship between the teacher and his or her students, this is reflected
in higher student engagement, task persistence and better use of study strategies,
which together increase the possibility of better achievement. Roorda et al. (ibid.)
found evidence that emotional relationships in the classroom are correlated with
school achievement not only in early childhood but also later, all the way to late
adolescence. The meta-analysis also showed important associations for at-risk
students (students with learning difficulties, low socioeconomic status or ethnic
minority students), for whom emotional quality of the teacher-student relationship
was more influential than for other students. Taken together, a positive emotional climate has an important influence on
the quality of learning and achievement. It is, of course, not the only influence
as it works in conjunction with other factors from the side of the teacher (quality
of teaching contents, student autonomy support, support structure, etc.), as well
as the student (intelligence, learning strategies, self-image, etc.) and the wider
context of learning and teaching. The interplay of effective learning factors is well
explained by the cognitive model of effective learning (Marentič Požarnik 2000),
although for a long time the emotional aspects of teaching have received sparse
research attention in comparison to other factors. In the rest of the chapter, I
present some studies that examine specific aspects of teaching and learning in
light of teachers’ emotions.
In an extensive German longitudinal study, Frenzel et al. (2009) explored
the relationship between the teachers’ and the students’ enjoyment of mathematics
classes, collecting data from 1,763 students from 71 classrooms and 71 teachers.
The data was collected by self-report questionnaires designed to measure teacher
and student enjoyment, and teacher enjoyment as perceived by their students.
Multivariate data analysis (multilevel structural equation modelling) showed that
teachers’ enjoyment of mathematics class is positively correlated with students’
enjoyment even when controlled for the last year’s student level of enjoyment. The
results suggest that teachers’ enjoyment of class influenced students’ perceived
enjoyment of teachers, which in turn increased the students’ own enjoyment
of mathematics class. The authors suggested an indirect relationship between
teacher and student enjoyment, mediated by perceived teacher enjoyment; thus,
when teachers enjoy a class, the students’ enjoyment will be affected. Of course,
the goal of teaching is not to make the students happy; however, in classes where
there is positive emotional climate, optimal conditions for overcoming difficulties
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 19
and achieving learning goals are established. This is in accordance with the
hypothesis of the “broaden-and-build” theory of positive emotions (Fredrickson
and Branigan 2005), which elaborates on the optimal role of a positive emotional
experience in achieving life goals.
Similar findings on the emotional transfer between students and teachers were
shown by Becker et al. (2014) who examined the relationship between students’
perceptions of teachers’ emotional experience and their teaching behaviour, and
students’ own emotions. An experience sampling method (as described in the first
chapter) was used to gather the data. The authors found statistically important
correlations between perceived teachers’ emotions and students’ own emotions of
joy, anger and anxiety. The correlations were statistically important even when
the mediating effect of teachers’ instructional behaviour (e.g., comprehensive
instruction, subject matter relevance) was controlled for. This means that the
emotional transfer is both indirect through the teaching procedures and direct
as a kind of emotional contagion.3
Besides the direct interaction of emotional experience in the interpersonal
relationships of teachers and students, researchers have examined the influence of
teachers’ positive or negative emotions on assessment (Brackett et al. 2013). Using
an experimental research design, they found that teachers who thought about
positive emotional events in their lives, later assigned higher grades to the same
essay, than teachers who thought about negative events before the assessment.
In their interpretation, the researchers suggest further accumulation of empirical
data. However, they propose concrete advice for teachers to avoid the assessment
fallacy: they need to enhance emotional awareness. Some teachers in the study,
when asked about the possible influences of their emotional state, explicitly stated
that their assessment was not affected by it. Obviously, a gap existed between
their awareness of their emotional experiences and the influence they have on
their assessment practices. When teachers find themselves in an emotional episode, they are challenged
by various obstacles that prevent an effective response. In addition to the abovementioned low degree of emotional awareness in assessment practices (Brackett
et al. 2013), the other hindrance is emotional misunderstanding in interpersonal
relationships (Denzin 1984/2007; Hargreaves 2001). Emotional misunderstanding
is characterised by spurious emotions, assigning one’s own emotions to others,
inaccurate appraisal of other people’s motives, erroneous descriptions and explanations of others’ emotions, etc. Emotional misunderstanding can present a substantial problem in establishing genuine and satisfactory relationships between
teachers and students. I want to emphasise that in this context the emotional (mis)
understanding is understood in the wider meaning of the term “understanding”,
including not only cognitive components but also the emotional dimension (Denzin
1984/2007). According to Denzin, emotional understanding “is an intersubjective
3
Psychological literature offers different models of emotional transfer, for instance, emotional
contagion model, emotional mimicry model, social appraisal model and so on. Detailed examination
of the phenomenon of emotional transfer exceeds the framework of this article, so I will not go into a
discussion about those models. 20
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process requiring that one person enter into the field of experience of another and
experience for herself the same or similar experiences experienced by another”
(ibid., p. 137). The subjective emotional experience is unfolding and is shared in
the interpersonal relationship. It forms a basis for emotional understanding of
another since the limits of this understanding “are set by the range of our interpretive emotional experiences” (ibid., p. 145). Thus, authenticity and the depth
of the teacher’s own emotional experience allow for good interpersonal emotional
understanding in relationships with students, parents and others.
Recognising the intrinsic emotional nature of teaching, mentioned in the
previous chapter as “emotional work” (Oplatka 2007; Zembylas 2003), is manifested furthermore in the relationship of teachers to their teaching practices. Schutz
and Zembylas (2009) explicitly state that teachers’ work includes confronting and
controlling one’s own emotions, which can be an exhausting task when proper
support is lacking. This is also one of the reasons teachers leave the profession,
or when they stay, feel dissatisfied and unfulfilled.
Work demands and sensitivity to unfavourable consequences of emotional
work increase during periods of school reforms, especially when teachers are not
included in the decision-making process about the types and modes of reforms.
Successful implementation of school reforms is dependent on teachers’ evaluations of those reforms, and their evaluations are closely tied to their emotions
(Frijda and Mesquita 2000; Kelchtermans et al. 2009). Meaning-making during
periods of change is an emotionally charged process, accompanied by a variety of
emotional responses. In a longitudinal study (four-year period) in a sociological
theoretic framework, Schmidt and Datnow (2005) explored how teachers make
meaning of school reforms and what the accompanying emotions are. In the study,
75 teachers were interviewed, and the qualitative data analysis showed a wide
variety of emotional responses to change. For example, teachers were excited and
joyful in bringing about long wished-for changes; others were anxious and worried
because of the insecurity; others still felt frustration and anger when there were
incomprehensive and unpredictable consequences of required changes. There was
also guilt in the sense of incongruence between one’s own professional orientation
and the reform directions (ibid.). In a similar but less extensive study from a social-psychological theoretical perspective, van Veen and Sleegers (2006) examined
teachers’ perceptions of their work in the context of school reforms. Based on
interviews with six teachers, they found that teachers who perceived the reforms
as compatible with their professional orientations, experienced mostly positive
emotions. In contrast, teachers who perceived the reforms as incongruent with
their professional orientation, felt rather negative emotions. The results of these
two studies indicate that to successfully implement reforms, not only should the
teachers know about and understand the purpose and means of the reforms, but
also that the teachers’ emotional responses to the reforms are taken into account.
When resistance to reforms is not heeded, it can potentially become one of the
factors that restrains the successful implementation of the reforms.
Permanent and ineffective coping with negative emotions can lead to burnout:
the feeling of emotional and bodily exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 21
personal accomplishment (Tsouloupas et al. 2010), which develops as a response
to chronic exposure to stress. Chang (2009) examined the reasons for teachers’
emotional exhaustion in association with burnout and stress. According to the
clear message of the existing literature on teaching as an emotional enterprise,
she emphasised that the abilities of self-awareness and self-regulation are crucial
in emotion regulation. Increased reflective competence of teachers contributes to
better and more adequate emotion regulation, which in turn reduces the negative consequences of an inadequate emotional response, whether this pertains to
inaccurate emotion recognition, poor regulation skills or inappropriate emotion
expression (ibid.). Similarly, based on the literature review of the social and emotional competence (SEC) of teachers, Jennings and Greenberg (2009) concluded
that teachers with lower SEC are more likely to feel the consequences of stress and
burnout. On the other hand, those high in SEC are teachers with a high degree of
self-awareness, awareness of their own emotional experience and understanding of
others’ emotions. They express pro-social values and make responsible decisions,
while considering the consequences of those decisions for themselves and others.
They are capable of good emotion management and accompanying behaviour,
and are comfortable with a certain level of ambiguity that allows for the fact that
one can never have complete control over the processes in the classroom. Jennings and Greenberg (ibid.) propose that teachers low in SEC and less efficient
in classroom management feel more emotional exhaustion. As mentioned above,
this is accompanied by cynical relationships and depersonalisation, generating
negative consequences for establishing a quality learning climate and conditions
for good learning. Research evidence increasingly supports the contention that the role of emotions in teaching should not be undervalued. The examined research originates
mostly from the North American and Western European cultural contexts; in the
remainder of the article, I will present the Slovene research on teacher emotions.
Teachers’ emotions in Slovene psychological research
Research on teachers’ emotions in Slovenian psychological literature is scarce,
which reflects the state of the field in the Western academic world, where interest
in the subject has only been increasing in the last decade (Schutz and Zembylas
2009). Slovenian research is mostly focused on stress and burnout (Demšar and
Zabukovec 2009; Depolli Steiner 2011; Košir et al. 2014; Slivar 2013), the emotional components being only partially included, for example, emotional stability,
emotional exhaustion, etc. Limited explicit research has directly examined teachers’ emotions. Some
rare studies have been conducted by Prosen et al. (2011) and Smrtnik Vitulić and
Prosen (2015). In the first study, the authors examined emotional expressions
of primary school teachers in the classroom. The results showed significantly
more negative than positive emotional expressions (2:1 ratio in favour of negative
emotions). In accordance with the results of foreign studies, among the negative
22
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M. Šarić
emotions, anger prevailed. Other frequent emotional expressions were joy, disappointment, surprise and fear with a lower degree of expression. The study is
important from a methodological point of view because the authors did not use
the common self-report measures (e.g., questionnaires, interviews), but collected
the data by an observational scheme of three positive and three negative emotions
instead. To improve our understanding of their data, some additional information
on the observational procedures would be helpful; for instance, what were the
difficulties that observers encountered, how did they mark the co-emergence or
the combination of emotions, how did they resolve the issue of hiding or modifying
teachers’ emotional expressions and so on. However, in addition to the quantitative
measures on the frequency of emotional expressions, the qualitative descriptions of
the observed emotional episodes are an important element of the research report.
Anger was mostly expressed in situations where students had discipline issues or
difficulty following instructions. Furthermore, anger arose when students were
inattentive, unsuccessful in attaining the learning goals, and when there was a
potential danger or threat of physical injury. Teachers expressed joy when students
were successful in achieving academic goals, when something funny or relaxing
happened in the classroom, when the rules were followed, and some other situations. The authors suggested that the frequent expression of anger in relation to
the problem of discipline is associated with the question of adequate classroom
management strategies. This interpretation is in line with the conclusions of
some other authors about the most common stressors in teaching, among them
classroom discipline as the leading one, which includes issues of rule violation,
aggressive behaviour and misbehaviour (Demšar and Zabukovec 2009; Depolli
Steiner 2011). Discipline and appropriate student behaviour are obviously very
important issues for teachers, and when they lack confidence in their classroom
regulation abilities, they are likely to experience anger when there are disciplinary
problems in the classroom. Suggestions and conclusions
The literature review clearly shows that teachers’ emotions cannot be
dismissed as an unimportant determinant of the teaching and learning processes, inasmuch as they are strongly connected to the way teachers act in the
classrooms. The findings presented in the review may provide an outline of
suggestions for further inquiry into yet neglected territory. The crucial task is
the researchers’ clear theoretical stance and explicit unambiguous definition
of the phenomenon under study. This would prevent many confusing issues
in trying to understand the research data, as well as limit the methodological
difficulties. Another suggestion is to widen the research questions beyond the
typical search for specific emotions and their frequency. Interesting research
avenues would be exploring the triggers for teachers’ emotions and examining
the determinants of effective emotion regulation, which would both add to the
applicative value of the research. Furthermore, the study of teachers’ emotions
Teachers’ emotions: a research review from a psychological perspective 23
from the students’ perspective and its effect on learning deserves more elaborate
consideration. Despite certain limitations of the review, as discussed in the first chapter,
the findings taken together allow for proposing some suggestions for teaching
practices. A reflective examination of teachers’ own emotional experiences, thereby increasing emotional awareness, seems especially important. When a teacher
is in the midst of an emotional experience in the classroom, his or her response
can be impulsive and intuitive (and, as such, not necessarily adequate); or it can
be emphatic, thoughtful and lead to a better quality of teaching. According to
the data on teachers’ poor awareness of the influence of their emotions on their
teaching, it is worthwhile to direct our attention and energy to increasing the
degree of self-awareness. To conscientiously respond in emotional situations in the
classroom, teachers must first become aware of their own emotional experience
and be encouraged towards greater emotional understanding. For such encouragement of teachers, I see a major role of professional reflection in some form of
supervision or mentorship. Becoming acquainted with the possibilities and the
teachers’ availability to participate in a supervision process need to be widened.
The data on emotions’ influence on the assessment process also suggest that teachers should be well educated not only in the areas of metric characteristics of
assessment, using taxonomies of educational objectives and learning goals, etc.,
but also in the development of sensitivity to their own subjective fallacies as a
result of unconscious and automatic emotional responses.
In addition, empirical findings on the triggers of teachers’ emotions imply
recommendations as to which areas deserve greater or more differentiated attention
in teacher education. For instance, frequently experiencing anger in association
with students’ inappropriate behaviour leads to the suggestion that teacher training
programmes should place more emphasis on effective classroom management. Teachers’ emotions are an inevitable part of classroom life: teachers and students in their everyday interactions are not robots – they are human beings with
their own motives, needs, goals and emotions. An important element of teacher
effectiveness is forming good personal relationships, and these are bound to decline
when teachers, for various reasons, inadequately respond to their emotions. In
particular, the fear of losing the professional identity of a “good teacher” can lead
teachers to hide, mask or modify their emotions, which all have the potential to
endanger their relationships. Attending to teachers’ emotions is not only a function
of burnout prevention. Foremost, it is imperative that teachers are supported to
constructively cope with their emotions, so that the satisfaction and the fulfilment
they experience in their workplace can lead to genuine relationships, yielding a
better quality of learning and teaching in our classrooms. 24
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M. Šarić
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