Dr Junjun Chen
Research Fellow and Research Co-ordinator
Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change
The Education University of Hong Kong
China
: jjchen@eduhk.hk

Dr Yin Hongbiao
Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese Uniuversity of Hong Kong
Research Fellow, The Asia Pacific Centre for Leadership and Change
The Education University of Hong Kong
China
: yinhb@cuhk.edu.hk

Dr Anne Christiane Frenzel
Professor, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Munich, Germany
: frenzel@psy.lmu.de

Editorial: Teacher Emotions Matter—Nature, Antecedents, and Effectsnda
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.605389

Along with increasing recognition of the varied aspects of education, research on teacher emotions has blossomed recently after being unacknowledged for decades. The statistics from Scopus indicate that the number of journal articles published on teacher emotions in the past 5 years is 497, comprising the largest proportion (61%) of the 812 total article corpus on the topic over the past 35 years1. Despite this notable growth, the field is still in a pre-mature developmental stage as it lacks a full consideration of the complexities of teacher emotions, and a balanced coverage of research foci and methodologies (Frenzel, 2014; Fried et al., 2015; Chen, 2019, 2020; Yin et al., 2019). In particular, Fried et al. (2015) have argued that “the study of teacher emotion is in need of conceptual clarity” (p. 415). Likewise, Chen (2019) identified a clear need for advancing mixed-method and longitudinal studies on the topic as the existing literature on teacher emotions largely relies on self-report data and cross-sectional research designs.

Although interest in the field has been growing since the first special issue by Nias (1996) in the Cambridge Journal of Education, teacher emotions have previously been addressed in only one single virtual special issue which focused on articles published in Teaching and Teacher Education by Uitto et al. (2015). The present Research Topic in Frontiers in Psychology thus aims to provide a platform for showcasing the latest research on teacher emotions, to acknowledge its increasingly important scientific impact.

The Interactional–Institutional Construction of Teachers’ Emotions in Hong Kong:
The Inhabited Institutionalism Perspective
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02619

Abstract

This article illustrates the social construction of teachers’ emotions by drawing on the emergent sociological perspective of inhabited institutionalism to report on a qualitative research project on teachers’ emotions in Hong Kong. A thematic analysis was performed on the transcripts of interviews conducted in 2012 with 21 teachers at Hong Kong secondary schools and on the policy documents and newspaper articles from the education reform era of 1980 to 2011. Three major themes emerged from the data: (1) the institutional logic of whole-person education, (2) the institutional logic of accountability, and (3) an asymmetry between these institutional logics, which is causing a displacement of the meaning of education and thus has emotional consequences for teachers. Taken together, these themes show that managerialist education reforms bring the institutional logic of accountability into the institutional environment of education, which results in the recoupling of school administration and teachers’ work. This recoupling leads to the decline of teachers’ work autonomy. The institutional logic of accountability tends to inhibit the institutional logic of whole-person education and to replace the instructional meaning of education with managerial meanings. In the institutional context, teachers are forced to do a lot of work that they interpret as meaningless, but they find that they are powerless to change the situation. They may therefore choose to inhabit the institutional logic of accountability and the tightly coupled institutional context of school organizations. Consequently, teachers may become unhappy at work during and after managerialist education reforms. According to these findings, teachers’ emotions can be regarded as an interactional–institutional construction. That is, teachers’ emotions may be socially constructed through the negotiation of meaning under the institutional logics that guide their actions and the interactions that uphold the institutional context of the school organizations that they inhabit.

Professor Jin Eun Yoo
Dr Minjeong Rhoo
Korea National University of Education
Gangnae-myeon, South Korea

Exploration of Predictors for Korean Teacher Job Satisfaction via a Machine Learning Technique, Group Mnet
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00441

Abstract

Despite the high academic achievements of Korean students in international comparison studies, their teachers’ job satisfaction remains below the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average. As job satisfaction is one of the major factors affecting student achievement as well as student and teacher retention, the identification of the most important satisfaction predictors is crucial. The current study analyzed data from the OECD 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) via machine learning. In particular, group Mnet (a penalized regression method) was employed in order to consider hundreds of TALIS predictors in one statistical model. Specifically, this study repeated 100 times of variable selection after random data-splitting as well as cross-validation, and presented predictors selected 50% of the time or more. As a result, 18 predictors were identified out of 558, including variables relating to collaborative school climates and teacher self-efficacy, which was consistent with previous research. Newly found variables to teacher job satisfaction included items about teacher feedback, participatory school climates, and perceived barriers to professional development. Suggestions and future research topics are discussed.

Examining the Relationships Between Job Characteristics, Emotional Regulation and University Teachers’ Well-Being:
The Mediation of Emotional Regulation
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01727

Abstract

This study investigated the associations between university teachers’ emotional job demands, teaching support, and well-being, and examined the mediating effect of emotional regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. The results of a survey of 643 university teachers in mainland China indicated that emotional job demands and teaching support, which facilitated teachers’ use of reappraisal strategies, had desirable effects on their well-being. Reappraisal was beneficial to teachers’ well-being, and suppression was harmful. These findings support the mediation role of emotional regulation, and evidence the applicability of the JD-R model to a higher education context.

Dr. Karen Aldrup
Dr Bastian Carstensen
Leibniz Insitute for Science and Mathematics Education
University of Kiel Kiel
Germany

Dr Michaela Maria Köller
University of Kiel Kiel
Germany

Measuring Teachers’ Social-Emotional Competence:
Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00892

Abstract

Teachers’ social-emotional competence is considered important in order to master the social and emotional challenges inherent in their profession and to build positive teacher-student relationships. In turn, this is key to both teachers’ occupational well-being and positive student development. Nonetheless, an instrument assessing the profession-specific knowledge and skills that teachers need to master the social and emotional demands in the classroom is still lacking. Therefore, we developed the Test of Regulation in and Understanding of Social Situations in Teaching (TRUST), which is a theory-based situational judgment test measuring teachers’ knowledge about strategies for emotion regulation and relationship management in emotionally and socially challenging situations with students. Results from three studies (N = 166 in-service teachers, N = 73 in-service teachers, N = 107 pre-service teachers) showed satisfactory internal consistency for both the emotion regulation and relationship management subtests. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the two facets of social-emotional competence. Regarding convergent validity, results from Study 3 revealed a positive association between the profession-specific TRUST and pre-service teachers’ general emotional intelligence. Furthermore, small to moderate correlations with the Big Five personality traits provided evidence for the discriminant validity of TRUST. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence for a correlation with external criteria, that is, teachers with higher test scores reported providing more emotional support for students and having better teacher-student relationships. For teachers’ occupational well-being, we found a link with symptoms of depersonalization and job satisfaction, but none for emotional exhaustion. We will discuss the use of TRUST in research, for the evaluation of interventions, in teacher education, and professional development and will illustrate ideas for enhancing the tool.

Leading Teachers’ Emotions Like Parents:
Relationships Between Paternalistic Leadership, Emotional Labor and Teacher Commitment in China
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00519

Abstract

Emotional labor plays an essential role in school leadership and teaching, as principals and teachers undergo complex interactions with students, colleagues, and parents. Although researchers have realized the influence of leaders’ behaviors on followers’ emotions in management and educational contexts, the relationship between leadership behaviors, teachers’ emotional labor, and related organizational outcomes has been underexplored. As leadership and emotional labor are situated and influenced by cultural contexts, the current study focused on the relationship between teachers’ emotional labor strategies, multidimensional teacher commitment, and paternalistic leadership, a unique leadership type rooted in Confucianism. Paternalistic leadership is a style that combines strong authority with fatherly benevolence, which is prevalent in East Asia and the Middle East. A sample of 419 teachers was randomly selected to participate in a survey. The results showed that principals’ authoritarian leadership behaviors had negative influences on teachers’ commitment to the profession and commitment to the school. Benevolent leadership had positive effects on teachers’ commitment to students, commitment to the profession, and commitment to the school. Teachers’ deep acting played positive mediating effects, while surface acting was a negative mediator. The results imply that school leaders could properly exert parent-like leadership practices to facilitate teacher commitment through managing teachers’ emotions.

Ms Raven Sarah Lydia Rinasaw
Prof Dr Markus Dresel
University of Augsburg
Augsburg, Germany

Ms Julia Hein
Dr Stefan Janke
Prof Oliver Dickhäuser
Universität Mannheim
Mannheim, Germany

Dr Martin Daumiller
University of Augsburg
Augsburg, Germany

Exploring University Instructors’ Achievement Goals and Discrete Emotions
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01484

Abstract

Emerging empirical evidence indicates that discrete emotions are associated with teaching practices and professional experiences of university instructors. However, further investigations are necessary given that university instructors often face high job demands and compromised well-being. Achievement goals, which frame achievement-related thoughts and actions, have been found to describe motivational differences in university instructors and are hypothesized to be associated with their discrete emotions. Moreover, as variation exists in how university instructors respond to job demands regarding their emotional experiences, certain goals may moderate this relationship on the basis of framing different interpretations and reactions to stressors. To investigate these links, 439 instructors (46.7% female) from German and Austrian universities completed a survey assessing their achievement goals, discrete emotions (enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, and boredom), and job demands. As hypothesized, multiple regression analyses revealed that achievement goals were differentially and meaningfully associated with discrete emotions. Specifically, learning approach goals were positively related to enjoyment and negatively related to anger and boredom, while learning avoidance goals were positively related to anger. Performance (appearance) approach goals were positively related to pride, and performance (appearance) avoidance goals were positively related to anxiety and shame. Lastly, relational goals were positively related to shame and boredom, and work avoidance goals were negatively related to enjoyment and positively related to shame and boredom. Conclusive moderation effects on the relations between job demands and emotions were not found. Future research avenues aimed at further understanding the supportive role that achievement goals can have for university instructors’ emotional experiences and well-being are discussed.

Striving to Become a Better Teacher:
Linking Teacher Emotions With Informal Teacher Learning Across the Teaching Career
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01067

Abstract

The importance of informal teacher learning (ITL) to teaching effectiveness and student achievement has been repeatedly demonstrated, but there is limited research into the personal antecedents of ITL. We analyzed the relationships between teacher emotions and participation in five different kinds of ITL activities (learning through media, colleague interaction, stakeholder interaction, student interaction, and individual reflection) among 2,880 primary teachers (85.49% female) with a large range of teaching experience. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling revealed a positive association between enjoyment and engagement in all five ITL activities. Anxiety was found to be negatively related to colleague interaction and self-reflection, and anger was found to be negatively associated with student interaction. Furthermore, anxiety and anger were negatively related to teaching experience, whereas enjoyment was independent from teaching experience. Most ITL activities were positively related to teaching experience, except for stakeholder interaction. Implications for teacher training and intervention programs for in-service teachers are discussed.

Dr Irena Burićasaw
Professor Ana Slišković
Professor Izabela Sorić
Department of Psychology
University of Zadar
Zadar, Croatiany

Teachers’ Emotions and Self-Efficacy: A Test of Reciprocal Relations
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01650

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that higher levels of teachers’ self-efficacy (TSE) tend to be positively related to positive teachers’ emotions (e.g., joy, pride) and negatively to negative teachers” emotions (e.g., anger, anxiety). However, these studies predominately relied on cross-sectional design and therefore were unable to test the reciprocal relations between the two constructs. Based on the propositions of social-cognitive theory (Bandura, 1997), TSE may be viewed as an antecedent or as a consequence of emotions. More specifically, TSE may shape emotions since it directs teachers’ attentional, appraisal, and regulatory processes, while emotions may shape TSE since they act as a source of information about teachers’ performance in a given task (i.e., emotions can serve as a filter that determines which efficacy information is seen as salient and how it is interpreted). To test these assumptions, an initial sample of 3010 Croatian teachers (82% female) participated in a longitudinal study based on a full panel design with three measurement points and time lags of approximately 6 months. Teachers taught at different educational levels (i.e., elementary, middle, and secondary schools) and had on average 15.30 years (SD = 10.50) of teaching experience. They completed self-report measures that assessed their self-efficacy beliefs and six discrete emotions experienced in relation to teaching and students – joy, pride, love, anger, hopelessness, and exhaustion. An autoregressive cross-lagged analysis showed that teachers’ emotions and TSE are indeed related to each other. However, the direction of this association is not bidirectional as was suggested by theoretical assumptions; instead, it is asymmetrical – higher levels of TSE beliefs predicted higher levels of positive emotions of joy and pride, while higher levels of teachers’ negative emotions of anger, exhaustion, and hopelessness predicted lower levels of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs.

Teachers’ Emotional Exhaustion:
Associations With Their Typical Use of and Implicit Attitudes Toward Emotion Regulation Strategies
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00867

Abstract

Teaching is an emotionally challenging profession, sometimes resulting in high levels of teacher stress, burnout, and attrition. It has often been claimed that certain emotion regulation strategies can lower teachers’ feelings of burnout. The use of cognitive reappraisal (i.e., cognitively changing the emotional impact of a situation) has generally been associated with positive outcomes, whereas using expressive suppression (i.e., inhibiting emotional responses) usually has negative consequences. The present study investigated the association between teachers’ typical use of these two emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and their feelings of emotional exhaustion. Because there is evidence that regulating emotions could involve higher costs when regulation goes against individual preferences, we also explored the potentially moderating effect of teachers’ implicit attitudes toward emotion regulation versus emotion expression on the association between typical use of emotion regulation strategies and teachers’ emotional exhaustion with an Implicit Association Test (IAT). We included the interpersonal teacher–student relationship (in terms of teacher agency and communion), teacher experience, and teacher gender as covariates in our analyses. Participants were 94 teachers in secondary education, vocational education, and teacher training for secondary education. Replicating findings from prior studies, hierarchical regression analyses showed that typical use of cognitive reappraisal, but not expressive suppression, was significantly related to lower levels of teachers’ emotional exhaustion. Teachers’ implicit attitudes toward emotion regulation versus emotion expression moderated the relationship between the use of emotion regulation strategies and emotional exhaustion, but only in a subsample with more experienced teachers. Teachers who showed more interpersonal agency in class and had more years of teaching experience reported lower levels of emotional exhaustion. Interpersonal communion and gender were not directly associated with feelings of exhaustion. Implications for teacher training and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Ms Zixi Chen
Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education
Michigan State University
Lansing, MI, United States

Ms Xiaolin Shi
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of Health and Human Sciences
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN, United States

Dr Wenwen Zhangog
Department of Public Affairs Administration
South China Agriculture University
Guangzhou, China

Dr Liaojian Qu
Department of Education
Jiangnan Universit
Wuxi, China

Understanding the Complexity of Teacher Emotions From Online Forums:
A Computational Text Analysis Approach
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00921

Abstract

Teacher emotions are complex as emotions are unique to individuals, situated within specific contexts, and vary over time. This study contributed in synthesizing theories of the complexity in two characteristics of multi-dimensionality and dynamics. Further, we provided large-scale empirical evidence by employing big data and computational text analysis. The data contained around one million teachers’ online posts from 2007 to 2018. It was scraped from three representative forums of teachers’ workplace events and personal life occasions in a popular American teacher website. By conducting thread-level sentiment analysis in forums, we computed word-frequency-based eight discrete emotions ratios (i.e., anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, and trust) and the degrees of sentiment polarity (i.e., positive, negative, and neutral). We then used latent Dirichlet allocation for topic classifications. These topics, proxies of contexts, covered a holistic range of teachers’ real-life events. Some topics are in the main interest of scholars, such as teachers’ professional development and students’ behavioral management. This paper is also the first to include the less scholarly studied contexts like professional dressing advice and holiday choices. Then, we examined and visualized variations of emotions and sentiments across 30 topics along with three scales of time (i.e., calendar year, calendar month, and academic semesters). The results showed that teachers tended to have positive sentiments in the online professional community across the past decade, but all eight discrete emotions were presented. The compositions of the specific emotion types varied across topics and time. Regarding the topics of students’ behavior issues, teachers’ negative emotions’ ratios were higher compared when it was presented in other topics. Their negative emotions also peaked during semesters. The forum of teachers’ personal lives had positive emotions pronounced across topics and peaked during the wintertime. This paper summarized the evidenced multi-dimensionality characteristic with the multiple types of emotions as compositions and varying degrees of sentiment polarity of teachers. The dynamics characteristic is that teachers’ emotions vary across contexts from their workplace to their personal lives and over time. These two characteristics of complexity also suggested potential interplay effects among emotions and across contexts over time.

The Dominance of Blended Emotions:
A Qualitative Study of Elementary Teachers’ Emotions Related to Mathematics Teaching
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01865

Abstract

Examining the nature of teachers’ emotions and how they are managed and regulated in the act of teaching is crucial to assess the quality of teachers’ instruction. Despite the essential role emotions play in teachers’ lives and instruction, research on teachers’ emotions has not paid much attention on teachers’ emotions in the context of daily teaching. This paper explored elementary teachers’ emotions while preparing for teaching and during teaching mathematics, reasons that underlie these emotions, and the relationship between their emotions and the quality of their mathematics instruction. Participants were seven elementary teachers working in the U.S. who participated in Holistic Individualized Coaching (HIC) professional development that consisted of five cycles of coaching over an year. For each coaching cycle, pre-coaching conversation and post-coaching conversation data were collected regarding emotions teachers felt in anticipation of teaching and during teaching retrospectively. In order to compare teachers’ emotions with instructional quality, coaching sessions were video recorded and analyzed to determine the quality of instruction. Findings of this study showed that teachers reported six categories of emotions (positive, negative, neutral, blended-positive, blended-negative, and mixed), described emotions often in non-typical ways (e.g., “not nervous”, “anxious but in a positive way”), and experienced mixed emotions (co-occcurence of positive and negative emotions) as the most dominant emotion. Teachers also had more positive emotions anticipating teaching than actually teaching the lesson. The reason teachers felt mixed emotions reflected the complex and context-specific nature of teaching, a phenonemenon not currently described in the teacher emotion literature. There were no clear relationships between emotional experiences and instructional quality. This study allowed participants to freely describe their authentic, complex, overlapping, and ambiguous emotions in the context of active teaching, which contributes opening up the possibilities of diversifying teacher emotion research and shows the significance and usefulness of understanding teachers’ emotions related to active instruction.

Professor Anne Christiane Frenzel
Dr Daniel Fiedler
Dr Anton K. G. Marx
Professor Corinna Reck
Department of Psychology
University of Munich
Munich, Germany

Mr Reinhard Pekrun
Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany
Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Who Enjoys Teaching, and When?
Between- and Within-Person Evidence on Teachers’ Appraisal-Emotion Links
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01092

Abstract

Testing assumptions proposed by Frenzel’s reciprocal model of teacher emotions (e.g., Frenzel, 2014), this study explored relations between teachers’ appraisals concerning the attainment and importance of their teaching goals, and their emotions. Specifically, we addressed teachers’ goals of high student performance, motivation, discipline, and high-quality teacher–student relationship and three key discrete emotions, namely, enjoyment, anger, and anxiety, during teaching. We had 244 secondary school teachers (70.1% female) self-report their goal attainment and importance appraisals and emotional experiences with respect to up to three different classes they currently taught. Results from single- and two-level multivariate multiple regression analyses largely supported the relevance of the goal attainment appraisals for teachers’ emotions both on the between-person and the within-person level. Goal importance appraisals proved to be of secondary relevance. On the between-person level, those teachers who positively appraised the attainment of motivation, discipline, and teacher–student relationship quality proved to report more enjoyment and less anxiety and anger. On the within-person level, teachers reported enjoying teaching those classes more, which they perceived as better performing, more motivated and disciplined, and with whom they had a better relationship. Anger and anxiety were negatively linked to appraisals pertaining to the attainment of discipline and teacher–student relationship quality. Across both analysis perspectives, teacher–student relationship quality attainment showed particularly strong links with all three emotions. Because teachers’ subjective evaluations regarding student behaviors were shown to be highly relevant for their emotions, we conclude that teachers could be supported in modifying their emotional experiences through cognitive reappraisal. Interventions targeting teachers’ relationships with students, and their cognitive judgments thereof, seem particularly promising

Emotion Display Rules, Emotion Regulation, and Teacher Burnout
https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00090

Abstract

Cognitive appraisal theories of emotions suggest that emotions are elicited by evaluations of events and situations and that our beliefs influence the ways we appraise or judge situations that we encounter. Gross and John (2003) theorized cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as two general forms to regulate emotions. Although teacher emotion has been studied more extensively in the recent decade, Chang (2009b) has argued that there is a need for research into the ways that teachers' implicit beliefs and cognitive processes influence their emotional reactions to the sources of burnout. Particularly, how emotional display rules serve as underlying principles that guide teachers to make decisions either consciously or unconsciously to express or not to express emotions. This study aims to examine the relationships among teachers' beliefs about emotional display rules in the classroom, and the approaches in emotion regulation, and the subsequent feelings of burnout. Survey data was collected from 561 full-time teachers and subjected to hypothesis testing using structural equation modeling. The model provides evidence supporting a pathway between emotion display rules and expressive suppression. These display rules are particularly influential to expressive suppression which also leads to all three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Further, uses of cognitive reappraisals are found negatively associated with teacher burnout in all three dimensions. Results of the study indicated that teacher education or profession development should be designed to help teachers to detect and reframe their beliefs about display rules and to engage in cognitive reappraisal so that they may effectively manage their day-to-day emotions in the classroom.

Dr Petruta P. Rusu
Dr Aurora A. Colomeischi
Department of Educational Sciences
University “Stefan cel Mare” of Suceava
Suceava, Romania

Positivity Ratio and Well-Being Among Teachers.
The Mediating Role of Work Engagement
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01608

Abstract

Previous studies indicated that the balance of positive to negative affect (i.e., positivity ratio) is associated with subjective well-being and flourishing in the general population. Moreover, a positivity ratio of 2.9 is considered a critical value discriminating between flourishing and non-flourishing individuals. To date, however, there is limited research on the positivity ratio on samples of teachers. The present study aimed to investigate whether the positivity ratio affects work engagement and well-being among teachers. Based on the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001) and work engagement model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007), we predicted that positivity ratio (the ratio between positive and negative emotions) experienced by teachers would increase their work engagement, which in turn would positively affect their well-being. A sample of 1,335 teachers (762 women and 573 men) from Romania participated in the study. Results revealed that work engagement mediated the relationship between positivity ratio and well-being. Specifically, teachers with a higher ratio of positive to negative emotions reported more engagement (dedication, absorption, and vigor) and in consequence higher levels of subjective well-being (autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, self-acceptance, positive relations with others and purpose in life). Also, when investigating the positivity ratio according to participants’ well-being, we found a mean of positivity ratio of 2.84 for the group of teachers with high levels of well-being, validating the proposed critical positivity ratio of 2.9. These findings support the importance of addressing positive emotions and positivity ratio in prevention and intervention programs with teachers.

Topic Specificity and Antecedents for Preservice Biology Teachers’ Anticipated Enjoyment for Teaching About Socioscientific Issues: Investigating Universal Values and Psychological Distance
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01536

Abstract

Enjoyment for teaching represents one of the most frequently reported teaching emotions and positively affects student outcomes. Therefore, researchers and teacher educators need to understand its nature and underlying appraisal processes to prepare motivated teachers as part of initial teacher education. Using cross-sectional questionnaire data from 189 German biology preservice teachers (73.5% female, meanage = 23.45 years, SDage = 3.71 years), we empirically tested the topic-specific structure and antecedents of participants’ anticipated enjoyment for teaching. We adapted the established Teacher Emotion Scale to measure preservice teachers’ trait-based enjoyment for teaching by reframing the items with the environmental socioscientific issues of the return of wild wolves and climate change and the health socioscientific issue of preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the best fit of a topic-specific model. We also found different correlations for the anticipated enjoyment for teaching about the issues, but no significant differences in means. Concerning further topic-specific antecedents, the environmentally oriented basic value of universalism predicted the anticipated enjoyment for teaching about the return of wolves, and the socially oriented universal value of benevolence predicted the anticipated enjoyment for teaching about preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Both values inconsistently predicted the anticipated enjoyment for teaching about climate change. While this is in line with the complex nature of this socioscientific issue, psychological distance was a predictor for the anticipated enjoyment for teaching about every topic. While these effects remained stable when controlling for demographic variables, male participants showed a higher anticipated enjoyment for teaching about wolves and about climate change, and female preservice teachers for teaching about preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Further studies are needed to investigate if the results can be transferred to in-service teachers or to other teaching emotions. Furthermore, future studies could examine effects on other factors relevant to teaching emotions such as reactions to student behavior, which have been described as central for the causation of teaching emotions in prior studies (i.e., “reciprocal model of teaching emotions”). The present study stimulates such new studies and adds important knowledge to the understanding of topic specificity and topic-specific antecedents of anticipated enjoyment for teaching, which are relevant for teacher education and professional development.

Dr Junjun Chen
Professor John Chi-kin Lee
The Education University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong, China

Professor Jihe Dong
School of Education
Shandong Women’s University
Jinan, China

Emotional Trajectory at Different Career Stages:
Two Excellent Teachers’ Stories
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01034

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate excellent teachers’ emotional journey, particularly, the trajectory of emotional experiences and emotional labor strategies at different career phases. The research used a case-study approach to explore the storied experience of two teachers (female and male) who were bestowed the Provincial Excellent Teacher Award. They were close to retirement so they could retrieve emotional experiences from across their entire career. Individual semi-structured interviews were utilized as a major data source, supplemented with relevant documentation and phone calls to achieve data triangulation. Thematic analysis was adopted to deal with data. The findings demonstrated a dynamic pattern of emotions and emotional labor, transiting from one teacher career stage to another. It was observed that the female teacher experienced mixed emotions but the male teacher had more negative emotions at the early stage. Both teachers claimed more positive emotions in the middle stage and a high level of satisfaction in the late stage. Both of them employed genuine expression and surface acting strategies in the first two stages. In the late stage, the female teacher used a combination of genuine expression and deep acting with more empathy, whilst the male teacher adopted a combination of surface acting and genuine expression aiming for a neutral atmosphere. Social values, organizational demands professional self, and gender are discussed for possibly resulting in these discrepancies.