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"There Are No Emotions in Math": How Teachers Approach Emotions in the Classroom
Abstract
Background/Context: Our research describes teacher emotions and the way that teachers manage emotional events in the classroom. Recent work completed by these researchers sug-gests that teachers' emotions and their reaction to student emotions are influenced by the teachers' beliefs. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: In this study, we explored teachers' beliefs and their descriptions of emotional events within their classrooms to understand how these teachers attempted to address or repress student emotions. The research questions were
The present observational study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine predictors of children's social and self-regulatory outcomes in first-grade classrooms. Specifically, goals were the following: (1) to explore relations between emotionally supportive teacher-child interactions and children's social behaviors (aggression with peers, exclusion by peers, prosocial behaviors) and self-regulatory skills (behavioral self-control); and (2) to examine whether emotionally supportive teacher-student interactions contributed differentially to social and self-regulatory outcomes for first-graders at risk for school difficulty based on sociodemographic characteristics compared to counterparts with fewer sociodemographic risk characteristics. Participants were 178 students and 36 teachers in seven rural schools. Results indicated higher teacher emotional support related to lower child aggression and higher behavioral self-control. Emotional support was equally important for all children regardless of the number of sociodemographic risk factors. Results provide evidence for the contribution of teacher behaviors to students' social behaviors and self-regulatory skills, and suggest the importance of classroom interactions in children's acquisition of social and emotional competence. Discussion focuses on plausible mechanisms and implications for interventions.
This collective case study reports on an investigation into the relationship between mathematics teachers’ beliefs and their
classroom practices, namely, how they organized their classroom activities, interacted with their students, and assessed their
students’ learning. Additionally, the study examined the pervasiveness of their beliefs in the face of efforts to incorporate
reform-oriented classroom materials and instructional strategies. The participants were five high school teachers of ninth-grade
algebra at different stages in their teaching career. The qualitative analysis of the data revealed that in general beliefs
were very influential on the teachers’ daily pedagogical decisions and that their beliefs about the nature of mathematics
served as a primary source of their beliefs about pedagogy and student learning. Findings from the analysis concur with previous
studies in this area that reveal a clear relationship between these constructs. In addition, the results provide useful insights
for the mathematics education community as it shows the diversity among the inservice teachers’ beliefs (presented as hypothesized
belief models), the role and influence of beliefs about the nature of mathematics on the belief structure and how the teachers
designed their instructional practices to reflect these beliefs. The article concludes with a discussion of implications of
teacher education.
The teacher–student relationship is viewed as integral to successful teaching and learning but, outside of a few exceptions, ethical boundary issues in this relationship have not been explored. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perspectives of their relationships with their students as well as how they described and negotiated relationship boundaries. Findings were organised into a typology of 11 categories of boundaries. The balance between demonstrating care while maintaining a healthy, productive level of control in the classroom was a recurring theme when discussing the boundaries.
This exploratory study examines how teachers perceive their work within the current context of educational reform. A cognitive social-psychological approach to emotions offers the theoretical framework for understanding what teachers have at stake within the context of the reforms. Six Dutch secondary school teachers with strongly differing professional orientations were interviewed. The results show the ways in which teachers appraise the relations between their professional orientations and the situational demands they face.
This article discusses the serendipitous findings that illustrated the importance of students' and teachers' emotions during instructional interactions. Through revisiting former assumptions and findings, this article concludes that emotion is an essential part of studying motivation in classroom interactions. Emotions are intertwined in teachers' instructional responses and students' beliefs and actions, constituting an integral part of the interpersonal processes that create classroom contexts. This article calls for new theoretical syntheses and research programs that integrate emotion, motivation, and cognition as equal components in the social process of learning.
This article illustrates the significance of teachers' emotions in the construction of teacher identity by invoking a poststructuralist lens in discussing the place of emotion in identity formation. In suggesting a poststructuralist perspective of emotions and teacher identity, it is argued that teacher identity is constantly becoming in a context embedded in power relations, ideology, and culture. In theorizing about teacher identity two ideas are developed: first, that the construction of teacher identity is at bottom affective, and is dependent upon power and agency, i.e., power is understood as forming the identity and providing the very condition of its trajectory; and second, that an investigation of the emotional components of teacher identity yields a richer understanding of the teacher self. This discussion is motivated by a desire to develop analyses that investigate how teachers' emotions can become sites of resistance and self-transformation. The emphasis on understanding the teacher-self through an exploration of emotion opens possibilities for the care and the self-knowledge of teachers and provides spaces for their transformation.
This article examines some of the theoretical foundations on which future inquiry on emotions in education may proceed. The study of emotions has a lot of promise in informing the understanding of teaching, motivation, and self-regulated learning; however, it also indicates that inquiry on emotions presents a number of potential challenges. First, the article discusses assumptions about the nature of reality, the nature of the knower, and knowledge that guides the study of emotions. Then, there is a discussion of theoretical views on the nature of emotions that emerge from assumptions about reality and knowledge. Next, the article discusses potential approaches for investigating emotions that have emerged from beliefs about the nature of emotions and assumptions about reality and knowledge. Finally, the article discusses some potential directions for future inquiry on emotions in education. The article also suggests that as this area of inquiry matures, the continual examination of the theoretical foundations on which inquiry on emotions in education is based is seen as fundamental to the healthy development of this research community.
The article describes the development and initial validity efforts for a context-specific measure of Emotional Regulation during Test-taking (ERT). Presented are results from both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on independent half samples, one used for development and one used for validation, which supported a 39-item, four-dimensional structure (i.e., Task-Focusing, Emotion-Focusing, Regaining Task-Focus, and Cognitive-Appraising Processes). In addition, results examining the relationship between the ERT and relevant measures of test anxiety, mood regulation, and coping showed support for the construct validity of the ERT scale.
The purpose of this article is to add to our current understanding of the social contexts of education by synthesizing research on the nature and influence of relationships between students and their teachers. I was guided by 3 questions. First, how have we conceptualized students' relationships with teachers? Second, how have our approaches to studying relationships shaped our understanding of the phenomenon? Third, looking across these different approaches to studying student-teacher relationships, what do we know about the nature and influence of student-teacher relationships developmentally? Specifically, I review in 3 broad themes the multiple conceptions, or approaches, to the study of student-teacher relationships. These include student-teacher relationships from attachment perspectives, from motivation perspectives, and from sociocultural perspectives. I view each approach a posing a critical question needing to be addressed conceptually, methodologically, and developmentally. Looking across approaches, findings reveal 1 limitation of our current understanding of student-teacher relationships is that is most of our knowledge about relationships for a particular population of students (e.g., preschool, elementary school, middle school, or high school) is embedded within knowledge about a particular approach (e.g., attachment, motivation, or sociocultural) as well as within specific methods of studying relationships. Implications for future research and theory development are discussed.
Lifelong, self-regulated learning has been a topic of considerable interest in educational psychology. However, one area of self-regulation that has received less attention is the process of regulating emotions. The goal of this article is to explicate a model of self-regulation that incorporates recent theory and research on emotions and emotional regulation. From the perspective presented, emotions and our regulation of them are directly involved in self-regulation and, therefore, need to play a more important role in current research and theory on the nature of goal-directed, lifelong, self-regulated learning. A general model of self-regulation is described, followed by a discussion of current views about the nature of emotional regulation during test taking. This is followed by a discussion of research during the phases of test taking. Finally, conclusions and areas for future research are discussed.
The relation between the learning environment (e.g., students' perceptions of the classroom goal structure and teachers' instructional discourse) and students' reported use of avoidance strategies (self-handicapping, avoidance of help seeking) and preference to avoid novelty in mathematics was examined. Quantitative analyses indicated that students' reports of avoidance behaviors varied significantly among classrooms. A perceived emphasis on mastery goals in the classroom was positively related to lower reports of avoidance. Qualitative analyses revealed that teachers in high-mastery/low-avoidance and low-mastery/high-avoidance classrooms used distinctively different patterns of instructional and motivational discourse. High incidence of motivational support was uniquely characteristic of high-mastery/ low-avoidance classrooms, suggesting that mastery goals may include an affective component. Implications of the results for both theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Models of learning to teach recognize the important relationship between university and school settings. The roles that educators in each setting play in the development of effective beginning teachers are not discrete. Rather they complement and support one another. Building upon existing literature, and utilizing recent data, this paper challenges teacher educators to consider how pre-service teacher core beliefs and perceptions affect the dynamics of learning to teach and the establishment of a teacher identity. To facilitate these, it is argued that a consultative mentoring model that acknowledges individuality is more effective in the growth of teacher identity than the more traditional supervision model that focuses mainly on socialization. Reflective practice is promoted as crucial and its development is the responsibility of all teacher educators— both at university and in the schools.
This article represents our current reflections on our approach to inquiry on emotions in education. Our views reflect an eclectic blend of, educational, psychological, and social historical approaches to inquiry on emotion and emotional regulation. In an effort to explicate our approach, we address our working definitions of emotion and emotional regulation. Next, we discuss our views on transactions among cognition, motivation and emotions, as well as the methods and methodologies that guide our inquiry on emotions in education. We conclude with some of the problems associated with, as well as a discussion of why, in spite of the challenges related to doing inquiry on emotions, the study of emotions can be useful for improving educational processes.
'Eggshell days' is how one teacher in this study describes the experience of stress. Stressed teachers here relate their experiences, perceptions and feelings as they hit rock-bottom. They describe the help and the strategies that enable them to recover and the ways they renegotiate their lives to move forward. Their stories throw light on what has become a crucial personal, family and societal issue that is increasingly prevalent among educators and other public service providers. They also offer hope to others in a similar plight.
The book examines the individual psychologies of this group of stressed teachers, their work patterns, roles and relationships - and their steps towards recovery. It also highlights the ways the current education system contributes to teacher stress and indicates how dysfunctional school support systems can be changed so that teachers work in a collegiate and supportive environment.
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This edited book examines some of the current inquiry related to the study of emotions in educational contexts. There has been a notable increased interest in educational research on emotions. Emotion in Education represents some of the most exciting and current research on emotions and education, and has the potential to impact research in this area. This combination of variety, timeliness, potential for transformation of the field, and uniqueness make this a "must-have" resource for academics in the fields of education, educational psychology, emotion psychology, cultural psychology, sociology, and teacher education. The chapters have been written for scholars in the area, but authors also wrote with graduate students in mind. Therefore, the book is also be a great volume for graduate seminars. *Provides in-depth examination of emotions in educational contexts *Includes international roster of contributors who represent a variety of disciplines *Represents a number of different research approaches.
This chapter highlights teachers' experience related to emotional transactions during classroom events. In any discussion of classroom transactions, it is difficult to extract one individual from the rest of the participants in the classroom. Classrooms involve both teachers and students who come to that activity setting with their own personal histories that have emerged from transactions within their own social-historical contexts. In Bronfenbrenner's model, the various microsystems teachers are involved in, are nested within a mesosystem that represents the transactional activities among teachers' various microsystems (a teacher's family or self-influencing classroom transactions). This mesosystem is nested within an exosystem that includes the social-historical influences that affect teachers, even though teachers may not be directly involved in the process. The exosystem in turn is embedded in a macrosystem, which represents the larger society and the potential social-historical influences on the other systems (cultural values, the federal government's proposed educational mandates, or the historical treatment of various groups within the society). Finally, the chronosystem adds the dimension of time as it relates to teachers' transactions. This model reminds that a particular classroom and the activities that occur in that classroom do not occur in a vacuum. They are part of a complex social-historical contextual web.
This article conceptualizes the emotional labor construct in terms of four dimensions: frequency of appropriate emotional display, attentiveness to required display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance generated by having to express organizationally desired emotions not genuinely felt. Through this framework, the article then presents a series of propositions about the organizational-, job-, and individual-level characteristics that are antecedents of each of these four dimensions. Frequency of emotional display, attentiveness to display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance are hypothesized to lead to greater emotional exhaustion, but only emotional dissonance is hypothesized to lead to lower job satisfaction. Implications for future theory development and empirical research on emotional labor are discussed as well.
The purpose of this study is to review the limited literature on the emotional aspects of teachers' lives. First, a multicomponential perspective on emotions is described, then the existing literature on teachers' positive and negative emotions is reviewed and critiqued. Next is a summary of the literature suggesting that teachers' emotions influence teachers' and students' cognitions, motivation, and behaviors. Four areas for future research are proposed: management and discipline, adoption and use of teaching strategies, learning to teach, and teachers' motivation. An overview of research methods used in a multicomponential perspective on emotions is provided. This review draws on a variety of research literatures: educational psychology, social and personality psychology, educational sociology, and research on teachers and teaching.
Little or no attention has been paid to the racialized dimensions of the emotion work done by individuals as part of their paid jobs. I argue that this exclusion of racial analyses is symptomatic of a static conceptualization of the subject underlying many studies of emotion work. While theorists illuminate the different forms of emotion work required by women and men, and by individuals in various professions, there is little understanding of the relationship between the emotion work people do and their social locations within interactive race, class and gender hierarchies. Drawing on feminist anti-racist theory I propose a multidimensional approach to difference and stratification, which would allow us to illuminate new forms of emotion work done by people living in today's heterogeneous social and economic context. The theoretical discussion in this article is complemented by an analysis of the experiences of an ethnically diverse group of women who are small-business owners in Halifax, Canada.
In this article, a number of scientific schools of thought and research results are reviewed and found to show the importance of identifying the existential attributions of teachers. Important points of anchor are existential phenomenology and symbolic interactionism, the approach to organizations as emotional arenas, social-psychological theories, concerns theory, and, finally, a number of different perspectives on the professional identities of teachers. Next, those policy developments responsible for the emergence of specific existential attributions are considered. At the same time, the results of some recent studies attempting to explain the emergence of certain existential attributions are discussed: studies of the professional development of teachers, analyses of the feelings of uncertainty and concerns that occur among teachers during innovations, and research on tolerance of uncertainty among teachers during the current intensification of their jobs. Finally, redesigning the innovation process is discussed with an eye to just how the existential attributions of teachers can best be handled.
Reasons for investing in parental involvement activities aimed at improving the performance of primary school children in either numeracy or literacy are analysed. Data are then discussed in relation firstly to sociocultural understandings of how teachers support children's learning and secondly to conceptions of identity and self-esteem apparently held by participating teachers. We suggest that primary schools are currently being obliged to use parents as assistants in the delivery of an over-loaded curriculum in ways which do not draw on understandings of what parents do have to offer.
Attention to the beliefs of teachers and teacher candidates should be a focus of educational research and can inform educational practice in ways that prevailing research agendas have not and cannot. The difficulty in studying teachers’ beliefs has been caused by definitional problems, poor conceptualizations, and differing understandings of beliefs and belief structures. This article examines the meaning prominent researchers give to beliefs and how this meaning differs from that of knowledge, provides a definition of belief consistent with the best work in this area, explores the nature of belief structures as outlined by key researchers, and offers a synthesis of findings about the nature of beliefs. The article argues that teachers’ beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry but that this will require clear conceptualizations, careful examination of key assumptions, consistent understandings and adherence to precise meanings, and proper assessment and investigation of specific belief constructs. Implications of findings and directions for future research are offered.
A cognitive theory of the emotions would suggest that emotional development can be pursued through challenge to the understandings and judgments on which emotions are based. The situation of two mature women teachers is here considered. They are found to have profound commitments to the pupils they teach and to gain considerable emotional security therefrom. They tend to define school matters outside their teaching as distractions and frustrations. It is suggested that professional development requires a whole‐school approach, one which would contribute to a fuller emotional commitment to the educational project.
The present study distinguished between two modal emotional display rules, demands to express positive efference and demands to suppress negative efference, that partially constitute the work roles of many employees. Perceived demands to express positive emotion were positively related to health symptoms primarily among those reporting: (1) lower identification with the organization; (2) lower job involvement; and (3) lower emotional adaptability. The effects of various personality traits and situational variables on perceived emotional labor differed depending on the nature of the emotional labor. The findings are discussed in terms of implications of emotional labor for health and practices through which organizations might intervene to minimize its unhealthful consequences among employees. We also attempt to reconcile the findings with some of the related research in psychology suggesting that some forms of required efference may have salutary physiological consequences. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This is a self-study of an elementary teacher's emotions during the year he took a sabbatical from a position as an education professor. He worked as an elementary classroom teacher, and he kept a journal of his daily experience as a teacher of a nongraded primary class. With the journal as a data source, the study examined the feeling "rules" for teachers, the functional and dysfunctional dimensions of teacher emotions, and the strategies teachers use to engage in emotional labor. The findings show both functional and dysfunctional dimensions of the teacher's emotional experience. The article suggests that the self-accusatory stance of teachers diverts teachers' attention from structural problems in their working conditions and, instead, focuses attention on the inadequacies of teachers as individuals. Furthermore, the paper suggests that it is from the collective naming and examination of emotions that teachers may be able to learn to accept and understand the darker emotions of teaching, to understand the relationship between emotions and social structure, as well as learn to use emotions such as anger and disgust as catalysts for social activism and change.
in the first [part of this chapter] . . . outlined three models of emotion, elucidated the interactional model . . . and described two concepts basic to my view of emotions, "feeling rules" and "emotion work"
in the second part of this essay I have turned from emotional experience on the job to that in the family / described some aspects of my recent research on fifty two job couples reported in "The Second Shift" (1989)
in the third part of this essay I have suggested some paths for future research about gender strategies, ethnic strategies, and class strategies / outlined a series of questions about the ideological and organizational contexts of these strategies on the one hand, and their relations to the "real self" on the other
an emotion management perspective / expression rules and feeling rules
emotional preparation and consequences of gender strategies / gender ideologies and feeling rules / emotional anchors to ideology and feeling rules / gender ideologies of . . men and women / emotional pathways of gender strategies / emotional preparation for ethnic and class strategies (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
structured around the key areas of research within the field [teachers' beliefs and knowledge] / begins with the history of development of the research area / followed by an account of the research methodology that has grown up around this topic and a review of empirical inquiries into teacher cognitions, including research on teacher planning, interactive thinking, and postactive reflection / research on teachers' knowledge is reviewed, followed by a short discussion of the implications of research in the field for teacher education, curriculum development, and school improvement / review concludes with a look at possible future directions of research
methodology [simulations, commentaries, concept mapping and repertory grid, ethnography and case studies, narratives] / purpose, validity, and reliability (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
give an overview of the origins, purposes, uses, and contributions of grounded theory methodology / grounded theory is a general methodology for developing theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article reports on a three-year ethnographic study with an experienced elementary science teacher and describes the role of her positive and negative emotions in constructing her science pedagogy, curriculum planning, and relationships with children and colleagues. Examples are offered of the different emotional experiences she related to her science teaching, and it is shown how insights from this research are useful and significant to researchers and educators who want to improve science teaching and learning. A conceptual and methodological framework developed by the author that is based on an interdisciplinary approach in researching emotions is presented. Finally, some implications of researching emotions for elementary science teacher education and science education reform are suggested. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 79–103, 2002
An understanding of the importance of metaphors and beliefs in the development of teachers' practical knowledge has already been explored in science education research. However, the significance of emotion metaphors and the consequences of emotional labor as part of being a science teacher have been little addressed. This study describes the findings from a 3-year ethnographic case study of an elementary-school teacher who participated in a research project investigating the role of teacher emotion in science teaching and student learning. This research demonstrates how the performance of emotional labor is an important aspect of reality in science teaching. The teacher in this study is willing to do the emotional labor that involves some suffering because the emotional rewards are gratifying. A perspective on emotion in science education may focus, at least in part, on the functions of emotion in creating inspiring emotional cultures in science teaching and learning. Recognizing that teachers and students are agents in constructing such cultures, educators, teachers, and administrators are more likely to grasp the complexities and possibilities of emotional labor in the context of science education. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed88:301–324, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/.sce10116
This study focused on the relationship of belief systems as a configural construct and conservatism-liberalism to attitudes toward the death penalty and other punishments for offenses of varying severity Extrapersonalists, the most concretely functioning of the four conceptual or belief systems posited by Harvey, Hunt, and Schroder (1961), were most in favor of the death penalty They also endorsed the most severe punishment for a variety of crimes, to a particularly greater extent than did representatives of either of the two more abstractly functioning systems
The belief dimensions of Openness, Evaluativeness, and Complexity, as well as the frequency of church attendance, correlated more highly and consistently with attitudes toward punishment than did either Conservatism-Liberalism or gender Both of the latter variables failed to correlate with a number of the outcome variables and related at only low levels to the others
The greater predictive power of a configural conception of personality or belief systems over a unidimensional conception seems to have been demonstrated Configural concepts may additionally be generally superior to multidimensional concepts treated linearly
The idea that parental involvement has positive influence on students' academic achievement is so intuitively appealing that society in general, and educators in particular, have considered parental involvement an important ingredient for the remedy for many problems in education. The vast proportion of the literature in this area, however, is qualitative and nonempirical. Among the empirical studies that have investigated the issue quantitatively, there appear to be considerable inconsistencies. A meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the quantitative literature about the relationship between parental involvement and students' academic achievement. The findings reveal a small to moderate, and practically meaningful, relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement. Through moderator analysis, it was revealed that parental aspiration/expectation for children's education achievement has the strongest relationship, whereas parental home supervision has the weakest relationship, with students' academic achievement. In addition, the relationship is stronger when academic achievement is represented by a global indicator (e.g., GPA) than by a subject-specific indicator (e.g., math grade). Limitations of the study are noted, and suggestions are made for future studies.
This study addresses two questions: what goals do teachers have for their own emotional regulation, and what strategies do teachers report they use to regulate their own emotions. Data were collected from middle school teachers in North East Ohio, USA through a semi-structured interview. All but one of the teachers reported regulating their emotions and there were no gender or experience differences in spontaneously discussing emotional regulation. Teachers believed that regulating their emotions helped their teaching effectiveness goals and/or conformed to their idealized emotion image of a teacher. Teachers used a variety of preventative and responsive emotional regulation strategies to help them regulate their emotions. Future research on teachers emotional regulation goals and strategies should examine the role of culture and the relationship of emotional regulation goals with teachers other goals, stress, and coping.
This paper uses a sociocultural theoretical lens, incorporating mediated agency [Wertsch et al. (1993). A sociocultural approach to agency. In A. Forman, N. Minick, & A. Stone (Eds.), Contexts for learning sociocultural dynamics in children's development (pp. 336–357). New York: Oxford University Press] to examine the dynamic interplay among teacher identity, agency, and context as these affect how secondary teachers report experiencing professional vulnerability, particularly in terms of their abilities to achieve their primary purposes in teaching students. Two mediational systems that shape teacher agency and their professional vulnerability are addressed. These are: (a) the early influences on teacher identity; and (b) the current reform context. Interview data revealed that the political and social context along with early teacher development shaped teachers’ sense of identity and sense of purpose as a teacher. Survey and interview data indicate that there was a disjuncture between teacher identity and expectations of the new reform mandates. Teacher agency was clearly constrained in the new reform context. Teachers struggled to remain openly vulnerable with their students, and to create trusting learning environments in what they described as a more managerial profession with increased accountability pressures. Directions for future research are also discussed.
Based on the premise that teachers’ perceptions of their professional roles are closely linked to their self images and their impact on the learning and achievement of their students, a study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the context of teachers’ work and their views of themselves as professionals. Sixty teachers in Israeli vocational senior high schools participated in the study. Half taught high-achieving and half low-achieving students. Teachers’ professional images of self were uncovered by asking them to match their images of themselves as teachers with drawings of other, carefully chosen, occupations and to comment on their choices. The use of metaphoric pictures was found to be a meaningful vehicle for raising teachers’ awareness of their roles and functions in school. The major finding of this study was that the teaching context has a significant impact on teachers’ images of their professional selves. The caring metaphor, for instance, is more prevalent in some educational situations than in others, leading to potential pedagogical implications. The rejection of some images proved to be no less important than the positive choices. It is argued that metaphoric pictures could serve not only as research instruments but also as an instructional tool in teacher education programs.
This article seeks to explore the ways in which the culture and organization of teaching influences the experiences and emotions teachers report in their interactions with parents. Hargreaves’ framework, based on the emotional politics of teaching, is used here to analyze fifty-three primary and secondary teachers’ interview responses in which they described interactions with parents that elicited negative and positive emotions. Parent–teacher interactions are explored as emotional practices that are inseparable from teachers’ moral purposes, shaped by influences of culture and relationship, and inextricably interconnected elements of status and power. Data suggest that the culture and organization of teaching influence the values, discourses and senses of purpose teachers hold and thus the experiences and emotions they report in their interactions with parents. The article closes with suggestions for further research and policy considerations.
The development of an ethic of care is seen as a central concern of teacher education, however little attention has been paid to the preconceived conceptions of caring held by preservice teachers. In this article we share the results of a recent study of a group of preservice elementary teachers in which we examined the understandings of the relationship of caring and teaching brought by these novices to their first field placement experiences. Rather than seeing our students’ partial and limited understandings as problematic, we argue that the student teachers’ preconceptions can be an ideal starting point for productive, educative dialogue about caring and elementary school teaching practice.
This paper describes the conceptual framework, methodology, and some results from a project on the Emotions of Teaching and Educational Change. It introduces the concepts of emotional intelligence, emotional labor, emotional understanding and emotional geographies. Drawing on interviews with 53 teachers in 15 schools, the paper then describes key differences in the emotional geographies of elementary and secondary teaching. Elementary teaching is characterized by physical and professional closeness which creates greater emotional intensity; but in ambivalent conditions of classroom power, where intensity is sometimes negative. Secondary teaching is characterized by greater professional and physical distance leading teachers to treat emotions as intrusions in the classroom. This distance, the paper argues, threatens the basic forms of emotional understanding on which high-quality teaching and learning depend.
The purpose of this study was to investigate experienced secondary school teachers’ (N=80) current and prior perceptions of their professional identity. A questionnaire was used to explore the way teachers see (and saw) themselves as subject matter experts, didactical experts, and pedagogical experts. The teachers currently see their professional identity as consisting of a combination of the distinct aspects of expertise. Most teachers’ current perceptions of their professional identity reportedly differ significantly from their prior perceptions of this identity during their period as beginning teachers. On the basis of their current perceptions of their professional identity, five groups of teachers could be distinguished. These groups had different learning experiences throughout their careers for each aspect of expertise. Also, teachers from different subject areas did not undergo the same changes in their perceptions of their professional identity. The differences among the groups in teachers’ current perceptions of professional identity were not related to contextual, experiential, and biographical factors that might influence these perceptions.