EMOTIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

SWEET (AND NOT-SO-SWEET)

WHY THE CONCERN?

• Teaching as a “caring” profession

• Teaching as “emotional work”

• Status of “language teacher” and “identity”QUESTION 1 - DO YOU CONSIDER

TEACHING A “CARING” PROFESSION? WHY OR WHY NOT?

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

PSYCHOLOGYTODAY.COMEMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

• Ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others.

• (1) Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;

• (2) The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;

• (3) The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.

–Denzin, N. (1984). On understanding emotion. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

“Teaching is not only a cognitive and behavioral practice where improving

teaching involves attending solely to what teachers should know and be able to do.”

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EMOTIONAL GEOGRAPHIES

WIKIPEDIAEMOTIONAL GEOGRAPHIES

• is a subtopic within human geography, dealing with the relationships between emotions and geographic places and their contextual environments. Emotional geography specifically focuses on how human emotions relate to, or affect, the environment around them.

EMOTIONAL LABOR

WHARTON (2009)EMOTIONAL LABOR

• Refers to the process by which workers are expected to manage their feelings in accordance with organizationally defined rules and guidelines.

• Hochschild's (1983) The Managed Heart introduced this concept and inspired an outpouring of research on this topic.

“Along with achievement of purposes, a sense of security about oneself and relationships with others is, indeed, a

basic correlate of happiness, satisfaction and willingness to take personal risks in learning”

–Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(8), 835-854.

Quote 2 CURRENT STUDY

• Semester-long (15 weeks) Reflective Journaling Project (PD)

• 10 Teachers

• Data - Journal entries, semi-structured interviews (weeks 8 & 15)

• Qualitative Analysis (NVivo)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• (1) What shared/differing feelings and emotions are experienced by EFL teachers in Japan?

• (2) What feelings or emotions do EFL teachers in Japan perceive in their students?

QUESTION 2 - WHAT ARE SOME EMOTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

THAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR TEACHING CONTEXT?

WHAT SHARED/DIFFERING FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS ARE EXPERIENCED BY EFL TEACHERS IN JAPAN?

• The most commonly reported teacher emotion was frustration.

• Apathy or lack of student effort or reaction appear to be a major source of disappointment and frustration.

• Teacher emotions are sometimes not related to the classroom at all, but are influenced by other parts of their lives.

• Many positive emotions experienced by this group (e.g. the joy of a relaxed and/or convivial atmosphere)

• Teachers get most of their satisfaction from positive reactions or progress of their learners

WHAT FEELINGS OR EMOTIONS DO EFL TEACHERS IN JAPAN PERCEIVE IN THEIR STUDENTS?

• Sensitivity to emotions on the part of teachers

• Reciprocal nature of emotions in the classroom

• Student emotions are strongly influenced by the teacher and other students

QUESTION 3 - HOW MIGHT A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF TEACHING

HELP YOU?–Day, C., Kington, A., Storbart, G. & Sammons, P. (2006). The personal and professional selves of teachers: Stable and unstable identities. British Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 601-616.

“Sustaining a positive sense of effectiveness to subject, pupils, relationships and roles is important in maintaining motivation, self-esteem or self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and

commitment to teaching . . .”

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