Paul A. Schutz

Introduction to Advances in Teacher Emotion Research: The Impact on Teachers’ Lives

In this chapter we discuss the importance of this edit volume and begin the discussion of issues related to inquiry on teacher emotion. In addition we set the stage for the remainder of the book by providing a brief introduction to the different sections of the book and the chapters those sections contain.

Educational Psychology Perspectives on Teachers’ Emotions

In this chapter we focus on teacher emotion from an educational psychology lens. In doing so, we explicate some of the current theories related to the nature of emotion. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the debates about the nature and structure of emotion in psychology and educational psychology. In other words, are there distinct categories of emotions (e.g., anger, fear) or is it more useful to conceptualize emotion with a dimensional model (e.g., pleasant vs. unpleasant, active vs. inactive)? We use those perspectives to help us understand teachers’ emotions and discuss research related to how teachers negotiate relationship boundaries with their students, how teachers develop useful emotional climates in their classrooms, and how teachers attempt to deal with the emotional labor needed in negotiating their role as a teacher.

Research on Teachers’ Emotions in Education: Findings, Practical Implications and Future Agenda

In this chapter we synthesize the themes that emerge from the other chapters. Additionally, we discuss future directions for inquiry on teachers’ emotions, as well as implications for classroom instruction, intervention, teachers’ professional development, teachers’ lives, and educational policy and leadership. Finally, we use the content of the chapters to discuss the variety, timeliness, and potential for transformation of the field, and the unique contributions of the chapters to our understanding of teachers’ emotions in education

Inquiry on Teachers’ Emotion

Teaching, like other caring professions, is emotional. These emotions tend to emerge as teachers’ goals, standards, and beliefs transact with other classroom stakeholders during everyday school activities. As such, for teachers, the classroom context involves both the extreme happiness and joy from a lesson that goes as planned to the intense frustration of working with a challenging student. These academic emotions have garnered the attention of a growing number of researchers, and will be the focus of this article. More specifically, my goal is to summarize and extend our thoughts about the nature of research and our program of research related to teacher emotion.

Researching Race Within Educational Psychology Contexts

In this article, we question why race as a sociohistorical construct has not traditionally been investigated in educational psychology research. To do so, we provide a historical discussion of the significance of race as well as present current dilemmas in the exploration of race, including an examination of the incidence and prevalence of race-related constructs in top educational psychology journals. As a means of expanding educational psychologys use of race as a sociohistorical construct, we introduce the concepts of race-focused and race-reimaged constructs. We end the article with suggestions for how we can begin exploring race as a sociohistorical construct in the field of educational psychology, including the need to challenge traditional paradigms and embrace culturally relevant methodologies.

Approach/Avoidance motives, test emotions, and emotional regulation related to testing

Abstract This research stems from our program of work that focuses on understanding how students regulated their emotions related to testing. The primary goal for this study was to incorporate the approach/avoidance motives into a model of emotional regulation related to testing. In addition, a secondary goal was to report on efforts at construct validation of the scores obtained during the refinement of the Emotional Regulation Related to Testing (ERT) Scale. Our results suggest that underlying beliefs, such as approach/avoid motives and the cognitive-appraisal process, of the ERT had both direct and indirect effects to both pleasant and unpleasant emotions related to testing. In addition, the ERT accounted for 56% of the variance in Pleasant and 87% of Unpleasant Test Emotions.

Investigating transactions among motives, emotional regulation related to testing, and test emotions

The authors examined the relationships among achievement motives, emotional regulation, and emotions. They collected data from 425 college undergraduates (110 men, 315 women) and used several scales, including the Achievement Motives Scales (K. Hagtvet & L. Zou, 2000), the Emotional Regulation During Testing Scale (P. A. Schutz, C. DiStefano, J. Benson, & H. A. Davis, 2004), and the Regensburg Academic Emotions Questionnaire (R. Pekrun, T. Goetz, R. P. Perry, K. Kramer, & M. Hochstadt, 2004). Findings suggest that approach—avoidance motives were related to different academic emotions (i.e., pleasant and unpleasant) in the expected directions. Approach—avoidance variables, cognitive-appraisal processes, and during-testing processes explained significant amounts of variance in both test hope and test pride, and several categories of students emerged, including those of high approach—low avoidance, low approach—high avoidance, moderate approach—high avoidance, high approach—moderate avoidance, and moderate approach—low avoidance. The authors also discuss future research and implications.

Early career teachers’ emotion and emerging teacher identities

Abstract The goal of our project was to develop an understanding of the connections among emotional episodes and emerging professional teacher identities of first year teachers. We interviewed eight first year mathematics and science teachers. We asked them to reflect on emotional episodes and talk about how those emotions informed their teaching identities. Our data yielded a model of ‘identity-work’ that reflected the teachers’ engagement in a reflective process of understanding themselves as it related to those emotional episodes. Our model includes four key processes: (1) Teacher incoming identity beliefs; (2) Teacher identity emotional episodes; (3) Teacher attributions and (4)Identity adjustment. All of our teachers exhibited a form of this process with some teachers elaborating on the ways in which pleasant emotional experiences confirmed their identities and others elaborating on the ways in which unpleasant emotional experiences caused them to confront and/or adjust their emergent identities. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.

Motivation and emotional transactions: Where do we go from here?

In this section, we will highlight three overlapping concepts that are currently used in both the motivation and emotion literatures: goals, agency and expectancy. We recognize that there are other potential overlapping constructs (e.g. interest); however, we focus on these three.

Using Multiple and Mixed Methods to Investigate Emotions in Educational Contexts

The emotions associated with educational settings tend to be multidimensional and situated within social historical contexts. As such, the research methods and methodologies used to investigate emotions in education need to match that level of complexity. In this chapter the authors discuss the usefulness of approaching emotions in education contexts from a problem solving perspective that engages the use of multiple and mixed research methods. In addition, the authors outline their current theoretical approaches as well as the research methods and models associated with multiple and mixed methods research. Finally, they discuss the strengths and challenges of approaching emotions in education from multiple and mixed methods perspectives.