Teaching as Feeling

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Teaching as feeling can be considered in two different ways:

1. The attitudes and emotional responses teachers have towards their own teaching and learning experiences.

2. The ways in which teachers use emotion in the classroom.

Teacher Attitudes and Emotional Responses

Teaching as feeling is a concept that relates to a teacher’s attitudes and emotional responses to their own teaching and learning experiences. These experiences form a teacher’s identity which then influences the ways in which they teach their students. Some of the main affective factors that influence a teachers identity include emotional labour and critical incidents. 

Emotional Labour 

Emotional labour can be defined as the ways in which a person negotiates how they truly feel in a situation in comparison to how they should feel as determined by society (Benesch, 2017). A teacher may feel emotional labour strain if tensions are created with students or colleagues, when dealing with unfair educational policies or changes in practice due to educational reform (Miller and Gkonou, 2019). This can cause a teacher to develop numerous issues and may lead to negative impacts on their professional and personal livelihood. All aspects of teaching require active emotional labour and it is important for teachers to reflect on previous experiences so they can learn how best to react to situations in the future. This can help create a more positive relationship a teacher has with their work. 

Critical Incidents

Critical incidents are memorable experiences that have happened in a teacher’s career which helped shape the teacher identity they have today. These incidents may have contained ethical dilemmas or emotional challenges that required an intense amount of emotional labour (Miller and Gkonou, 2019). Furthermore, the outcomes of these incidents may have been positive or negative. Analysing a critical incident can give a teacher greater self-awareness, evaluate their current teaching practices, and create an opportunity for action research (Joshi, 2018). Understanding the emotions felt during a critical incident can help a teacher adapt to similar situations in the future.

Teachers Use of Emotion

Teaching as feeling could also be interpreted as the ways in which a teacher uses emotion in the classroom to positively influence their students. Hargreaves (1998, 835) emphasised that ‘good teachers are not just well-oiled machines. They are emotional, passionate beings who connect with their students and their work’. In addition, emotions are present throughout the learning process of a student and having a good teacher to support them is crucial for successful language acquisition. Aragao (2011) found in his study of student teachers that emotions were fundamental to their performance in the foreign language classroom. Therefore, O’Connor (2008) emphasises that teachers who engage with their emotions in the classroom can enhance their professional, performative, and philosophical abilities.

Emotion and Second Language Acquisition

Foreign language classrooms are filled with an array of emotions that range from enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom (Shao et al, 2019). These emotions have the potential to set the mood of a lesson, impact a student’s performance and dictate the learning outcomes. Each student possesses different emotions at any time which makes it an even more difficult task for the teacher to deliver consistently effective classes. Bernesch (2018) also highlights that emotions can be dictated socioculturally and students may approach their feelings differently depending on the school, city or country they are based in. Emotions have been shown to have a direct effect on a student’s behaviour and can influence language learning (Arnold and Brown, 1999, 1 in Aragao, 2011). It is essential for a teacher to understand their students’ emotions so they can then help when a difficult situation arises.

Teaching as Caring

As previously mentioned, it is important for teachers to understand their own emotions, but it is equally important that they can oversee their students’ emotions. Teachers can enthuse, encourage, and empathise with their students. In the classroom this can be represented as ‘encouraging dialogue, showing sensitivity to students’ needs and talents, and providing engaging materials and activities to the students’ (Isenbarger and Zembylas, 2006, 122). These caring characteristics relate back to Hargreaves (1998) definition of a good teacher. O’Connor (2008) discovered in a study of secondary school teachers that caring for and about students is an important aspect of teaching and is what motivates them to continue in the profession. Therefore, it is shown that engaging in emotional practice in the classroom can lead to positive outcomes.

How to become more aware of feeling when teaching?

• Reflect on teaching and learning experiences and acknowledge the critical incidents that shape teacher identity.
• Consider the emotional labour currently being undertaking and develop ways in which the relationship can be improved.
• Reflect on personal learning experiences and compare with current students’ emotions.
• Join a teacher activity group and compare best practices used to help care for students.

References

Aragao, R. (2011) Beliefs and Emotions in Foreign Language Learning. System, 39 pp. 302-313.

Benesch, S. (2018) Emotions as Agency: Feeling Rules Emotion Labor, and English Language Teachers’ Decision-making. System, 79 pp. 60-69.

Hargreaves, A. (1998) The Emotional Practice of Teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15(8) pp. 835-854.

Isenbarger, L. and Zembylas, M. (2006) The Emotional Labour of Caring in Teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22 pp. 120-134.

Joshi, K. (2018) Critical Incidents for Teachers’ Professional Development. Journal of NELTA Surkhet, 5 pp. 82-88.

Miller, E. and Gkonou, C. (2019) Emotions in Language Teacher Education and Practice. In Miller, E. and Gkonou, C. Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education. New York: Routledge, pp. 56-62.

O’Connor, K. (2008) “You Choose to Care”: Teachers, Emotions and Professional Identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24 pp. 117-126.

Shao, K., Pekrun, R. and Nicholson, L. (2019) Emotions in Classroom Language Learning: What can we Learn from Achievement Emotion Research? System, 86 pp. 1-11.

Written by Oliver Sowden