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Educational Psychology Perspectives on Teachers’ Emotions

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Advances in Teacher Emotion Research

Abstract

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.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The data collected for these examples focused only on emotional episodes. As such, we are unable to speculate as to how affective tendencies or core affect might influence these particular emotional episodes. The theoretical framework and the authors of the research cited in previous sections would suggest that the affective tendencies teachers “bring” to an episode as well as their core affect at the time of the event have the potential to influence their experience. Future research will investigate the nature of those transactions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Paul A. Schutz

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  1. Paul A. Schutz
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  2. Lori P. Aultman
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  3. Meca R. Williams-Johnson
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Correspondence to Paul A. Schutz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Counseling, Educational, University of Texas, San Antonio, West Durango Blvd. 501, San Antonio, 78207-4415, U.S.A.

    Paul A. Schutz

  2. Program of Educational Studies, Open University of Cyprus, Ayiou Antoniou Str. 5, Strovolos, 2002, Cyprus

    Michalinos Zembylas

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Schutz, P.A., Aultman, L.P., Williams-Johnson, M.R. (2009). Educational Psychology Perspectives on Teachers’ Emotions. In: Schutz, P., Zembylas, M. (eds) Advances in Teacher Emotion Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2_10

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