A Narrative Case Study of Chinese Senior High School English Teachers' Emotions: An Ecological Perspective.

Xiaohui Sun,Liu Yang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.792400

Abstract

Teacher emotion research is of great significance to teachers’ teaching effectiveness, professional development, and physical and mental health. Taken from an ecological perspective, this narrative case study used purposeful sampling to select two Chinese senior high school English teachers as research participants. Various data collection methods were used, including narrative framework, teacher interview and teacher reflection log, to describe the emotional episodes of Chinese senior high school English teachers before and after collective lesson presentation, trial teaching, and formal teaching in a teaching improvement project. The purpose of this collection of data was to explore the dynamic emotional development process and characteristics of Chinese senior high school English teachers in the interaction with ecological systems and those ecological factors that may influence their emotional development. Results indicated that the two participants developed 68 emotions: 39 positive and 29 negative emotions. At exosystem, they developed the most emotions (28 emotions). Teacher emotion changed with time quite obviously. They evolved from positive to negative and, finally, predominantly positive. Personal antecedents, contextual antecedents, and teachers’ emotional capacity are the main ecological factors that may influence the development of teacher emotion. Based on the research findings, implications for teachers’ professional development and teacher education were also provided.

Highlights

Emotions are one of the core parts of human life and “are an integral part of education and of organizations more generally” (Hargreaves, 2000, p. 812)
In accordance with the two aims, two research questions are addressed: (1) How did Chinese senior high school English teachers develop their emotions in the interactions with different ecological systems during their participation in a teaching improvement project? (2) What are the ecological factors that may influence Chinese senior high school English teachers’ emotional development? To better answer the two questions, this study focuses on two senior high school English teachers in Beijing, China, who are participating in a teaching improvement project
The analysis reveals the following findings: Firstly, the two participants developed 68 emotions, 39 positive and 29 negative emotions

Summary

Introduction

Emotions are one of the core parts of human life and “are an integral part of education and of organizations more generally” (Hargreaves, 2000, p. 812). Teachers are emotional beings (Zembylas, 2005). They constantly experience emotional demands from students, colleagues, parents, and leaders in emotional arenas such as schools and classrooms (Cross and Hong, 2012). Since the late 1990s, research on teacher emotion in education has received more and more attention. Studies have revealed that teacher emotion affects all aspects of their professional development, such as teachers’ behavior, teaching, personal lives, professional identity, educational reform, and students’ learning (Hargreaves, 2005; Cheng, 2006; Li et al, 2013; Hagenauer and Volet, 2014; Schutz, 2014). Since the beginning of this century, with the rise of humanism in the world, teacher emotion research has gradually attracted more

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Conclusion