‘Show me your mad faces!’ preschool teachers’ emotion talk in the classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACTEmotion talk plays an important role in the social and emotional development of preschoolers, but not much work has shown how teachers talk about emotions in the classroom. We recorded preschool teachers’ (N = 13) emotion talk in naturalistic observations. Teachers expressed 633 emotion-related utterances, about 3 per hour (range fewer than 1 to 11 per hour). Most utterances were comments, guides, or questions about emotions and referenced negative emotions. Explaining and questioning occurred during teacher-directed activities and when children were compliant in activities. Socializations and guides were common during child free play and when children acted aggressively. Findings suggest that teachers use both higher- and lower level emotion talk and that children’s behaviours may present opportunities to explain or directly instruct the expression of emotion. Overall emotion talk was infrequent and further research should consider ways to help teachers to capitalize on opportunities to introduce emotion talk in their classroom.