The relationship between teacher emotional intelligence and the academic progress of urban, elementary school students

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is a comparatively new psychological concept that, in recent years, has been investigated in the field of education. While there is an abundance of research indicating that increased student emotional intelligence is positively correlated with various student outcomes, very few studies have investigated the relationship between teacher emotional intelligence and student outcomes. Given that students in urban communities often face numerous challenges that work to hinder their academic achievement, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between teacher emotional intelligence and the academic progress of urban, elementary school students, as well as to investigate if parent income level and student grade level moderated that relationship. In an urban, public school district in Massachusetts, 16 teachers completed the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test and student academic progress scores were calculated for 336 included students utilizing oral reading fluency percentile scores on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBLES) assessment. Findings indicate that although there was a weak, yet positive correlation between teacher EI and student academic progress, the relationship was not statistically significant. It was also found that parent income level did not moderate the relationship between teacher EI and student academic progress. However, student grade level was found to significantly moderate the relationship between teacher EI and student academic progress, with the direction of the relationship going from positive to negative as grade level increased.