The relationships between Chinese teachers’ emotions, professional identity, and teaching for creativity: The mediating role of emotional intelligence

Abstract

This research investigated the complex relationship between teachers' emotions, emotional intelligence, professional identity, and teaching for creativity. The study used a web-based questionnaire to survey 15,675 secondary school teachers in China. Structural equation modeling indicated that teachers’ positive and negative emotions were positively and negatively related to their professional identities, respectively. The results of bootstrapping tests indicated that these relationships were mediated by teachers’ emotional intelligence. The study also found that teachers' emotional intelligence not only influenced their professional identity but also had a strong association with teaching for creativity, with professional identity partly mediating between the two. The article concludes with some implications in terms of regulating teachers’ emotions, improving professional identity, and enhancing teaching for creativity.