The role of emotion in Chinese preschool teachers’ identity construction

Abstract

Based on 33 Chinese preschool teachers' emotional experience, this study developed a taxonomy to specify the functional roles of emotions in Chinese preschool teachers’ identity construction. The analysis shows that emotions played three major functions, including a barometer of identity affirmation and disaffirmation, a pedagogic strategy to display situated identities, and a mediator of identity commitment. The findings also reveal individual differences in the fulfillment of these functions during emotional construction of professional identities. Such differences highlighted the importance of teacher beliefs in being a preschool teacher and teacher self-reflection on the interactive nature of emotions in identity construction.