The “Subtext of Everything”: High School Science Teachers’ Views of Emotions and Their Related Teaching Practices

Abstract

Since most emotional regulation research is about teachers regulating their own emotions, this study sought to examine how teachers view emotions and respond to their students’ emotions. Drawing from an interactional view of emotions and emotion regulation, five science teachers were interviewed for 60–75 minutes about the emotions experienced by their students, themselves, and scientists. They were also prompted to talk about how they respond to their students’ emotions. Findings from the study include that the teachers limited their views of students’ emotions along a positive/negative binary with a focus on academic emotions. These views were in contrast to their conceptions of their own emotions and those of scientists. In addition, the teachers described three teaching practices by which they implicitly and explicitly attempted to avoid student frustration: expressing their own excitement, downplaying students’ expressions of frustration, and utilizing group work. To a lesser degree, the teachers shared how they acknowledged students’ emotions in the classroom. It is concluded that the teachers’ views of emotions were aligned with their practices to minimize student frustration since they viewed that emotion as an impediment to learning.