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Happy, Stressed, and Angry : A National Study of Teachers' Emotions and Their Management
Patulny, Roger Bellocchi, Alberto Mills, Kathy Ann McKenzie, Jordan Olson, Rebecca
Patulny, Roger
Bellocchi, Alberto
Mills, Kathy Ann
McKenzie, Jordan
Olson, Rebecca
Abstract
The teaching profession offers meaningful, stimulating work that accords with teachers’ sense of professional pride and identity, but is also synonymous with high levels of stress, conflict (and associated emotions such as anger and shame) and ultimately, attrition. The degree to which teachers within a national population ‘up-manage’ the former or ‘down-manage’ the latter emotions is unknown. This study utilises new data from the Australian Survey of Emotions and Emotion Management (SEEM) to examine emotions and emotion management among teachers, and workers in comparable service roles, such as health care and customer service, in contemporary Australian society. It finds that teachers exhibit great natural happiness, but also experience and hide (through surface-acting) high levels of stress. Teachers also experience high levels of anger compared to other professions, though they usually manage this successfully through deep acting strategies. These findings imply that teachers are generally happy and professionally committed to (and proud of) their work, but at the cost of managing significant levels of stress and conflict. We discuss the implications for teacher professional development, initial teacher education and policy, and the need to investigate anger/shame dynamics and management in future research into pedagogy.
Keywords
emotion, emotion management, teaching, anger, stress, happiness
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
3
Issue
2
Page Range
223-244
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE)
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled
Notes
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019.