Emotional Expressions and Emotion Regulation Goals and Strategies among Selected Elementary Teachers

Abstract

This study investigated the profile of the teachers in terms of their years in service, grade level being taught, teaching styles and personality traits, the emotions expressed by the teachers in interaction with their pupils, the most frequent emotions including their triggers, non-verbal expressions, level of intensity and suitability, as well as the pupils' responses to these emotions and lastly, the teachers' emotion regulation goals and strategies. This study involved three purposely selected elementary teachers of Hadiyyah International School, of varying years in service and grade levels being taught. A mixed method design utilizing survey questionnaires, naturalistic observation and interview was employed. The results showed that some of the teachers possessed similar teaching styles and personality traits. The observations revealed that the teachers expressed pleasant and unpleasant emotions with joy and anger being the two most frequent emotions. Joy was triggered predominantly by humorous situations, whereas anger was mostly triggered by pupils' lack of discipline. Anger had more non-verbal expressions compared to joy. The assessed intensity of joy was lower than anger while their suitability was high. The pupils' responses to joy and anger varied. Moreover, the interview revealed that the teachers regulate their emotions for the goals of preserving pupils' psychological well-being, reducing pupils' abuse of pleasant emotions, fulfilling teaching and learning goals, keeping positive teacher image and pupil relationship, and conforming to the professional ethics of teaching. In doing so, they use strategies such as situation selection, situation modification and responsive modulation.