Examining the Role of Professional Development in Elementary Teachers' Emotional Shifts

• In Event: 41.026 - Show and Tell: How Teachers' Emotional Expressions Shape Student Outcomes

Abstract

In this paper, we examine 20 elementary teachers who participated in a year-long professional development (PD) program focused on developing ambitious mathematics instructional practices. We explore their emotional experiences over the year, the nature of the changes and how the PD experiences may have influenced these changes.

Teachers’ emotional experiences are core aspects of their daily work (Zembylas, 2011), particularly in relation to instruction, teacher-student relationships and educational change (Schutz & Pekrun, 2007; Schutz & Zembylas, 2009). In this regard, the continual experience of unpleasant emotions (e.g. anger, frustration) tends to have detrimental effects on teachers’ professional lives, which often leads to attrition (Author, 2010; Day & Gu, 2009). Consequently, finding ways to support teachers in effectively dealing with unpleasant emotions resulting from managing both emotional and intellectual challenges in their work, such as building emotional resilience, are paramount (Author et al., 2016; Hammond, 2004).

To explore teachers’ emotional changes and the impact of PD on these changes, we first collected responses from an adapted Achievement Emotions Questionnaire for Teachers (AEQ-T; Frenzel, Pekrun & Goetz, 2010) to measure five emotions (enjoyment, pride, anxiety, frustration and anger) using Likert-scale ratings from one to five, and then interview responses to questions about their emotions related to mathematics teaching. These data were collected prior to and at the end of the PD. Third, following engagement in the activity, teachers were asked about their emotions related to and their evaluation of three PD experiences – mathematics coaching, co-teaching and video discussions. The AEQ-T data were analyzed calculating the differences between pre- and post-PD scores. Transcribed interviews were analyzed inductively to triangulate the survey responses. Teachers with distinct changes in their emotional experiences were identified.

Results showed that teachers’ emotions changed in three ways: (i) Profile 1: increasing pleasant emotions while decreasing unpleasant emotions; (ii) Profile 2:decreasing pleasant emotions, while increasing unpleasant emotions; and (iii) Profile 3: no change. Teachers with the first and third profiles were very actively involved in all aspects of the PD. However, although they all found participation valuable, their emotions related to the PD experiences varied. For example, after a video discussion, Tiasha reported, “it was difficult to see my video, but it was important to get feedback…I feel ok about it” while Donna was highly anxious prior to and following the video discussions. On the other hand, teachers in Profile 2 either participated in PD activities reluctantly or not at all. Barb refused to participate stating “I’d prefer not to have my video be included in the discussions.”

Teachers’ willingness to participate in and the value they drew from the PD activities appeared to influence their emotional shifts related to mathematics teaching while the emotional experiences related to the PD did not. This may suggest that the content of the PD activities provided teachers with the appropriate tools to attend to the transactions that elicited unpleasant emotions. As such, engaging teachers in PD that supports ambitious instruction may be a fruitful avenue to support teachers in productively addressing unpleasant emotions.

Authors

• Dionne Indera Cross Francis, Indiana University

• Ji Yeon Hong, University of Oklahoma

• Jinqing liu, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Ayfer Eker, Indiana University - Bloomington