Kelchtermans and Deketelaere 2016 The Emotional Dimension in Becoming A Teacher

Chapter 27
The Emotional Dimension in Becoming

a Teacher
Geert Kelchtermans and Ann Deketelaere
Einführung
“There is surprisingly little recent research about the emotional aspects of teachers’
lives”, was the opening line Sutton and Wheatley used in 2003 for their review of
the research literature (Sutton & Wheatley, 2003, p. 327). Things have changed
since then. Over the past 15 years, emotions have been recognized by an increasing
number of educational researchers as essential in education and schooling. It has
become widely accepted that teachers’ and principals’ work cannot be properly
understood without acknowledging its emotional dimension and several attempts
have been made to empirically unravel and theoretically conceptualize it (see for
example Boler, 1999; Crawford, 2009; Day & Chi-Kin Lee, 2011; Hargreaves,
1998, 2001; Kelchtermans & Hamilton, 2004; Kelchtermans, Piot, & Ballet, 2011;
Nias, 1996; Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014; Samier & Schmidt, 2009; Schutz
& Zembylas, 2009; Zembylas & Schutz, 2016; Van Veen & Lasky, 2005). Emotions
are no longer treated as mere epiphenomena or inconvenient side-effects of educa-
tional actions, but –on the contrary- as constituting, “an integral part of teachers’
lives” (Sutton & Wheatley, 2003, p. 332). In this chapter, we build on this work, but
explicitly focus on (and limit ourselves to) to teacher education and in particular to
student teachers. Or more precisely we seek to answer the question: what has inter-
national educational research so far found out about the emotions in student teach-
ers’ lives, in the process of becoming teachers?
G. Kelchtermans (*)
Centre for Educational Policy, Innovation and Teacher Education,
University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: [email protected]
A. Deketelaere
Centre for Medical Education/Center for Educational Policy, Innovation and Teacher
Education, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 429

J. Loughran, M.L. Hamilton (eds.), International Handbook of Teacher
Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0369-1_13
430 G. Kelchtermans and A. Deketelaere
If emotion constitutes a central dimension in teachers’ work lives –a claim well-

argued and empirically grounded in research- than it is plausible to hypothesize that
becoming a teacher must be highly emotional process as well. Or as Hobson et al.
(2008) concluded from their study in the UK: for many students undertaking an
initial teacher preparation (ITP)
had a strong affective dimension, with a whole range of positive, negative and mixed emo-
tions being expressed by trainees reflecting on their experiences. Positive emotions, includ-
ing feelings of satisfaction and enjoyment, were expressed, in particular, in relation to
relationships with pupils, to their (trainees’) perceptions of pupil learning, to perceived
support and reassurance from their mentors or tutors, and (for some) to their perceptions of
their development as teachers … A range of negative emotions were also expressed by
numerous trainees, in relation to their experience of ITP, including, for example, a perceived
lack of support from mentors and other teachers in their placement schools, the assessment
of their teaching, the ways in which some tutors and mentors provided them with ‘feed-
back’, the volume of ‘paperwork’ they had been provided with and had to deal with, their
workload and work–life balance, and their own sense of their development and efficacy as
teachers. (Hobson et al., 2008, p. 412; see also Malderez, Hobson, Tracey, & Kerr, 2007)
This extensive quote not only confirms the importance of the emotional dimen-
sion in teacher education in the United Kingdom, but is also illustrative for the
nature of the phenomenon: the emotions are related to learning processes, curricu-
lum arrangements, pedagogical interventions, and more fundamentally to the rela-
tional nature of education and of becoming a teacher. Furthermore it demonstrates
that the emotions need to be understood in context, because they are triggered by a
wide variety of conditions, interactions and experiences. And their positive or nega-
tive valence is dependent on the particular circumstances and sense-making, since
the same conditions or factors can trigger either positive or negative emotions.
In the rest of this chapter we will more systematically unpack this complex issue.
For now it is important to stress that our research interest in what the literature has
to tell about emotions in the process of becoming a teacher can be understood both
in a descriptive and a normative or prescriptive way. In its descriptive sense it
reflects one’s wondering about how emotions play a part in student teachers’ experi-
ences, learning and development as they work their way through the teacher educa-
tion curriculum. In its prescriptive sense the question refers to the consequences of
understanding the emotional dimension for the curriculum, pedagogy and organiza-
tion of initial teacher education (what ought to be done?). Both interpretations of
our interest will be addressed below. We will use the distinction to roughly structure
the chapter, with an emphasis on the descriptive in the first paragraphs and on the
prescriptive in the later ones. Yet, it will also be clear that several authors combine
both and while discussing descriptive findings also draw prescriptive conclusions,
thus blurring the strict distinction between both.
It also needs to be clear that our analysis is driven by a clear pedagogical or edu-
cational interest, rather than a merely psychological or sociological one. From an
educational and pedagogical perspective, the exploration of the international litera-
ture seeks to understand how to best conceptualize and understand emotions in
student teachers in order to improve the arrangements for teaching and learning
27 The Emotional Dimension in Becoming a Teacher 431
during teacher education. In the final section of this chapter we will explicitly come
back to this.
By placing the focus of this chapter on student teachers and their emotional
experiences during initial teacher education, we purposefully limit our agenda in a
double sense. Firstly we did not look into the emotions of teacher educators or col-
laborating teachers and mentors – although it would obviously have been relevant to
do so from an educational or pedagogical interest. Secondly we limit ourselves to
the initial teacher training, although the emotional is a fundamental dimension of
teachers’ professional development throughout their entire career (see also
Hargreaves, 1995). These restrictions, however, have helped us to set up and delin-
eate the methodology of our review of the international research literature. We
searched Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), Web of Science, and
Google Scholar for publications between 1995 and 2014, and complemented this by
screening the literature references in the selected publications. The publication in
1996 of a special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Education (Nias, 1996) has
turned out to be an important historical landmark for the educational research on
emotions and as such justifies our limitation in time to the past two decades. We
further limited ourselves to publications in which the emotions were a central ele-
ment in the study, which in practice means that ‘emotion’ had to be part of the title,
the abstract or the key words of the publication.
In the rest of this chapter we first address some definitional issues. We then dis-
cuss research on the relation between emotions and behavior, followed by a more
extensive section on the insights from studies taking a more relational, interactive
and situated approach. Next we move from the descriptive to the more prescriptive
research on the pedagogical conditions and methods to explore and deal with the
emotional dimension in becoming a teacher. We end the chapter with a number of
overall conclusions and perspectives for further research.
Conceptualizing the Emotional
As soon as one starts reviewing the literature on emotions in teaching or teacher

education, one is confronted with a number of problems. Firstly, there is the lack of
a commonly shared definition of emotions, which makes it hard to know what pre-
cisely is the phenomenon under study. Secondly there is the varied spectrum of very
different methodological and theoretical paradigms and perspectives from which
emotions are studied, each of which having consequences for the conceptualization
of the object of study as well as for its explanatory power. Shuman and Scherer, for
example, recently concluded:
Researchers generally agree that emotions are episodes with multiple components that are
shaped by evolutionary and social contexts and can be expressed in a variety of ways …
However, it is rather controversial how the different components hang together to form an
emotion. (Shuman & Scherer, 2014, p. 19)
Without going into the debate about what is the most appropriate and encom-
passing definition and conceptualization of emotions –which in itself would need a
full chapter in this handbook- we argue that from an educational point of view it is
important to at least acknowledge that emotions are bodily felt, meaningful experi-
ences, triggered by interactions with the material, social and cultural world. As
such the meaning of emotions is to a large extent relational, socially constructed
and reflecting cultural norms as well as power structures. Although the experiential
aspect of emotions (what is ‘felt’ and what it ‘means’) needs to be acknowledged,
we consider it methodologically as the starting point for a more in-depth under-
standing that also recognizes the inter-personal (social), cultural and political struc-
tures and processes that frame the ‘felt meaning’ in particular social-historical
contexts. And these, “complex layered social historical contexts are ever changing
transactional open-systems, which means there is the potential for continual change
and the emergence of new original processes” (Schutz, 2014, p. 2). So, in other
words, although individual in their embodied experience, the meaning of emotions
is constructed and as such dynamic, rather than fixed:
Emotions are determined not only or even primarily by internal individual (intrapersonal)
characteristics, but rather by relationships. Emotions are grounded in the particular social
context that constitutes teachers, students and their actions in the classroom. Students and
teachers construct interpretations and evaluations based on the knowledge and beliefs they
have. (Zembylas, 2007, p. 62)
As such the emotional aspect of experiences not only results from, but in turn
also has a deep impact on people’s sense-making of those experiences and –in the
context of teacher education- the actual teaching and learning processes that are
taking place.
As already indicated, some authors emphasize emotions as an individual or intra-
psychological experiences, taking a predominantly psychological approach,
whereas others argue that the social, relational interactions are key in understanding
their meaningfulness. The latter is for example clearly illustrated in work building
on the cultural-historical tradition of Vygotsky that stresses the close interdepen-
dence between cognition, emotion, and imagination in practices like learning to
become a teacher (see e.g., Fleer, 2012). Our stance aims at integrating both,
acknowledging that the psychological as well as the sociological perspective can
offer valuable insights, to eventually understand the educational meaning of the
emotional in teacher education. In other words, and following the position argued
for by Zembylas (2007), we want to acknowledge and restore the relation between
the body and the experience of the emotion as well as state that emotions are essen-
tial in the processes that produce the psychological and the social and as such, “that
emotion comes to produce these very boundaries that allow the individual and the
group to interact” (Zembylas, 2007, p. 63).
To sum up, in answering the question what the literature teaches us about student
teachers’ emotions we were driven by a concern for developing a better understand-
ing of the emotional dimension in order to include it in educational theory building
and further research as well as in the development of valuable pedagogies in the
practice of teacher education. In other words, the chapter aims to contribute both to
the descriptive and the prescriptive agenda implied in our research interest.
Identifying Emotions and Their Link with Behavior
Some authors treat emotions as primarily intra-personal phenomena. For them

emotions,
are defined as biologically based states that involve perception, experience, and physiologi-
cal arousal that also include feelings and thoughts about what has happened or might hap-
pen next. The object of emotions may be the self (e.g., feeling helpless, self-pity) or other
(e.g., like–dislike, being annoyed). Emotions are an important part of attitudes because
humans are not devoid of affect, and emotional experiences predict behavioural responses.
(Elik, Wiener, & Corkum, 2010, p. 128; see also Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014, p. 2)
A first interest of these studies is the identification of discrete emotions and their
respective importance in student teachers. Montgomery (2005), for example, pres-
ents an inventory of the different emotions expressed by student teachers during
their practicum (Canada), categorizing them in either positive or negative emotions
as well as according to their source. They found that the relationships with others
–i.e., pupils and the collaborating teachers or mentors- are the most important
sources for emotions in student teaching, but also that the same sources contributed
to both positive and negative emotions.
A second and more frequent research interest concerns the relationship between
particular emotions on the one hand and behavior or other individual characteristics
on the other (see for example Elik et al., 2010). In the US, for example, Swartz and
McElwain (2012) did an observation study of student teachers during an internship
in an early childhood care center. More in particular they were interested in the
individual differences in student teachers’ observed responses to young children’s
emotions, which they explained by linking them to differences in emotion-related
regulation and cognition. However, most of these studies are quantitative survey-
studies, looking for correlational relations between emotional variables on the one
hand and behavior or learning outcomes on the other. Eren (2014b), for example,
was interested in the mediating role of emotional style (defined as consistent, gen-
eral tendencies to experience, regulate and express emotions), the relationship
between student teachers’ emotions about teaching (i.e. of enjoyment, anger and
anxiety) and their intentions to actually engage in a teaching career. Questionnaire
data were collected from 684 student teachers in Turkey and analysed using correla-
tions and structural equation modelling. According to Eren,
Results showed that the prospective teachers expected to experience enjoyment more than
anger and anxiety regarding their future teaching. Results also showed that the prospective
teachers’ attention style and social intuition style played significant mediating roles in the
relationships between their emotions about teaching (i.e. enjoyment and anger) and profes-
sional plans about teaching (i.e. planned effort and professional development aspirations).
(2014b, p. 381)
In another study with a similar set up, the same author (Eren, 2014a) collected
data from 455 Turkish student teachers to explore (correlation, regression and struc-
tural equation modelling) the mediating roles of hope and academic optimism in the
relationships between emotions about teaching and personal responsibility. Study
results indicated:
that the prospective teachers’ emotions about teaching, academic optimism, hope, and per-
sonal responsibility were significantly related to each other. Results also showed that the
relationships between prospective teachers’ emotions about teaching and responsibility for
student motivation, achievement, relationships with students, and teaching were strongly
and positively mediated by their academic optimism; whereas the relationships between
PTs’ [Preservice Teachers’] emotions about teaching, responsibility for student achieve-
ment, and teaching were moderately and negatively mediated by their hope. (Eren, 2014a,
p. 73)
The psychological research agenda on identifying emotions as well as their rela-

tion with behavior is maybe most clearly exemplified in the recent work on student
teachers’ emotional intelligence. Corcoran and Tormey (2012) measured the emo-
tional intelligence of 352 Irish student teachers, concluding that their scores were
lower than average, but with important inter-individual differences. Similar findings
were obtained in a study of 210 Romanian student teachers, measuring both emo-
tional intelligence and maturity: somewhat higher (average or slightly above), but
also with large inter-individual differences (Dumitriu, Timofti, & Dumitriu, 2014).
The interest in the relationship between emotional intelligence and behavior or
other psychological characteristics in student teachers is illustrated in a study by
Gunduz (2013). He explored the relationship between emotional intelligence and
cognitive flexibility with psychological symptoms in a study of 414 Turkish student
teachers, concluding that there was a significant negative correlation of both emo-
tional intelligence and cognitive flexibility with anxiety and depression. In another
study with Turkish student teachers (n = 248), Gürol, Özercan, and Yalçin (2010)
investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-efficacy and
found high positive correlations between both variables. Finally, we mention the
earlier work of Vesely, Saklofske, and Nordstokke (2008) in Canada, who trained
student teachers’ emotional intelligence as a way to better manage occupational
stress. However, the results of the student teachers in the experimental condition did
not differ significantly from those in the control condition (no training) for stress,
anxiety, efficacy, satisfaction with life and resilience. The inconclusive findings
might be due to the small size of the sample. But also other studies demonstrated
that the relationship between emotions and behavior is more complex and not evi-
dently captured by correlational approaches. Exemplary in that regard is Corcoran
and Tormey’s (2013) argument –building on the data from their already mentioned
study- for emotional intelligence as an important skill set for student teachers. They
analyzed the relationship between emotional intelligence and teaching performance,
looking also for the possible mediating role of academic attainment and gender.
However, no positive relations were found, which brought the authors to conclude
that emotional intelligence might best be understood as,
describing a person’s capacity to learn from and use emotional information to solve prob-
lems in their life. Whether or how that capacity will be drawn upon in any given situation
or interaction is likely to result from an interaction between this capacity and the role or
identity they are required to assume in that situation. (Corcoran & Tormey, 2013, p. 40)
The relationship between emotional intelligence and student teachers’ learning

and teaching performance is clearly not as straightforward as one might have
expected.
It seems that this mainly correlational approach, treating emotions as discrete
variables, reflecting intra-psychological phenomena, which can be described and
measured and related to behavior and learning outcomes, is rather limited in its
relevance for a more educational research interest in the emotional dimension of
becoming a teacher. Teacher education is a relational, interactive and situated prac-
tice. Therefore it seems more promising to conceive of student teachers’ experi-
ences (also their emotions) as resulting from interactive, constructive sense-making
processes in a particular context. Although a wide spectrum of theoretical and con-
ceptual frameworks is used, most studies on student teachers’ emotions take this
stance, as will become evident from the next sections.
Emotions in the Relational Practice of Teacher Education
In this section we continue exploring the descriptive meaning of our central research
interest: what can we learn about student teachers’ emotions as they go through their
pre-service training? More in particular we discuss the relationship of emotions
with other elements in the person of the student teacher or in his/her relationships.
First we look into the connection between emotions and the way student teachers’
conceive of themselves. Next we discuss research on the relationship between emo-
tions and beliefs. Then we address the relationship between emotions and particular
subject content. Finally we tap into the multilayered emotional meanings of practi-
cal teaching experiences during teacher education.
Emotions and Self-Understanding
Student teachers don’t enter teacher education as blank sleets. On the contrary: they
bring with them about 15 years of experience with teachers and schools. For stu-
dents who chose teaching as a second career and at an older age this biographical
experiential load is even larger (for example their experiences as parents with the
teachers and schools of their children). All student teachers have spent many years
with many different teachers in different classrooms and schools, creating plenty of
opportunities for what Lortie (1975) has rightly labeled as the ‘apprenticeship of
observation’. No other professional training starts with students bringing with them
such a rich biographical body of personal experiential expertise that is relevant for
their professional training. Furthermore and importantly those experiences are not
emotionally neutral: they have been positive or less positive, yet in the end at least
positive enough to consider and actually start the pre-service teacher education pro-
gramme. In other words, student teachers’ motivation to enter pre-service training
already contains and reflects clear emotional elements. Was the choice to start an
education to become a language teacher a positive first choice, or rather a second or
third after having failed a master programme in linguistics? Or was it the beginning
of a long cherished dream coming true, with fond memories of the inspiring teach-
ers one has met as a pupil?
Entering teacher education therefore not only implies embarking on a journey of
professional learning and training, but inevitably also demands that one starts devel-
oping and constructing a sense of self or identity as teachers. And self-evidently
these processes are influenced by the differences in biographical experiences before
entering teacher education (see e.g., Atkinson, 2004; Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009;
Bullough, 1997; Bullough & Gitlin, 2001; Kelchtermans & Hamilton, 2004; Lamote
& Engels, 2010; Raffo & Hall, 2006; Rodgers & Scott, 2008; Timoštšuk & Ugaste,
2010). Developing an understanding of oneself as a (future) teacher, as well as a
sense of technical mastery to enact it, constitute core processes in student teachers’
development as they go through a teacher education programme. As argued else-
where (Kelchtermans, 2009; Kelchtermans & Hamilton, 2004) – and in line with the
teacher thinking-research (Craig, Meijer, & Broeckmans, 2013) – we see this pro-
fessional self-understanding as part of (student) teachers’ personal interpretative
framework. This mental sediment of their biographical learning process contains a
system of cognitions and representations that act as a lens through which student
teachers perceive, make sense of and act in (react to) particular situations and
experiences.
In other words, the personal and the professional are closely intertwined in
teacher education and as such ‘emotionally non-indifferent’ (Filipp, 1990). Rots,
Kelchtermans, and Aelterman (2012), for example, identified different patterns in
the development of Flemish (Belgian) student teachers’ motivation for the job dur-
ing their teacher education and demonstrated how they echoed emotional experi-
ences, especially during internship. Thomson and Palermo (2014) stated that student
teachers’ psychological attachment to the profession –and as a consequence the
likeliness they will actually enter and stay in the job- needs to be understood as
partly an, “emotional reaction to [their] learning experiences during student teach-
ing” (Thomson & Palermo, 2014, p. 59). In particular positive emotions of happi-
ness and fulfillment expressed by their mentor teachers was found to have a strong
motivating impact. Yet, when student teachers ascribed primarily negative emotions
to their teaching experiences during internship (for example experiencing difficul-
ties in building positive relationships with pupils), their impact was equally strong
but in a negative sense. Also Mansfield and Volet (2010) found that the emotional
quality of the relations with pupils and colleagues during practical teaching intern-
ships was of crucial importance for student teachers’ job motivation. They further
argued that these emotions are often rooted in students’ own experiences as pupils.
Memories of emotionally negative experiences in school, strengthened the

motivation to build positive relationships with their pupils, hoping to save them
from having similar negative school experiences as they themselves once had.
Furthermore the relational nature of teaching and learning to teach not only
implies the inevitable involvement of one-self as a person in that process (Nias,
1989), but equally important is the moral and ethical dimension in those relation-
ships: one’s commitment to pupils and students, one’s normative beliefs about
(good) teaching. Finally, there also is a political dimension in teaching and educa-
tional relationships: issues of power and influence, of how the predominant or legiti-
mate norms are defined and installed on what is good, appropriate or necessary in
teaching (and learning to teach)(Kelchtermans & Hamilton, 2004). Of course all of
these don’t leave the student teachers emotionally indifferent.
Working in England, Raffo and Hall (2006) combined Bourdieu’s concepts of
habitus and cultural capital on the one hand with the Lacanian concepts of the sym-
bolic, imaginary and real on the other to unravel and understand the often fitful
development of student teachers’ learning during internships. Their analysis shows
how the search for a stable sense of professional self, partly influenced by former
biographical experiences and cultural capital (encompassing among others adher-
ence to particular normative views on schooling, learning, and being a teacher)
explains the emotional experiences during different placements (i.e., experience of
fitting in and therefore feeling at ease or positive in some schools, while the oppo-
site might be the case in schools with a different ethos and culture).
This importance of student teachers’ developing professional self-understanding
in causing or explaining their emotions is further documented by Sinner (2012) in
her in-depth analysis of one art education student teacher’s experiences during her
placement in Canada. The placement was found to have been an intensely emo-
tional, ‘liminal space’ in which the student teacher had to negotiate between two
conflicting normative views on teacher education and professional learning (i.e., the
inquiry-based approach of the university programme versus the apprenticeship
model cherished in the placement school). The normative tensions were further
complicated and intensified because of their incarnation in a very present collabo-
rating teacher and an absent university supervisor. Being caught in-between, strug-
gling with her own developing sense of self as a teacher, and negotiating the social
and power structures in both places (university versus placement school) were
themes in the student teacher’s story. They clearly exemplify the constructive and
interactionist nature of emotions as well as their entwinement with the moral and
the political.
The importance of social dynamics – also in the university programme and not
just during placement – is stressed by Karlsson (2013) with her study of the narra-
tive interactions in peer groups of student teachers in Sweden. Her analysis of those
interactions permits her to look into the process of student teachers’ ‘emotional
identification’ with teacher identities that are culturally available. Drawing on posi-
tioning theory, her work problematizes the traditional focus on the individual and
the underestimation of context in understanding the emotional in learning to become
a teacher and argues in favor of understanding emotions as the outcome of negotia-
tion processes. The same argument is made by Lanas and Kelchtermans (2015) in
their analysis of the subjectification processes of Finnish student teachers. Having
them reconstruct and explain how they (thought they) got accepted in the teacher
education programme (given the very strict selection policy in teacher education in
Finland), the authors conclude that even in the absence of formal job definitions or
lists with required competencies or quality control systems, student teachers bring
with them particular normative understandings of what it means to be a (good,
Finnish) teacher as they enter teacher education. Inevitably they have to position
themselves towards these ideas as they are developing their sense of professional
self. Stemming from a post-structural tradition, this concept of subjectification
implies an ongoing process of shaping and re-shaping of one’s self-understanding
in relation to the discursive and material environment. As such the concept reminds
us of the fact that the construction of one’s sense of self or identity is not entirely a
personal or free creation, but is per definition also framed by the discursive posi-
tions available in a particular context. In other words, the shaping implies navigat-
ing and negotiating different normative ideas about what makes a good teacher as
well as playing the power of the selection system (for example, the emotional work
of representing oneself in a particular way that is thought fit for the purpose). All
these processes leave the ones involved emotionally non-indifferent.
The same point is made by Raffo and Hall (2006), as well as Bloomfield (2010).
Drawing on Britzman’s claim that becoming a teacher is a struggle for voice
(Britzman, 2003), the latter author argues for the need in teacher education to criti-
cally analyse the interplay of biography, emotion and institutional structures (the
three dimensions of voice according to Britzman) in student teachers’ journey
through the teacher education programme. More in particular, she makes the point
that what student teachers publicly share about their experiences is filtered through
their evaluations of and negotiations with prevailing norms and expectations.
Eventually these insights constitute arguments for a pedagogy of teacher education
that goes beyond the development of technical and instrumental skills and expertise,
to include the more difficult and uncomfortable aspects of student teachers’ learning
like for example their professional self-understanding.
In the same line of argument Rivera Maulucci (2008, 2013) reminds us that the
negotiations on professional identity at the microlevel of individual experiences in
classrooms should be understood in their relation to the meso- and macro-level
realities of the school as an organization as well as the wider developments in soci-
ety (i.e., globalization, immigration). She makes her case exemplifying the interplay
of those different levels with data from a study on the experiences of student teach-
ers in a teacher education programme with an explicit social justice agenda in
New York. Presenting an in-depth analysis of one student teacher, she illuminates
the emotional tensions between the development of an identity as a teacher with
other identities (for example immigrant identity). Rivera Maulucci’s work further
resonates with conclusions by Bühler, Gere, Dallowis, and Haviland (2009) from
their detailed reconstruction of US student teachers’ first attempts to enact cultural
competence in their teaching, as well as the emotional significance of these experi-
ences. They argue that: “teacher educators would be wise to focus not on the
achievement of cultural competence, but rather on the struggle involved in enacting

it” (Bühler et al., 2009, p. 416).
The emotionally laden tensions, negotiations, and power processes in general,
documented in these studies exemplify the essentially political nature of learning to
be a teacher and how it is interwoven with the emotional as well as the development
of professional self-understanding. More in particular they demonstrate that under-
standing emotion in teacher education demands an awareness of and alertness to the
ethical or moral and political dimensions in teaching and learning to be a teacher. In
other words, a merely technical pedagogical perspective on student teachers’ devel-
opment, without acknowledging the essential role of the self-understanding runs the
risk of simply missing the point or –even worse- of unconsciously contributing to
existing practices and structures of inequality, injustice and oppression. An example
of the subtle perversity in which emotions and the politics may be intertwined can
be found in a study by Matias and Zembylas (2014) in the USA. They found that in
teacher education a particular emotion may be disguised into another and as such
may jeopardize efforts to train future teachers with the ideals of social justice and
equity. More in particular they argue that, “one of the modalities through which
racialized emotions are performed in politically correct and socially accepted ways
is the example of caring as hidden disgust” (Matias & Zembylas, 2014, p. 321).
Systematic ideology critique from anti-racist theory is used by these authors to thor-
oughly analyze and unmask the perverse face of apparently valued emotions like
love, care and empathy.
To sum up, as student teachers inevitably have to engage in a process of develop-
ing an understanding of themselves as teachers, it is important to understand how
this involves navigating and negotiating former biographical experiences, norma-
tive images and discourses on good teaching, as well as power structures. All of this
is highly emotional and these emotions strongly impact the outcomes of this process
in terms of student teachers’ self-understanding, but also the well-being, one’s feel-
ing ‘at home’ in the profession and-as a consequence- one’s motivation and self-
confidence towards teaching as a profession.
Emotions and Beliefs
The result of the apprenticeship of observation in student teachers is not only that
they develop a particular understanding of what it means to be a teacher and a sense
of themselves enacting that profession (professional self-understanding), but also
that student teachers enter teacher education with a personal system of knowledge
and beliefs. This subjective educational theory – as we labelled it (Kelchtermans,
2009; Kelchtermans & Hamilton, 2004) – constitutes the second domain in (stu-
dent) teachers’ personal interpretative framework, complementing but also closely
interwoven with their professional self-understanding. In line with the research on
teacher thinking (see for example Craig et al., 2013), it can be argued that this
personal interpretative framework will act as a sense-making filter through which

student teachers will ‘process’ their experiences in teacher education.
This processing is highly emotional, not only because their evolving self-
understanding is involved, but also because of the particular nature of the subjective
educational theory. As a personal system of both knowledge and beliefs, it also
leaves the student teachers not emotionally indifferent and this is especially true in
the less formalized, less explicit and even less conscious realm of the ‘beliefs’.
Although beliefs remains a broad, messy concept, used from a variety of theoretical
and methodological perspectives, the attempt by Pajares (1992) to define it, based
on an extensive literature review, is still valuable: beliefs refer to, “an individual’s
judgment of the truth or falsity of a proposition, a judgment that can only be inferred
from a collective understanding of what human beings say, intend, and do” (Pajares,
1992, p. 316). As such beliefs are not neutral, but represent what one considers to be
true and what as such engages the actor in particular ways in his or her practice.
Beliefs, as a key component of the subjective educational theory, represent the out-
come of the student teacher’s personal answer to the ‘how to?’- questions in teach-
ing: how should I act to effectively deal with this situation and why do I think it
would work?
This know how is a mixture of formal knowledge, acquired through study (pri-
marily of the teacher education curriculum) – and beliefs, developed through per-
sonal reflections on personal actions, observations, experiences, bits of concrete
advice (‘tips and tricks’) from relevant others (peers, teacher educators, mentors or
collaborative teachers, etc.). It is important to stress that the value or truth of ele-
ments in the subjective educational theory is ultimately grounded in the judgment of
the person involved: whatever the authority of the source, whether or not particular
knowledge and beliefs are acknowledged or subscribed to –and as such made to
work- depends on the person of the student teacher (Kelchtermans, 2009).
This process of constructing meaning, explanation and evidence for one’s per-
sonal system of knowledge and beliefs is strongly rooted in the person’s own experi-
ences and their emotional load, not just during their teacher education but also in
their former lives as pupils. For example, in their study on student teachers’ beliefs
on motivation and motivating pupils, Mansfield and Volet (2010, p. 1413) argue for,
“the critical role played by prior understandings and beliefs held on entering teacher
training in influencing development of new understandings, or reinforcing existing
beliefs” and conclude that, “The significance of emotional residues emerging from
prior educational and personal experiences, especially when that experience was
negative and left emotional scars, was highlighted.” Especially negative emotional
experiences during practical training, confirming one’s own negative experiences as
a pupil, have a very strong impact on student teachers’ beliefs (for example on class-
room motivation).
The teaching goals student teachers set for themselves are, “complex and per-
sonal and (...) not all PTs are motivated by the same types of reasons, nor do they
have the same beliefs about or levels of commitment to teaching” (Thomson &
Palermo, 2014, p. 65). With their study the authors further subscribe to the claim by
Timoštšuk and Ugaste (2010) that teacher education programmes should more
explicitly stimulate and apply student teachers’ pedagogical reasoning in order for
them to become aware of the beliefs that are actually underlying and affecting their
practice (for example during internship) and eventually the emotional motivational
impact of these experiences (Thomson & Palermo, 2014, p. 65).
Student teachers’ beliefs represent their understanding of relevant issues in
teaching in a way that impacts both their learning and their actions. This is why
beliefs are emotionally relevant and emotions can affect beliefs (Sutton & Wheatley,
2003, p. 338). Wittman (2011), for example, showed how learning-related emotions
in student teachers –echoing their former experiences as pupils- impacted their
learning strategies during teacher education, but also their attitude and willingness
to orient their teaching to more self-directed learning by the pupils. Elik and her
colleagues (2010) demonstrated the mediating effect of student teachers’ emotions
towards pupils with learning and behavior difficulties (LBD) on their tendency to
engage in punitive reactions to them. Negative emotions around LBD were found to
impact beliefs, spontaneous reactions as well as planned reactions. The authors
therefore argue for practicing and training regulation strategies on negative emo-
tions in teacher education programmes. Yet, the latter remains a complex and diffi-
cult matter, as Klemola, Heikinaro-Johansson, and O’Sullivan (2013) found in their
evaluation of training modules aimed at making student teachers in physical educa-
tion implement socio-emotional strategies.
The personal and emotional character of the beliefs in student teachers’ develop-
ing subjective educational theory (knowledge and beliefs) is both a strength and a
possible pitfall. The sense of experience-based truth, effectiveness, solidity, clarity,
certainty, etc. of one’s know how provides self-confidence, positive self-esteem,
motivation and satisfaction. It is the feeling of ‘Yes, I can, because I understand and
know how to and experience has proven me right’. The pitfall – or the other side of
the coin – is that the emotional and experiential (biographical) nature of the ‘know
how’ make it very hard to change (for example in the case particular deeply held
beliefs are simply wrong, unjustified or ethically questionable) (see also Pajares,
1992).
As a consequence, problematizing, challenging and possibly changing student
teachers’ beliefs cannot but be an important goal for any teacher education pro-
gramme. Research findings illuminate how emotions not only play a central role in
the construction and development of the beliefs, but also in their potential change.
Emotions may intensify the resistance to change, but at the same time constitute
potential levers to modify or replace beliefs. Working with student teachers for pri-
mary school, Stavrou (2012), for example, reports on a collaborative creative music
training project that was designed to understand and change student teachers’ beliefs
in relation to musical creativity. More in particular the project was motivated by the
well-documented finding that generalist teachers tend to have little confidence in
their own musical capabilities as well as in their ability to teach music to children
(Stavrou, 2012, p. 48). Her study documents how student teachers’ emotional expe-
riences during the project impact the (lack of) change in their beliefs.
When teacher education programmes explicitly subscribe to a particular norma-
tive and political agenda (i.e., teaching for social justice; anti-racism) the issue of
how to change beliefs and the emotions involved becomes an even more prominent
concern. Driven by an agenda of teaching for social justice, for example, Boylan
(2009) used explicit discussions of emotionality in the preparation of mathematics
teachers. Similarly, Smith (2014) describes on the use of particular documentary
films as a pedagogical tool to change student teachers beliefs regarding educational
equality. She concludes that,
certain documentaries have the pedagogic potential to transform student thinking via the
evocation of particular emotions which act to disturb white hegemonic practices, attitudes
and cognitions. However, given that emotion is understood as integral to the operationaliza-
tion of whiteness, students’ emotional responses are analysed from a critical whiteness
perspective to reveal emotion as also potentially obstructive to student transformation.
(Smith, 2014, p. 217)
Student teachers’ beliefs about teaching and pedagogy, as well as about good
teaching and their subject content, are emotionally not neutral. On the one hand the
deeply held beliefs are emotionally valued and cherished –and therefore student
teachers may show strong (emotional) resistance to changing them. Yet –and here
we already move from a descriptive to a more prescriptive agenda- it is exactly
because of their emotional load that explicitly addressing these emotions creates
pedagogical opportunities to change and develop them.
Emotions and Subject Content
Although often primarily looked at as a technical pedagogical issue, the curriculum

content (student) teachers have to teach doesn’t leave them emotionally indifferent.
Or more in particular, several studies demonstrated that the way student teachers
relate to particular subject content in the curriculum is also highly loaded with emo-
tions. A series of recent questionnaire studies in Spain focused on the way future
primary (Brigido, Bermejo, Conde, & Mellado, 2010, 2013; Brígido, Borrachero,
Bermejo, & Mellado, 2013) and secondary teachers (Borrachero, Brigido, Costillo,
Bermejo & Melado, 2013; Borrachero, Brígido, Mellado, Costillo & Mellado,
2014) felt about particular subjects in science education. They found striking differ-
ences between physics and chemistry on the one hand and nature sciences (biology,
geology) on the other. The ‘hard sciences’ (physics and chemistry) triggered more
negative emotions, while the nature sciences were looked at with predominantly
positive emotions. The studies found high correlations with the remembered emo-
tions felt when the student teachers were pupils themselves as well as with the fear
to experience difficulties when teaching the subjects in the future. These studies
clearly show that even within one curriculum domain –science education- the emo-
tional associations can vary widely. As already argued earlier in the chapter, the
emotional responses were found to be strongly influenced by biography, but in turn
also themselves impacted anticipated emotions when having to teach them in the
future. Interestingly self-efficacy was found to be positively correlated with positive

emotions and negatively with negative emotions, as such strengthening the idea that
creating positive emotional experiences with sciences (especially the ‘hard’ ones)
for pupils in schools as well as for student teachers may make an important contri-
bution to strengthening their self-confidence in relation to the subject as well as
their emotional experiences when entering the profession and starting to teach.
These findings are in many respects parallel to the ones from research on student
teachers’ emotions towards mathematics and in particular those on mathematics
anxiety. The latter is also often rooted in former school experiences of student
teachers and strongly impacts their learning during teacher education. Rule and
Harrell (2006) built on Jungian analytic psychology to develop a method using sym-
bolic drawings to elicit student teachers’ emotions regarding mathematics before
and after a course on maths teaching. Findings showed that the predominantly nega-
tive emotions changed for the positive, that anxiety decreased and that motivation
shifted from extrinsic to intrinsic. The same research technique was applied in a
later study by Burton (2012), who focused more on student teachers’ images about
mathematics in general. Her findings were in line with those of Rule and Harrell, but
interestingly demonstrated how the negative emotions toward maths primarily were
connected to ‘maths in school’, while student teachers who connected them to the
real world felt much more positively. This implies that building student teachers’
confidence through positive experiences in (practical) teaching is more effective if
the particular subject content can be linked to the real world outside classroom and
school. And there is little reason to assume why this would not also apply to other
‘scary’ subject areas like the ‘hard sciences’ (see above).
Gatt and Karppinen (2014) provide evidence that the same line of argument
holds true for the subject art and craft in the education of teachers for primary and
early years education. Questionnaire data collected from both Finnish and Maltese
student teachers showed that,
prior emotional experiences, particularly negative ones in arts and crafts in primary and
secondary school affect students’ attitudes, beliefs and emotions toward arts and crafts
courses in teacher education … positive effects on attitudes and confidence when teacher
training provides authentic artistic processes and positive experiences to help overcome
their fears of these subjects in order to become active and enthusiastic arts and crafts teach-
ers in the primary school. (Gatt & Karppinen, 2014, p. 85)
And finally, Kay (2007) provides evidence that similar conclusions apply with
regard to ICT. She studied the impact of student teachers’ emotions to computer use,
both in course work and in teaching practice and found positive effects of an inte-
grated laptop programme in enhancing the positive and reducing the negative
feelings.
These findings on emotions and the related beliefs towards components of the
school curriculum are important and relevant because of their impact on student
teachers’ actual learning during teacher education. Furthermore this literature dem-
onstrates that it is possible and worthwhile to design curriculum experiences for
student teachers that help them become aware of their emotions (and how they are
possibly rooted in former biographical experiences), expose them to positive experi-
ences, thus boosting their self-esteem, motivation and self-confidence in relation to

teaching the subject. Put negatively, not acknowledging the role of emotions towards
subject content and their teaching constitutes a heavy threat to achieving the desir-
able outcomes of teacher education, in competencies (knowledge, skills and atti-
tudes) as well as in self-esteem, efficacy and motivation.
Emotions and Practical Teaching Experiences
The relevance and complexity of emotions in learning to teach are probably never
as high as in those parts of the pre-service curriculum where student teachers actu-
ally have to enact their professional role and skills in practice (see Montgomery,
2005; Nguyen, 2014; Raffo & Hall, 2006). Internships, placements, or other forms
of practical training in schools are often experienced by the student teachers as the
‘real thing’ or the ‘moments of truth’, which will reveal whether they can be teach-
ers at all or how good they may be at it. All of which make those experiences in
teaching practice highly emotional. Being exposed to and having to work with ‘real’
pupils triggers intense feelings, concerns, but also reflections on the emotional
dimension of teaching, as for example Poulou (2007) documents in her analysis of
the reflective journals of Greek student teachers.
In Portugal Caires and her colleagues have developed a questionnaire instrument
aimed at capturing in a holistic way student teachers’ experiences in practicum: the
Inventory of Experiences and Perceptions of Teaching the Practice (IEPTP). The
instrument measures student teachers’ general perceptions of their learning and
experienced supervision, their professional and institutional socialization; career
aspects as well as the emotional and physical impact of the practicum (for example
on their perceived stress level, sleeping pattern, etc.). In a first study they collected
data from 224 Portuguese student teachers at the beginning and the end of their
practice year. The findings show,
growing levels of adaptation and satisfaction, and the influence of gender, graduate course
background, 4th-year grade, and school setting on their experiences. School resources and
acceptance, supervisor’s guidance and support, and the feeling of vocational fulfillment
were identified as determinant factors of students’ socioemotional adjustment. (Caires,
Almeida & Martins, 2009, p. 17)
In a later study and based on data from 295 student teachers in both arts and sci-
ences programmes, they conclude that –in line with former research:
teaching practice is perceived as a particularly stressful and demanding period, which
involves considerable amounts of distress, changes in psycho-physiological patterns and an
increasing sense of weariness and ‘vulnerability’ … Despite these difficulties, data also
reveal student teachers’ positive perceptions regarding their growing knowledge and skill-
fulness, their increasing sense of efficacy, flexibility and spontaneity in their performance
and interactions, as well as the awareness of having achieved reasonable levels of accep-
tance and recognition amongst the school community. (Caires, Almeida & Vieira, 2012,
p. 172)
Their findings further show the importance of the ‘ethos’ of the placement school
and that,
the warmth, acceptance and satisfactory conditions offered to these newcomers may deter-
mine not only their growing sense of ‘belonging’ but also (partially) their self-fulfillment
regarding the teaching profession or the reasonable sense of professional identity acknowl-
edged by these student teachers. (Caires et al., 2012, p. 172)
Kaldi reported similar findings on the emotional impact of the practicum (2009)
in a questionnaire study with 170 Greek student teachers: positive experiences dur-
ing practicum strengthened student teachers’ self-competence, and reduced their
levels of stress. Student teachers’ emotional condition contributed to the quality of
their learning and development during the teacher education programme. Yet, an
older, qualitative study by Hayes (2003) in England, analyzing the retrospective,
reflective accounts of student teachers at the end of their final placement, provides a
more nuanced and complex picture of the impact emotions have on student teachers’
well-being and motivation. Hayes identified a typology of four emotional condi-
tions (anticipatory, anxious, fatalistic and affirming emotions) that can be found
among student teachers and argued that their emotional condition strongly impacts
the extent to which student teachers can efficiently operate and learn during their
teacher education, especially in times of rapid changes and increasing demands.
Also Vandercleyen, Boudreau, Carlier and Delens (2014) looked at the emo-
tional meaning of placement experiences and how they affected student teachers’
coping and learning. They found that experiencing unanticipated situations during
practical training lessons triggered negative emotions in student teachers and were
experienced either as a threat or a challenge. As a consequence their actual choice
of the coping strategies depended on an interplay of contextual and personal factors
(among which perceived self-efficacy in relation to classroom management).
The studies discussed in this section – even more than others – demonstrate the
need to understand emotions in learning to teach as a relational, situated and contex-
tualized phenomenon. Even research that tries to develop a typology of student
teachers in terms of their psychological individual characteristics, demonstrates the
central role of relations and interactions with others. Thomson and her colleagues
(Thomson & McIntyre, 2013; Thomson, Turner & Nietfeld, 2012) have studied the
development and content of the teaching goals student teachers set themselves.
They developed a “teaching goals model” and show how these goals are resulting
from the interplay of motivating factors, beliefs and student teachers’ models of
teaching, based among others on emotions. In a recent study they show how student
teachers’ teaching goals – reflecting the motivations and commitments to the job –
were strongly influenced by experiences in teaching during their internships, but
also by the emotional state they noticed in the collaborating teachers (mentors)
which they considered as role models for their professional lives. Although reflect-
ing a very different profile in terms of their motivation and job commitment, all
three presented cases in the study showed that these student teachers saw, “teaching
as a desirable career if they saw themselves as having the knowledge and skills to
teach, and if they could associate positive emotions with teaching” (Thomson &
Palermo, 2014, p. 64). They further also found clear evidence that student teachers’
biography and schooling history influenced the emotions they experienced during
practical training. They suggest that,
Some relationships, particularly with past teachers or children, seemed to allow participants
to deal with emotional vulnerability or helped them develop feelings of confidence. All PTs
made their initial decision to become teachers because they felt they would enjoy the human
interaction or because they had pleasant memories from their own relationships as students
with their teachers. (Ibidem, p. 65)
These studies demonstrate how the intense and pervasive emotional experiences
result from the complex interactions and dynamic sense-making between the stu-
dent teachers and the social (e.g., other people in schools), structural (institutional
characteristics of teacher education, curriculum, organizational arrangements, etc.)
and cultural (for example normative ideas on good education and teaching as part of
the school culture) conditions they find themselves in during practical teacher edu-
cation. However, it is important to stress that the emotions are not just the outcomes
of these interactions, but also constitute or condition them and their meaning.
Explicitly addressing the emotions (for example in the experiences during practical
teaching) may create powerful pedagogical opportunities. In the next section we’ll
elaborate on this pedagogical potential.
Emotions and the Pedagogy of Teacher Education
Since emotions are intrinsic, even constitutive for the development of student teach-
ers’ self-understanding and professional expertise, one cannot but ask what are the
consequences for designing and facilitating learning opportunities for student teach-
ers. Although we already touched upon it a couple of times in the former para-
graphs, we now explicitly move our attention towards the prescriptive meaning of
our interest in emotions and student teachers: how can and/or should teacher educa-
tors acknowledge and deal with the inevitable emotions in student teachers’ learn-
ing? Or even more, how can they create opportunities for student teachers to become
aware of the emotional dimension in teaching and to develop appropriate ways to
deal with it?
Based on our analysis of the research literature we have identified a number of
conditions and more general pedagogical issues related to the exploration and man-
agement of emotions in teacher education. Next we discuss research on specific
pedagogical methods and strategies addressing the emotional dimension of becom-
ing a teacher.
Exploring the Emotional Dimension in Becoming a Teacher:

Pedagogical Issues and Conditions
In order to create powerful educational opportunities in teacher education to explore

the emotional dimension in teaching, a number of conditions and issues need to be
taken into account. A first – and maybe most important – condition concerns the
quality of the relationship between the student teachers and their teacher educators
(both the teachers of the programme at the teacher education institute and the men-
tors or collaborating teachers during the internships of their practical teaching). In
other words, even from a purely instrumental pedagogical interest relational quality
matters. Overall the emotional support student teachers experience from their
teacher educators is an important determinant of the emotions student teachers
experience. This was documented and demonstrated for example in a large scale
survey study by Sakiz (2012) in the teacher training department of a major univer-
sity in Turkey. She found a clear relationship between perceived instructor affective
support, emotions (i.e. academic enjoyment and academic hopelessness) and the
motivational variable of help seeking behavior. In an older study Hayes (2001) had
43 primary student teachers write accounts of the experiences that had most
impacted their professional growth during practice placement. His findings confirm
that the attitude and skills of the teacher educators and mentors had been decisive in
the strengthening of student teachers’ self-confidence and self-esteem. Especially
the degree to which student teachers felt included in a ‘community of practice’ and
the quality of the feedback they received were identified as most contributing to
their professional development. It follows that not only in K-12 classrooms emo-
tional support is important for students’ learning, but also in college classrooms
during teacher education. Caires and Almeida (2007) came to similar conclusions
after analyzing the evaluative reflections of 224 student teachers on their relation
with the cooperating teacher in practicum and the university supervisor. Their
analysis,
emphasizes the determinant role of the supervisory relationships in the personal and profes-
sional development of the prospective teachers. Besides representing a privileged setting
for the monitoring of the student teacher’s development, for the reflection on his/her prac-
tices and growth, or the devise of a more consolidated and integrated knowledge of the
how’s and why’s of the teaching profession, the supervision relationship emerges as an
important source of personal and emotional support. (Caires & Almeida, 2007, p. 525)
Apart from the emotional support they provide, teacher educators’ role model-
ling in the management of their emotions constitutes a second relevant condition. In
a study on appropriate and inappropriate emotional display, Hagenauer and Volet
(2014) interviewed teacher educators who were teaching first year student teachers.
Their respondents on the hand considered expressing positive emotions as an impor-
tant and integral part of their teaching. Yet on the other hand they argued that for
negative emotions it was critical to control and often even completely hide them. As
such, one could label this as ‘emotional work for educational and pedagogical pur-
poses’. Hochschild (1983) coined the term emotional work, referring to the need for
employees to manage their emotions (displaying, hiding, ignoring) as an essential

competence in order to obtain their goals and interests. Since these teacher educa-
tors believed that appropriate emotion management was an important element in
student teachers’ becoming competent teachers, they engaged in those more con-
scious forms of public modelling of their emotions. This modelling of emotional
management therefore is at the same time a relevant condition for emotional learn-
ing in teacher education as well as a technique to develop student teachers’
professionalism. The issue further exemplifies an ongoing debate – recently men-
tioned by Frenzel – on, “whether emotional labor is a blessing or a curse for teach-
ers” (Frenzel, 2014, p. 512).
In line with what we discussed before on student teachers’ emotions in relation
to particular subject content, the pedagogy used in teacher education for particular
subjects constitutes a third condition for exploring the emotional dimension in
teacher education. It is very important for student teachers to have positive emo-
tional experiences with (teaching) particular curriculum contents. In other words, it
matters how student teaches ‘feel’ about having to teach particular subject con-
tents. In a number of recent studies, researchers tried to conceptualize and study
“emotional climate” in science education, both in primary (Olitsky, 2013) and sec-
ondary (Bellocchi et al., 2014) schools in the US and Australia. Taking a more
explicit sociological perspective, Bellochi et al. define emotional climate as being,
produced during social encounters from which participants develop solidarity, or group
belongingness, through rhythmic coordination of gesture and speech, mutual focus of atten-
tion, production of collective effervescence through group laughter and emotional attun-
ement, and emotional energy. As a ritual outcome, collective effervescence is a state of
heightened group experience whereby the group shares the same emotions (e.g., joy) and
ideas. Through this process, shared ideas become symbols representing the group’s interac-
tions. The heightened emotional state experienced in forming these shared ideas flows on to
the emotional energy experienced by individuals. (Bellochi et al., 2014, p. 1304)
Using for example detailed analysis of videotaped lessons, these studies explore
the relationship between particular pedagogical strategies (role play, demonstration)
in science teacher education on student teachers’ learning, their individual emotions
as well as the emotional climate.
A fourth condition is closely linked to the fact that teacher education –as any
formal education- inevitable includes processes and procedures of assessment and
feedback. At the end of the programme the teaching staff needs to evaluate whether
the student teachers have successfully met the goals and can be qualified for the job.
Apart from this eventual sanctioning – which self-evidently plays in the background
of any action or content of the teacher education programme – assessment and feed-
back are also constitutive parts of the programme as such. Their relevance for the
discussion of emotions in teacher education lies in the inevitable emotional arousal
they provoke, as well as in the fact that the way they are emotionally experienced
will affect their impact on student teachers’ learning. The set-up of assessment and
feedback in teacher education programmes as such constitutes a structural source of
emotions for the students going through the programme. Furthermore, assessment
and the envisaged learning are supposed to be in line with each other. For that rea-
son Turner and her colleagues (2013) in the UK had student teachers present the
results of a school based project assignment during an oral examination (as summa-
tive assessment of the course) instead of the traditional written account. Especially
the qualitative part of their mixed-method data set revealed a nuanced and complex
picture of the student teachers’ emotions involved and how they affected their learn-
ing. Emotions of tension and anxiety were present, but overall the student teachers
appreciated the alignment between purpose and assessment format and valued the
opportunity for structured sharing with others. This study further demonstrates that
positive and negative emotions can be present in learning experiences at the same
time and that negative emotions not necessarily lead to negative outcomes.
Contrary to the sanctioning impact of summative assessment, the effect of feed-
back on their work for student teachers might be a less ‘high stakes issue’. Yet, as
Dowden, Pittaway, Yost, and McCarthy (2013) rightly point out, the way feedback
procedures are set up and unfold is a highly relevant condition, but little studied in
its emotional meaning. Carless (2006) used data from a large-scale multi-method
study in Hong Kong to argue that feedback always involves a particular discourse
(that can be more or less unequivocal in its meaning for the recipient), a clear power
relationship (the feedback provider is the one who ‘knows’ and ‘judges’, positioning
the recipient as weaker and dependent), and is highly emotionally relevant. Feedback
on assignments does not leave the recipient emotionally indifferent and the emotion
impacts the learning from the feedback. This point is explicitly taken on by Dowden
et al., reminding us that,
while it is generally accepted that emotion plays some kind of role in relation to students’
perceptions of written feedback; it has not been widely understood that emotion is inter-
twined with cognition and, therefore that students’ emotions actually mediate their percep-
tions of written feedback. (p. 352)
Questionnaire data from student teachers confirmed the relationship between

emotions and the cognitive benefits they got from feedback. Furthermore, the data
demonstrated that the presence of an overall warm and supporting teaching and
learning context strenghtened the positive contribution of feedback to student teach-
ers’ learning. In line with Carless (2006), Dowden et al. (2013) also conclude that
dialogical or “two-way” feedback formats may entail a set-up that diminishes the
negative and unintended side-effects of feedback interfering with and possibly jeop-
ardizing its potential effect on student teachers’ learning.
From the more general conditions determining the pedagogical exploration of
the emotional dimension in becoming a teacher, we now zoom in on a number of
specific pedagogical strategies and methods.
Pedagogical Strategies and Methods to Explore the Emotional

in Teaching
Both at a practical and conceptual level it becomes an important challenge for the
pedagogy of teacher education to create opportunities for student teachers to explore
the emotional dimension in teaching and being a teacher, as well as learning to
properly deal with it. This dealing not only demands cognitive understanding and
acknowledgement or the mastery of particular effective management skills.
Engaging with the emotional dimension in teaching will in itself often be an emo-
tionally meaningful experience.
Different pedagogical strategies to have student teachers ‘work’ on the emotional
dimension have been reported in the research literature, most often linked to a form
of reflective practice. Minott (2011), for example, presents the findings of an action
research on the effect of a reflective teaching course. Student teachers not only
developed a reflective attitude, but engaging in reflection also made them more
aware of the emotional aspects of the teaching job and –as a consequence- about the
need to consciously address them and deal with them as teachers.
The research literature reports on several forms of reflective assignments, in
which student teachers are invited, stimulated and supported to actively think back
and thoughtfully explore their practical teaching experiences and in particular their
emotional aspects (for example Hayes, 2001). However, quite often the assignments
start from reflections on problematic situations or negative experiences. Drawing on
insights from positive psychology and solution-based therapy, Janssen, De Hullu,
and Tigelaar (2008) took a different approach. In their study of biology student
teachers, they asked the participants to reflect not only on problematic, but also on
positive experiences during their teaching practice. They found that students reflec-
tively analyzing positive experiences were more innovative in their conclusions,
more motivated to act in accordance with their reflective conclusions and felt emo-
tionally more positive during the reflection than when reflecting on negative
experiences.
Studies on the emotions in reflective assignments often also draw on narrative
and/or biographical approaches (see also Kelchtermans, 2014). LaBoskey and
Cline (2000) illustrate how inquiry-based storying can be used in teacher education
to, “reveal to both the story-tellers and their instructors the beliefs, values, feelings,
and attitudes that guide practice” (p. 360). However, the authors rightly stress the
need for instructors to actively support and challenge this process if one wants to
avoid the exercise to become self-congratulating or only confirming student teach-
ers’ beliefs and implicit theories. Thoughtfully designing the assignment, monitor-
ing and engaging in critical feedback are essential conditions to trigger critical
deliberation and reflective inquiry. An example of the biographical approach is
found in the work of Deegan (2008). Building on autobiographical understanding
and narrative inquiry, 2006), he analyzed the memoirs of 99 Irish primary student
teachers’ experiences with “writing emotionally”, defined as,
as a way of coming to know, understand and act on the emotions through writing, including
sympathy, imagination, intentions, feelings, and thoughts of self and others. Writing emo-
tionally is a process of cutting the emotional vein and setting free feelings and ideas that
have been silenced in everyday discourse. (Deegan, 2008, p. 186)
His analysis of the memoirs demonstrates how the student teachers’ profes-
sional identities (or self-understanding) emerged out of the constructive negotia-
tion processes between freedom and conformity to predefined norms and
expectations. Hence, the study stresses the educational potential of the memoirs to
surface the often hidden or neglected emotional, moral and political issues in the
development of one’s self as a (becoming) teacher: “how, and in what ways, stu-
dent teachers bridged memories of their own childhood experiences through the
prism of teacher-writer memoirs with scenes they are currently experiencing as
student teachers in a primary teacher education programme” (Deegan, 2008,
p. 186).
From a similar interest in student teachers’ developing identity, Schonmann and
Kempe (2010) used reflective monologues with drama student teachers to reflect on
and become aware of their needs, concerns and expectations at the start of the
teacher education programme. The monologues were first written (focused expres-
sion of student teachers’ thoughts and feelings) and afterwards presented as theatre
monologues to their peers (thus creating a supportive environment with an atten-
tively listening audience).
Other pedagogical strategies combine forms of reflection with non-linguistic
actions. Oral or written language are being left out or at least postponed in the pro-
cess for some time hoping this way to intensify the experience, without it being
distorted or reconstructed through language. This way the student teachers have to
endure the discomfort of the intensified emotions before reflectively working them
through in dialogue with others (peers). We already mentioned Burton’s study (2012)
on working with drawings. A different example can be found in the work by Forgasz
(2014). She uses Boal’s (1995) methodology of the “Rainbow of Desire” to have her
drama student teachers reflectively explore their emotions in practice teaching
through different theatrical techniques in which the use of language is postponed.
Finally, we also want to mention a number of recent studies on whether and
under what conditions the so-called new social media may be used to support emo-
tional learning. The advantage of those media, like weblogs, Facebook, Twitter, is
that they can be used asynchronously and from a distance in the learning process,
which in principle holds promising possibilities for teacher educators to support
student teachers’ (emotional) learning during internships. These media allow for the
fast documenting and sharing of experiences and reflections and as such can be used
to help student teachers become aware about and properly deal with the emotional
dimension of teaching. Informally reading, writing, sharing, one’s emotions through
these tools may help student teachers to come to understand them as normal and as
part of the job as well as of their own professional learning. Yet when the informal
that characterizes these media becomes formalized in the practice of a training’s
curriculum, under the gaze of the teacher educator, it might become a form of bias.
Reupert and Dalgarno (2011) studied compulsory weblogs as a medium for stu-
dent teachers to share experiences on classroom management with their peers. The
researchers had hoped that the reflections would pay more attention to the role of
the particularities in that internship, rather than merely looking for ‘tips and tricks’.
However, student teachers evaluated them very differently. To some the blogs were
a good way to ventilate their emotions and receive support and tips from peers,
while others questioned the value of peer advice and evaluated the blogs as too time-
consuming. Reflecting ‘in public’, on a ‘forum’ felt uncomfortable for many stu-
dents and the blogs ended up being mostly used to share tricks instead of deepening
reflection (Reupert & Dalgarno, 2011). Also Shoffner (2009) compared different
electronic environments (i.e. online discussion forum versus individual weblogs)
for their pedagogical merits in developing student teachers’ awareness of and coping
with emotions in teaching. She pointed out that the differences in formal language
requirements, level of public access, and other technical aspects can and will
influence their actual use by student teachers and hence their pedagogical value (see
also Gleaves & Walker, 2010). As the actual electronic communication technology
most likely will continue to develop into different applications and formats in the
future, it is important to remember that the technical possibilities not always
straightforwardly or self-evidently contribute to educational goals. In other words,
it is not because it is technically possible, that particular tools will also operate
pedagogically in the way that was intended or planned.
It goes without saying that a de-contextualized listing of different pedagogical
methods and strategies for exploring and dealing with the emotional in teacher edu-
cation doesn’t make much sense. Pedagogical tools, techniques, procedures and
arrangements can only be properly understood and valued by looking at the con-
crete pedagogical practices in which they are implemented. And these practices
involve the teacher educators, cooperating teachers and/or peers (student teachers)
in a particular context as well as their mutual relations. So ultimately the possible
effect of the pedagogical interventions will per definition depend on the way teacher
educators or cooperating teachers actually engage with the student teachers. This
point was already argued by Hawkey (2006): emotions are of central importance in
the mentoring relationship between teacher educators and their students (see also
Tanaka et al., 2014). Supervisors’ capability to properly manage student teachers’
emotional experiences was found by Harrison and Lee (2010) to be crucial for the
development of critical reflective practice skills in student teachers. Higgins, Heinz,
McCauley, and Fleming (2013) further demonstrated the crucial importance in this
of the emotional quality of the relationship between the teacher educators and the
cooperating teachers, or between the teacher education institute and the practicum
schools.
In summary, for the further development and improvement of a pedagogy of
teacher education in relation to the emotional dimension of teaching and becoming
a teacher it is essential to take a contextualized approach that acknowledges and
includes the relational and organisational conditions in which the pedagogies are
enacted. Whether and in what way particular interventions or tools successfully
contribute to student teachers’ understanding of and capacity to deal with the emo-
tional dimension of their job, will depend on their actual implementation as well as
the way the people involved make sense of them.
Conclusions and Perspectives
Our exploration of the research literature on the emotional dimension of becoming

a teacher has exemplified and illustrated in more detail the general claim at the start
of our chapter that emotions constitute the heart of teaching and also of learning to
become a teacher. By way of conclusion we elaborate further on the meaning of this
claim. We end the chapter with some perspectives for future research.
Firstly, the emotional is linked to the fundamental relational nature of teaching
and therefore of learning to teach. The relations first of all concern others, the social
aspects of becoming a teacher: the relationships with teacher educators, with peers,
and –during practical training- with cooperating teachers and of course with pupils.
The quality of these social relationships in their different pedagogical arrangements
is highly emotional. The relational, however, also includes non-social realities, like
for example student teachers’ perception and emotional appreciation of the subject
matter they (will) have to teach or institutional structures and procedures as well as
educational policies. There is a vast literature, for example, criticizing the manage-
rialism and performativity, including high stakes testing and evaluation procedures
that have characterized international educational policies over the past two decades,
and having –among many other (cognitive, relational, motivational)- also pervasive
emotional effects. Or, in a very illustrative quote from Bullough (2009):
Teaching has always been intensely emotional work, but the nature of that work is changing
in the face of a new managerialism that relies upon fear, embarrassment and teacher guilt to
gain improved student performance (as demonstrated by rising standardized student test
scores). (p. 33)
Secondly, and more fundamentally, however, the analysis of the research litera-
ture has made clear that the emotional dimension of becoming a teacher is deeply
entwined with the moral, the political as well as the technical (or instrumental)
dimensions that characterize teaching and schooling (see also Hargreaves, 1995).
From a pedagogical interest in student teachers’ emotional experiences, these differ-
ent dimensions always need to be understood in relation to the moral and ethical
aspects of educational responsibility and the choices they inevitably imply
(Kelchtermans, 2011). The need to make value laden choices and to commit oneself
in responsible actions pervades all aspects of teaching and therefore of learning to
become a teacher.
This claim needs to be understood in relation to what we have argued elsewhere
about vulnerability as a structural characteristic of teaching: teachers cannot but
make decisions, based on their moral judgments on the particularities of a situation
and how to act in order to do justice to the educational needs of their pupils or stu-
dents. However, these decisions are inevitably value-laden and therefore always
remain open to contestation (Kelchtermans, 2009; Kelchtermans & Hamilton,

2004). Teaching, furthermore, always happens in institutional and organisational
contexts (schools, teacher training institutes) in which particular normative dis-
courses, procedures and practices dominate and to which the student teacher inevi-
tably must learn to relate and position him/herself. Becoming a teacher therefore
also demands positioning oneself to the actual processes of power and influence in
the organization, through negotiation, decision making and even explicit micro-
political strategies (Ball, 1994).
In the pedagogy and curriculum of teacher education quite often the emphasis
still remains on the technical or instrumental ‘how to?’ – questions of content
knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, classroom management techniques
and other aspects of the life in classrooms. Although the engagement with pupils in
the classroom doesn’t leave student teachers emotionally indifferent, it is important
to acknowledge that the moral and political dimensions require that the teacher
education curriculum explicitly pays attention to the organizational and institutional
levels beyond the classroom. Emotional experiences can be a powerful starting
point for reflection and unraveling the way the school as an organization as well as
the policy context impact teaching practice and the definition of being/becoming a
teacher. These insights are crucial for future teachers to feel prepared, positively
motivated and resilient to deal with negative emotional experiences. Understanding
that one’s emotions are related to elements and processes in the context and as such
are not just a personal matter or individual characteristic and responsibility is a lib-
erating condition for student teachers to develop the necessary stamina, job motiva-
tion and satisfaction that are needed to teach and to develop professionally during
the years in the job.
Thirdly, the emotional dimension in becoming a teacher is closely related to the
fact that this learning process also involves one’s self-understanding (sense of ‘self’
or ‘identity’). Becoming a teacher demands developing a professional self-
understanding as a (future) teacher. This is not only a technical issue of developing
relevant instrumental knowledge, skill, attitude, competencies or dispositions, but
touches on the personal: who one is, matters in teaching and therefore in becoming
a teacher (Nias, 1989). It is obvious that precisely this connection and intertwine-
ment of the personal and the technical-instrumental in becoming a teacher are emo-
tionally highly relevant.
At the outset of the chapter, we made clear that we had to set boundaries to our
exploration of the literature by strictly limiting ourselves to research relating to stu-
dent teachers and their emotional experiences. As a consequence we did not go into
the important question of the emotions experienced by the teacher educators and/or
cooperating teachers, when engaged in their work with student teachers. Several
studies indicate that the emotions of the teacher educators are just as relevant as
those of the student teachers. Golombek and Doran (2014), for example, report how
teacher educators found themselves challenged by the massive emotionality that was
present in their student teachers’ reflective diaries. Also other authors have docu-
mented and looked into the pedagogical relevance of the teacher educators’ emotions
in their work (see for example Dowling, 2008; Hastings, 2008, 2010; McDonough
& Brandenburg, 2012). Hastings (2004) further also explored the often intense emo-
tions of cooperating teachers in their supervision role with student teachers.
In line with the fundamental relational nature of teacher education and in particu-
lar the intense emotional load of practical training, it would be highly relevant to
study the emotions of all parties involved in the practicum, both in themselves and
in their mutual relatedness. Furthermore also follow-up studies, unraveling how the
emotional dynamics evolve over time, are a necessary and logical next step.
Finally, it was surprising to find almost no research in which the embodied
dimension of emotions in teaching and learning to teach was acknowledged and
included. Although research on embodiment in teaching in general remains rela-
tively scarce (Estola & Elbaz-Luwisch, 2003), little or no attention is paid to the
obvious fact that emotions are ‘felt’ in the body. Emotional experiences imply the
interaction between affect and cognition, between feeling and sense-making and the
body is the self-evident space where this happens. Further research on the embodied
nature of teaching and learning to teach is not only important because of its theoreti-
cal relevance, but also pedagogically it holds important and fascinating promises
(see for example Jordi, 2011; Forgasz, 2014).
The research on emotions in teacher education would not only contribute to fur-
ther theory development, but also to the practical agenda of designing and imple-
menting powerful learning opportunities for student teachers (as well as teacher
educators or cooperating teachers). This may be linked to the call for a ‘pedagogy
of discomfort’ by authors like Boler (1999) and Loughran (2006) among others.
Purposefully bringing student teachers in situations that put them out of their com-
fort zone will intensify their emotional experiences and as a consequence may con-
tribute to deepened reflections and learning. The pedagogical potential of explicitly
addressing the emotional dimension in teacher education is only starting to be
explored and promises to provide rich sources for practice as well as theory.
Acknowledgement The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Anouck Gierts to the
identification and selection of the relevant literature.
References
Atkinson, D. (2004). Theorising how student teachers form their identities in initial teacher educa-
tion. British Educational Research Journal, 30(3), 379–394.
Ball, S. (1994). Micropolitics of schools. In T. Husén & T. Postlethwaite (Eds.), The international
encyclopedia of education (2nd ed., pp. 3824–3826). Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in
the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2),
175–189. doi:10.1080/03057640902902252.
Bellocchi, A., Ritchie, S. M., Tobin, K., King, D., Sandhu, M., & Henderson, S. (2014). Emotional
climate and high quality learning experiences in science teacher education. Journal of Research
in Science Teaching, 51(10), 1301–1325.
Bloomfield, D. (2010). Emotions and ‘getting by’: A pre-service teacher navigating professional
experience. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 38(3), 221–234. doi:10.1080/13598
66X.2010.494005.
Boal, A. (1995). The rainbow of desire: The Boal method of theatre and therapy. London:
Routledge.
Boler, M. (1999). Feeling power. Emotions and education. London: Routledge.
Borrachero, A. B., Brigido, M., Costillo, E., Bermejo, M. L., & Melado, V. (2013). Relationship
between self-efficacy beliefs and emotions of future teachers of physics in secondary educa-
tion. Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 14, s.p.
Borrachero, A. B., Brígido, M., Mellado, L., Costillo, E., & Mellado, V. (2014). Emotions in pro-
spective secondary teachers when teaching science content, distinguishing by gender. Research
in Science & Technological Education, 32(2), 182–215. doi:10.1080/02635143.2014.909800.
Boylan, M. (2009). Engaging with issues of emotionality in mathematics teacher education for
social justice. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 12(6), 427–443. doi:10.1007/
s10857-009-9117-0.
Brígido, M., Bermejo, M. L., Conde, M. C., & Mellado, V. (2010). The emotions in teaching and
learning nature sciences and physics/chemistry in pre-service primary teachers. US China
Education Review, 7(12), 25–32.
Brígido, M., Borrachero, A. B., Bermejo, M. L., & Mellado, V. (2013). Prospective primary teach-
ers’ self-efficacy and emotions in science teaching. European Journal of Teacher Education,
36(2), 200–217. doi:10.1080/02619768.2012.686993.
Britzman, D. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach. Albany, NY:
State University of New York Press.
Bühler, J., Gere, A. R., Dallavis, C., & Haviland, V. S. (2009). Normalizing the fraughtness how
emotion, race, and school context complicate cultural competence. Journal of Teacher
Education, 60(4), 408–418. doi:10.1177/0022487109339905.
Bullough, R. V. (1997). Practicing theory and theorizing practice in teacher education. In
J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in
teacher education (pp. 13–31). London: Falmer Press.
Bullough, R. V. (2009). Seeking eudaimonia: The emotions in learning to teach and to mentor. In
P. Schutz & M. Zembylas (Eds.), Advances in teacher emotion research: The impact on teach-
ers’ lives (pp. 33–53). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Bullough, R. V., & Gitlin, A. (2001). Becoming a student of teaching: Linking knowledge produc-
tion and practice. London: Routledge Falmer.
Burton, M. (2012). What is math? Exploring the perception of elementary pre-service teachers.
Issues in the Undergraduate Mathematics Preparation of School Teacher: The Journal, 5, s.p.
(2012 Jan www.k-12prep.math.ttu.edu).
Caires, S., & Almeida, L. S. (2007). Positive aspects of the teacher training supervision: The stu-
dent teachers’ perspective. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 22, 515–528.
Caires, S., Almeida, L. S., & Martins, C. (2009). The socioemotional experiences of student teach-
ers during practicum: A case of reality shock? Journal of Educational Research, 103(1), 17–27.
doi:10.1080/00220670903228611.
Caires, S., Almeida, L., & Vieira, D. (2012). Becoming a teacher: Student teachers’ experiences
and perceptions about teaching practice. European Journal of Teacher Education, 35(2), 163–
178. doi:10.1080/02619768.2011.643395.
Carless, D. (2006). Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education,
31(2), 219–233. doi:10.1080/03075070600572132.
Corcoran, R. P., & Tormey, R. (2012). How emotionally intelligent are pre-service teachers?
Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(5), 750–759. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2012.02.007.
Corcoran, R., & Tormey, R. (2013). Does emotional intelligence predict student teachers’ perfor-
mance? Teaching and Teacher Education, 35, 34–42. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2013.04.008.
Craig, C., Meijer, P., & Broeckmans, J. (Eds.). (2013). From teacher thinking to teachers and
teaching: The evolution of a research community. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Crawford, M. (2009). Getting to the heart of leadership. Emotion and educational leadership. Los
Angeles, CA: Sage.
Day, C., & Chi-Kin Lee, J. (Eds.). (2011). New understandings of teacher effectiveness: Emotions
and educational change. Dordrecht, TheNetherlands: Springer.
Deegan, J. G. (2008). Teacher-writer memoirs as lens for writing emotionally in a primary teacher
education programme. Teaching Education, 19(3), 185–196. doi:10.1080/10476210802250166.
Dowden, T., Pittaway, S., Yost, H., & McCarthy, R. (2013). Students’ perceptions of written feed-
back in teacher education: Ideally feedback is a continuing two-way communication that
encourages progress. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(3), 349–362. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2011.632676.
Dowling, F. (2008). Getting in touch with our feelings: The emotional geographies of gender rela-
tions in PETE. Sport Education and Society, 13(3), 247–266. doi:10.1080/13573320802200560.
Dumitriu, C., Timofti, I. C., & Dumitriu, G. (2014). Evaluation and development of students’ emo-
tional competence. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 869–874. doi:10.1016/j.
sbspro.2014.01.312.
Elik, N., Wiener, J., & Corkum, P. (2010). Pre-service teachers’ open-minded thinking disposi-
tions, readiness to learn, and attitudes about learning and behavioural difficulties in students.
European Journal of Teacher Education, 33(2), 127–146. doi:10.1080/02619760903524658.
Eren, A. (2014a). Uncovering the links between prospective teachers’ personal responsibility, aca-
demic optimism, hope, and emotions about teaching: A mediation analysis. Social Psychology
of Education, 17(1), 73–104. doi:10.1007/s11218-013-9243-5.
Eren, A. (2014b). Relational analysis of prospective teachers’ emotions about teaching, emotional
styles, and professional plans about teaching. Australian Educational Researcher, 41(4), 381–
409. doi:10.1007/s13384-013-0141-9.
Estola, E., & Elbaz‐Luwisch, F. (2003). Teaching bodies at work. Journal of Curriculum Studies,
35, 697–719. doi:10.1080/0022027032000129523.
Filipp, S.-H. (Ed.). (1990). Kritische Lebensereignisse. München, Germany: Psychologie Verlags
Union.
Fleer, M. (2012). Imagination, emotions and scientific thinking: What matters in the being and
becoming of a teacher of elementary science? Cultural Studies of Science Education, 7(1),
31–39. doi:10.1007/s11422-011-9365-z.
Forgasz, R. (2014). Reframing ‘The Rainbow of Desire’ as embodied self-reflexivity in initial
teacher education. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and
Performance, 19, 280–286. doi:10.1080/13569783.2014.928008.
Frenzel, A. (2014). Teacher emotions. In R. Pekrun & L. Linnenbrink-Barcia (Eds.), International
handbook of emotions in education (pp. 494–518). New York: Routledge.
Gatt, I., & Karppinen, S. (2014). An enquiry into primary student teachers’ confidence, feelings
and attitudes towards teaching arts and crafts in Finland and Malta during initial teacher train-
ing. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 33(1), 75–87.
doi:10.1111/j.1476-8070.2014.12002.x.
Gleaves, A., & Walker, C. (2010). Student teachers’ situated emotions: A study of how electronic
communication facilitates their expression and shapes their impact on novice teacher develop-
ment during practice placements. Teacher Development, 14(2), 139–152. doi:10.1080/136645
30.2010.49449.
Golombek, P., & Doran, M. (2014). Unifying cognition, emotion, and activity in language teacher
professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 102–111. doi:10.1016/j.
tate.2014.01.002.
Gunduz, B. (2013). Emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility and psychological symptoms in
pre-service teachers. Educational Research and Reviews, 8(13), 1048–1056. doi:10.5897/
ERR2013.1493.
Gürol, A., Özercan, M. G., & Yalçin, H. (2010). A comparative analysis of pre-service teachers’
perceptions of self-efficacy and emotional intelligence. Procedia – Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 2(2), 3246–3251. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.496.
Hagenauer, G., & Volet, S. (2014). “I don’t hide my feelings, even though I try to”: Insight into
teacher educator emotion display. The Australian Educational Researcher, 41(3), 261–281.
doi:10.1007/s13384-013-0129-5.
Hargreaves, A. (1995). Development and desire: A postmodern perspective. In T. Guskey &
M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and practices
(pp. 9–34). New York: Teachers’ College Press.
Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14,
835–854.
Hargreaves, A. (2001). Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6),
1056–1080.
Harrison, J. K., & Lee, R. (2010). Exploring the use of critical incident analysis and the profes-
sional learning conversation in an initial teacher education programme. Journal of Education
for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, 37(2), 199–217.
doi:10.1080/02607476.2011.558285.
Hastings, W. (2004). Emotions and the practicum: The cooperating teachers’ perspective. Teachers
and Teaching: Theory & Practice, 10, 135–148. doi:10.1080/1354060042000187991.
Hastings, W. (2008). I felt so guilty: Emotions and subjectivity in school-based teacher education.
Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 14(5–6), 497–513.
doi:10.1080/13540600802583655.
Hastings, W. (2010). Expectations of a pre-service teacher: Implications of encountering the unex-
pected. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 38(3), 207–219. doi:10.1080/13598
66X.2010.493299.
Hawkey, K. (2006). Emotional intelligence and mentoring in pre-service teacher education: A lit-
erature review. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 14(2), 137–147.
doi:10.1080/13611260500493485.
Hayes, D. (2001). The impact of mentoring and tutoring on student primary teachers’ achieve-
ments: A case study. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 9(1), 5–21.
Hayes, D. (2003). Emotional preparation for teaching: A case study about trainee teachers in
England. Teacher Development, 7(2), 153–171.
Higgins, A., Heinz, M., McCauley, V., & Fleming, M. (2013). Creating the future of teacher educa-
tion together: The role of emotionality in university-school partnership. Procedia – Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 93, 1110–1115. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.340.
Hobson, A. J., Malderez, A., Tracey, L., Giannakaki, M., Pell, G., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2008).
Student teachers’ experiences of initial teacher preparation in England: Core themes and varia-
tion. Research Papers in Education, 23(4), 407–433. doi:10.1080/02671520701809825.
Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Janssen, F., De Hullu, E., & Tigelaar, D. (2008). Positive experiences as input for reflection by
student teachers. Teachers and Teaching: Theory & Practice, 14(2), 115–127.
doi:10.1080/13540600801965903.
Jordi, R. (2011). Reframing the concept of reflection: Consciousness, experiential learning, and
reflective learning practices. Adult Education Quarterly, 61, 181–197.
Kaldi, S. (2009). Student teachers’ perceptions of self-competence in and emotions/stress about
teaching in initial teacher education. Educational Studies, 35(3), 349–360.
doi:10.1080/03055690802648259.
Karlsson, M. (2013). Emotional identification with teacher identities in student teachers’ narrative
interaction. European Journal of Teacher Education, 36(2), 133–146. http://dx.doi.org/10.108
0/02619768.2012.686994.
Kay, R. (2007). The impact of preservice teachers’ emotions on computer use: A formative analy-
sis. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 36(4), 455–479. doi:10.2190/
J111-Q132-N166-K249.
Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message. Self-understanding, vulnerabil-
ity and reflection. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15, 257–272.
Kelchtermans, G. (2011). Professional responsibility: Persistent commitment, perpetual vulnera-

bility? In C. Sugrue & T. D. Solbrekke (Eds.), Professional responsibility: New horizons of
praxis (pp. 113–126). London: Routledge.
Kelchtermans, G. (2014). Narrative-biographical pedagogies in teacher education. In L. Orland-
Barak & C. J. Craig (Eds.), International teacher education: Promising pedagogies - Part A
(pp. 273–291). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.
Kelchtermans, G., & Hamilton, M. L. (2004). The dialectics of passion and theory: Exploring the
relation between self-study and emotion. In J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. Kubler LaBoskey,
& T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education
practices (pp. 785–810). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Kelchtermans, G., Piot, L., & Ballet, K. (2011). The lucid loneliness of the gatekeeper: Exploring
the emotional dimension in principals’ work lives. Oxford Review of Education, 37, 93–108.
Klemola, U., Heikinaro-Johansson, P., & O’Sullivan, M. (2013). Physical education student teach-
ers’ perceptions of applying knowledge and skills about emotional understanding studied in
PETE in a one-year teaching practicum. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 18(1), 28–41.
doi:10.1080/17408989.2011.630999.
LaBoskey, V. K., & Cline, S. (2000). Behind the mirror: Inquiry based storying in teacher educa-
tion. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 359–375. doi:10.1080/713693163.
Lamote, C., & Engels, N. (2010). The development of student teachers’ professional identity.
European Journal of Teacher Education, 33, 3–18. doi:10.1080/02619760903457735.
Lanas, M., & Kelchtermans, G. (2015). “This has more to do with who I am than with my skills” –
Student teacher subjectification in Finnish teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education,
47, 22–29.
Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Loughran, J. (2006). Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: Understanding teaching and
learning about teaching. London: Routledge.
Malderez, A., Hobson, A. J., Tracey, L., & Kerr, K. (2007). Becoming a student teacher: Core
features of the experience. European Journal of Teacher Education, 30, 225–248.
doi:10.1080/02619760701486068.
Mansfield, C. F., & Volet, S. E. (2010). Developing beliefs about classroom motivation: Journeys
of preservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(7), 1404–1415. doi:10.1016/j.
tate.2010.04.005.
Matias, C. E., & Zembylas, M. (2014). ‘When saying you care is not really caring’: Emotions of
disgust, whiteness ideology, and teacher education. Critical Studies in Education, 55(3), 319–
337. doi:10.1080/17508487.2014.922489.
McDonough, S., & Brandenburg, R. (2012). Examining assumptions about teacher educator iden-
tities by self-study of the role of mentor of pre-service teachers. Studying Teacher Education,
8(2), 169–182. doi:10.1080/17425964.2012.692990.
Minott, M. A. (2011). The impact of a course in reflective teaching on student teachers at a local
university college. Canadian Journal of Education, 34(2), 131–147.
Montgomery, C. (2005). La vivencia interior de las pasantes de la enseñanza primaria. Paradigma,
26(2), 163.
Nias, J. (1989). Primary teachers talking. A study of teaching as work. London: Routledge.
Nias, J. (1996). Thinking about feeling: the emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education,
26(3), 293–306.
Nguyen, M. H. (2014). Preservice EAL teaching as emotional experiences: Practicum experience
in an Australian secondary school. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(8), 62–84.
doi:10.14221/ajte.2014v39n8.5.
Olitsky, S. (2013). We teach as we are taught: Exploring the potential for emotional climate to
enhance elementary science preservice teacher education. Cultural Studies of Science
Education, 8(3), 561–570. doi:10.1007/s11422-013-9530-7.
Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct.
Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307–332. doi:10.3102/00346543062003307.
Pekrun, R., & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (Eds.). (2014). International handbook of emotions in edu-
cation. New York: Routledge.
Poulou, M. (2007). Student-teachers’ concerns about teaching practice. European Journal of
Teacher Education, 30, 91–110.
Raffo, C., & Hall, D. (2006). Transitions to becoming a teacher on an initial teacher education and
training programme. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27(1), 53–66.
doi:10.1080/01425690500376705.
Reupert, A., & Dalgarno, B. (2011). Using online blogs to develop student teachers’ behaviour
management approaches. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(5), 48–64. doi:10.14221/
ajte.2011v36n5.4.
Rivera Maulucci, M. (2008). Intersections between immigration, language, identity, and emotions:
A science teacher candidate’s journey. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 3(1), 17–42.
doi:10.1007/s11422-007-9074-9.
Rivera Maulucci, M. S. (2013). Emotions and positional identity in becoming a social justice sci-
ence teacher: Nicole’s story. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 50(4), 453–478.
doi:10.1002/tea.21081.
Rodgers, C., & Scott, K. (2008). The development of the personal self and professional identity in
learning to teach. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, D. J. McIntyre, & K. E. Demers
(Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education: Enduring questions and changing contexts
(pp. 732–755). New York: Routledge.
Rots, I., Kelchtermans, G., & Aelterman, A. (2012). Learning (not) to become a teacher. A qualita-
tive analysis of the job entrance issue. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 1–10.
Rule, A. C., & Harrell, M. H. (2006). Symbolic drawings reveal changes in preservice teacher
mathematics attitudes after a mathematics methods course. School Science and Mathematics,
106(6), 241–258. doi:10.1111/j.1949-8594.2006.tb17913.x.
Sakiz, G. (2012). Perceived instructor affective support in relation to academic emotions and moti-
vation in college. Educational Psychology, 32(1), 63–79. doi:10.1080/01443410.2011.625611.
Samier, E. A., & Schmidt, M. (Eds.). (2009). Emotional dimensions of educational administration
and leadership. London: Routledge.
Schonmann, S., & Kempe, A. (2010). An anthology of voices: An analysis of trainee drama teach-
ers’ monologues. British Journal of Educational Studies, 58(3), 311–329.
doi:10.1080/00071001003636349.
Schutz, P. (2014). Inquiry on teachers’ emotion. Educational Psychologist, 49, 1–12. doi:10.1080/
00461520.2013.864955.
Schutz, P., & Zembylas, M. (Eds.). (2009). Advances in teacher emotion research: The impact on
teachers’ lives. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Shoffner, M. (2009). The place of the personal: Exploring the affective domain through reflection
in teacher preparation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(6), 783–789. doi:10.1016/j.
tate.2008.11.012.
Shuman, V., & Scherer, K. R. (2014). Concepts and structures of emotions. In R. Pekrun &
L. Linnenbrink-Garcia (Eds.), International handbook of emotions in education (pp. 13–35).
London: Routledge.
Sinner, A. (2012). Transitioning to teacher: Uncertainty as a game of dramatic hats. Teachers and
Teaching: Theory and Practice, 18(5), 601–613. doi:10.1080/13540602.2012.709734.
Smith, H. J. (2014). Emotional responses to documentary viewing and the potential for transforma-
tive teaching. Teaching Education, 25(2), 217–238. doi:10.1080/10476210.2012.762351.
Stavrou, N. (2012). Fostering musical creativity in pre-service teacher education: Challenges and
possibilities. International Journal of Music Education, 31(1), 35–52.
doi:10.1177/0255761411431391.
Sutton, R., & Wheatley, K. (2003). Teachers’ emotions and teaching: A review of the literature and
directions for future research. Educational Psychology Review, 15, 327–354.
Swartz, R. A., & McElwain, N. L. (2012). Preservice teachers’ emotion-related regulation and
cognition: Associations with teachers’ responses to children’s emotions in early childhood
classrooms. Early Education and Development, 23(2), 202–226. doi:10.1080/10409289.2012.
619392.
Tanaka, M., Farish, M., Nicholson, D., Tse, V., Doll, J., & Archer, E. (2014). Transformative
inquiry while learning – Teaching: Entry points through mentor – mentee vulnerability. Journal
of Transformative Education, 12(3), 206–225. doi:10.1177/1541344614545129.
Thomson, M. M., & McIntyre, E. (2013). Teachers’ professional goals: An examination of differ-
ent teachers’ typologies with respect to motivations and beliefs about teaching. Teacher
Development, 17, 409–430.
Thomson, M., & Palermo, C. (2014). Preservice teachers’ understanding of their professional
goals: Case studies from three different typologies. Teaching and Teacher Education, 44,
56–68. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2014.08.002.
Thomson, M. M., Turner, J. E., & Nietfeld, J. (2012). A typological approach to investigate motiva-
tion for teaching and beliefs about teaching of preservice teacher candidates. Teaching and
Timoštšuk, I., & Ugaste, A. (2010). Student teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 26(8), 1563–1570. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.008.
Turner, K., Roberts, L., Heal, C., & Wright, L. (2013). Oral presentation as a form of summative
assessment in a master’s level PGCE module: The student perspective. Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), 662–673. doi:10.1080/02602938.2012.680016.
Van Veen, K., & Lasky, S. (Eds.). (2005). Emotions, teacher identity and change. Teaching and
Vandercleyen, F., Boudreau, P., Carlier, G., & Delens, C. (2014). Pre-service teachers in PE involved
in an organizational critical incident: Emotions, appraisal and coping strategies. Physical
Education and Sport Pedagogy, 19(2), 164–178. doi:10.1080/17408989.2012.732564.
Vesely, A. K., Saklofske, D., & Nordstokke, D. (2008). EI training and pre-service teacher wellbe-
ing. Personality and Individual Differences, 65, 81–85. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.052.
Wittmann, S. (2011). Learning strategies and learning-related emotions among teacher trainees.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(3), 524–532. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.10.006.
Zembylas, M. (2007). Theory and methodology in researching emotions in education. International
Journal of Research and Method in Education, 30, 57–72.
Zembylas, M., & Schutz, P. (Eds.). (2016). Methodological advances in research on emotion and
education. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Kelchtermans and Deketelaere 2016 The Emotional Dimension in Becoming A Teacher

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kelchtermans and Deketelaere 2016 The Emotional Dimension in Becoming A Teacher

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 27

The Emotional Dimension in Becoming

Geert Kelchtermans and Ann Deketelaere

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 429

If emotion constitutes a central dimension in teachers’ work lives –a claim well-

Conceptualizing the Emotional

As soon as one starts reviewing the literature on emotions in teaching or teacher

Identifying Emotions and Their Link with Behavior

Some authors treat emotions as primarily intra-personal phenomena. For them

The psychological research agenda on identifying emotions as well as their rela-

The relationship between emotional intelligence and student teachers’ learning

Emotions in the Relational Practice of Teacher Education

Emotions and Self-Understanding

Memories of emotionally negative experiences in school, strengthened the

achievement of cultural competence, but rather on the struggle involved in enacting

Emotions and Beliefs

personal interpretative framework will act as a sense-making filter through which

Emotions and Subject Content

Although often primarily looked at as a technical pedagogical issue, the curriculum

future. Interestingly self-efficacy was found to be positively correlated with positive

ences, thus boosting their self-esteem, motivation and self-confidence in relation to

Emotions and Practical Teaching Experiences

Emotions and the Pedagogy of Teacher Education

Exploring the Emotional Dimension in Becoming a Teacher:

In order to create powerful educational opportunities in teacher education to explore

employees to manage their emotions (displaying, hiding, ignoring) as an essential

Questionnaire data from student teachers confirmed the relationship between

Pedagogical Strategies and Methods to Explore the Emotional

Conclusions and Perspectives

Our exploration of the research literature on the emotional dimension of becoming

remain open to contestation (Kelchtermans, 2009; Kelchtermans & Hamilton,

Kelchtermans, G. (2011). Professional responsibility: Persistent commitment, perpetual vulnera-

You might also like