varia c e p s Journal | Vol.

1 | No3| Year 2011 141

Teachers’ Emotional Expression in Interaction with

Students of Different Ages

Simona Prosen*1, Helena Smrtnik Vitulić2 and Olga Poljšak Škraban3

• Emotions are an integral part of “classroom life” and are experienced in

teacher-student interactions quite often (Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura,
2011). The present study focuses on teachers’ emotions in classrooms.
Its purpose is to establish which emotions are expressed by teachers in
their interactions with students, the triggering situations of the two most
frequent emotions, and their level of intensity and suitability. Teachers’
emotions were observed by students of primary education during their
practical experience work, in grades one to five. They used a scheme con-
structed for observing different aspects of emotions. The observations of
108 teachers in 93 primary schools from various Slovenian regions were
gathered. The results show that primary school teachers express various
pleasant and unpleasant emotions, with unpleasant emotions prevailing.
The average frequency of teachers’ emotion expression decreased from
grade one to five. Anger was the most frequently expressed emotion (N
= 261), followed by joy (N = 151). Teachers’ anger and joy were triggered
in different situations: anger predominantly when students lacked disci-
pline and joy predominantly in situations of students’ academic achieve-
ment. The intensity of expressed anger and joy was moderate in all five
grades, while the assessed suitability of these two emotions was high.

Keywords: Classroom, Emotion, Emotion expression, Observation,

Primary school, Teacher’s emotions

1 *Corresponding author. Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana

simona.prosen@pef.uni-lj.si
2 Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana
3 Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana
142 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

Introduction

Emotion definition

Emotions are complex psycho-physiological processes triggered in an

individual as a response to a subjectively important event (Lazarus, 1991). They
include specific sequences of physiological changes, cognitive processing, ver-
bal and non-verbal expressions and behaviour or action tendencies (Oatley
& Jenkins, 1996). Emotions can be viewed from many different perspectives
(Cole, Martin & Dennis, 2004). Some authors (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1986, in
Schutz, Cross, Hong & Osborne, 2007; Hargreaves, 2000; Hochschild, 2008;
Kelchtermans, 2005; Zembylas, 2005) emphasise the importance of social fac-
tors in their structuring, including influences ranging from the individual’s mi-
crosystems (i.e., family, friends) to his or her macrosystems (cultural values,
historical influences). However, some other authors (e.g., Izard, 1991; Lazarus,
1991) stress the role of the individual’s internal characteristics in the emergence
of emotions, such as temperament, expectations or personal resources.
Previous studies on emotions have focused on different aspects of the
emotional process, such as emotion understanding, recognition, regulation or
expression (e.g., Grazziano, Reavis, Keane & Calkins, 2007; Gross & Thomp-
son, 2009; Harris, 1996; Siegel, 1999; Smrtnik Vitulić, 2009), including various
dimensions of emotions: valence, intensity, duration or context suitability. The
majority of authors (e.g., Fredrickson, 2004; Lamovec, 1991, Oatley & Jenkins,
1996) have employed the “positive” and “negative” categorisation of emotions
regarding their valence. When a subjectively important goal or expectation is
accomplished or fulfilled, positive emotions are experienced (i.e., joy, pride); on
the other hand, when an important goal is not accomplished or expectation not
fulfilled, negative emotions appear (i.e., anger, sadness, fear). However, the va-
lence of the emotions may not be confused with their usefulness: both positive
and negative emotions may have an important adaptive function, since they en-
hance the individual’s response to an important situation (e.g., Lazarus, 1991).
In order to prevent possible confusion between the valence and usefulness of
emotions, the pleasant-unpleasant categorisation was employed in the present
study, instead of the positive-negative categorisation of emotions.

Teachers’ emotions in the classroom

For teachers, it is not enough to have only academic knowledge and

good teaching skills, it is also important to have emotional knowledge and skills
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 143

for effective work with students. Emotions influence teacher-student interac-

tions and shape the classroom atmosphere (Meyer & Turner, 2007). Teachers’
effective emotional skills may contribute to their good relationships with stu-
dents, thus supporting students’ adjustment to, and performance in, school,
encouraging their learning process and motivation, as well as their memory
and creativity (e.g., Frederickson, 2004, 2005; Lamovec, 1991). The cognitive
“scaffolding” is held together with emotional bonds (Woods & Jeffrey, 1996,
in Hargreaves, 2000). Emotional bonds are emphasised more in elementary
school, where a greater psychological and physical teacher-student closeness
can be found (Hargreaves, 2000). On the other hand, the same author describes
secondary school as characterised by greater psychological and physical dis-
tance, which may lead teachers to treat emotions in the classroom as intrusions.
Typically, emotions begin with the individual conscious or unconscious
assessment of the personal meaning (appraisal) of some antecedent event (La-
zarus, 1991). Thus, which emotions are experienced by teachers depends upon
their appraisals of classroom situations. These appraisals are influenced by their
individual goals and expectations, personal resources and previous experience
(Sutton, 2007). Teachers’ expectations regarding their own work are often unre-
alistically high, such as being prepared for and reacting effectively to every dis-
ciplinary issue, being able to motivate any student for schoolwork or being fully
responsible for students’ academic achievement (Gordon, 1997). These expecta-
tions often refer to their emotion experience and expression, as well and some-
times even including opposing convictions regarding which emotions should
appear, when or how. Hosotani and Imai-Matsumura (2011) have identified two
“ideal teacher” images appearing in teacher’s expectations, namely the calm and
the emotionally expressive teacher. In the first case, the teacher believes that any
unpleasant emotion in the classroom is inappropriate, and thus refrains from
its expression. The ideal of the calm teacher who excludes unpleasant emo-
tions can lead to emotion suppression and be a source of subsequent unpleasant
emotions, e.g., feeling guilty because of experiencing anger. On the other hand,
the teacher who believes in the “emotionally expressive teacher ideal” always
tries to express all emotions and uses them to evoke emotions in children. This
ideal image can be a source of unpleasant emotions to teachers as well, since the
ideal criteria cannot always be reached. “Ideal teacher” images are mostly a con-
sequence of expectations of the social environment, including colleagues, stu-
dents’ parents, school management, school politics, cultural setting, etc. (e.g.,
Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Schutz et al., 2007; Zembylas, 2004, 2005).
While working with students, teachers often experience and express dif-
ferent pleasant and unpleasant emotions, from joy to disappointment and anger
144 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

(e.g., Chang, 2009; Cowie, 2011; Day and Leitch, 2001; Hargreaves, 2000; Hoso-
tani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Kelchtermans, 2005; Moè, Pazzaglia & Ronconi,
2010; Shapiro, 2010; Zembylas, 2004). Several studies of teachers’ emotions in
the classroom (e.g., Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Shapiro, 2010) have
confirmed joy as the most frequently experienced pleasant emotion, whereas
anger is the most frequent among the unpleasant emotions. Teachers’ emo-
tion experience and expression in the classroom are commonly triggered by
students’ learning process and achievement or by disciplinary problems. For
example, Hosotani and Imai-Matsumura (2011) have reported that teachers felt
angry when students were not following instructions, not motivated, not doing
their best, etc., whereas teachers felt joy because of students’ achievements and
autonomy, during pleasant daily interactions with them, etc.
Teachers develop different strategies to regulate their emotions in the
classroom, including changes in emotion valence, intensity or time course.
Consequently, teachers’ emotional expressions in front of children may be
different from their authentic emotional experience. In Hosotani and Imai-
Matsumura’s research (2011), teachers mostly reported conscious control of the
intensity of expressed anger. The second most frequent way of dealing with
anger in teachers was its suppression. Nevertheless, some teachers admitted
sometimes losing their temper and expressing their genuine anger towards stu-
dents. In the same study, teachers reported expressing joy either authentically
or as a tool to influence the student’s behaviour (e.g., supporting the student’s
further endeavour), but also reported suppressing joy when they considered
it may decrease the student’s motivation for school work. Krevans and Gibbs
(1996) critically discuss the practice whereby adults intentionally express emo-
tions in order to condition children’s behaviour, identifying it as problematic.
Studying teachers’ emotions in the classroom represents an important
issue in order to enhance the quality of their work with students. As mentioned
above, emotions include different physiological and cognitive processes that
are expressed in different ways. Some aspects of emotions can only be reached
through self-reports (i.e., interviews, dairies, questionnaires), while others can
be reached via their external observation. Studies applying introspective re-
ports offer data on more subjective aspects of emotional experience and ex-
pression in the classroom (e.g., Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Zembylas,
2004, 2005), while those applying the observational approach provided data on
external indicators of emotional processes. The verbal and non-verbal expres-
sion of emotions is actually the most important guide for the external recogni-
tion of someone’s emotions. In the classroom, the teacher’s emotion expressions
are a source of information about his or her emotions to the students, guiding
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 145

their response to the teacher. This is the reason for choosing an observational
approach to teachers’ emotions in the natural setting (classroom) in the present
study.
The goals of the present study are multifarious. We want to establish: (1)
which emotions are expressed by primary school teachers in their interactions
with students in the first five grades, with the two most frequent emotions be-
ing analysed in greater detail, comparing the results of the first five grades, (2)
what situations trigger these two emotions, (3) what the level of their intensity
is, and (4) how suitably these two emotions are expressed. The comparison of
results gathered in the observation of teachers of different grades will be per-
formed, because the characteristics of work with students of different ages vary
in terms of the level of emotional exchange (e.g., Hargreaves, 2000; Papalia,
Wendkos Olds & Duskin Feldman, 2009).

Methodology

Participants

Teachers’ emotions were observed by first year students of primary edu-

cation during their practical experience work in the classroom. Each student
did practical experience work at the primary school of her/his choice, mostly
in their hometown. In this way 93 primary schools from various Slovenian re-
gions were included in the study. The headmaster of the school then selected
the classroom for student’s practical work (first to fifth grade). Observations of
107 female teachers and one male teacher were gathered, in the first (N = 24),
second (N = 21), third (N = 29), fourth (N = 20) and fifth grade (N = 14).

Measure and procedure

The data were collected by students of primary education of the Faculty

of Education in Ljubljana. They participated in a special two-hour educational
course on emotion recognition and description. During this course, they were
also trained to use an observational scheme that included the type of emotion,
a situation description, the emotion’s verbal and non-verbal expression (includ-
ing behaviour) and the responses of others participating in the interaction. The
scheme also included the categories of intensity and suitability (how adequate
a certain emotion expression is in a certain context) for each emotion, marked
on a 5-point Likert scale (from 1 – very weak to 5 – very strong, and from 1 –
very unsuitable to 5 – very suitable, respectively). Students used the described
146 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

scheme to observe and record teachers’ emotions in the classroom. Each teach-
er’s emotion was recorded when it occurred, in chronological order. If a certain
emotion appeared more than once, it was recorded each time.
Students visited the selected classroom for five days during their practi-
cal experience work. During their fourth visit, they observed teachers’ emo-
tions for five hours in one school day. The teachers were informed about the
goals of the students’ practical experience work, including the observation of
their work in general. After the observation of their emotion expressions, the
teachers were fully informed about the study and consented to the use of the
data.
The data collected by the students was checked by all three authors of
the present article regarding the clarity of descriptions in all observed catego-
ries. For the purposes of the article, the following results will be presented: the
type of emotion and – for the two most frequent emotions – the situations
triggering them, their intensity and suitability. The statistical procedures for
each particular section of the study are described simultaneously in the results’
sections below.

Results and discussion

To explore primary teachers’ emotions in the classroom, we analysed

the type of emotions expressed by teachers in their interactions with students,
the triggering situations of the two most frequent emotions, and their level of
intensity and suitability. Certain attention was dedicated to a comparison of re-
sults regarding the grade that the teachers were working in, which ranged from
the first to the fifth grade of primary school.

Teachers’ expressed emotions

The results show that teachers express various emotions in the class-
room, some very frequently and some less frequently.
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 147

Table 1: The frequency of teachers’ expressed emotions in different grades.

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Together

Pleasant
Joy 38 31 39 27 16 151
Surprise 8 8 2 4 3 25
Pride 3 3 3 1 2 12
∑ (pleasant emotions) 49 42 44 32 21 188
Unpleasant
Anger 65 49 64 50 34 262
Disappointment 12 8 18 8 6 52
Fear 5 4 9 1 1 20
Sadness 2 5 2 1 1 11
Shame 0 0 4 1 0 5
Guilt 0 1 2 0 0 3
∑ (unpleasant emotions) 84 67 99 61 42 353
∑ (all emotions) 133 109 143 93 63 541
M 5.54 5.19 4.93 4.65 4.50 5.01

Note: N of all teachers = 108 (Nfirst grade = 24, Nsecond grade = 21, Nthird grade = 29; Nfourth grade = 20,
Nfifth grade = 14); M = average frequency of all emotions

Studies of teachers’ emotions in school (e.g., Chang, 2009; Hargreaves,

2000; Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Kelchtermans, 2005; Shapiro, 2010)
have reported that teachers experience and express pleasant and unpleasant
emotions. Our study confirmed these results. There were nine different emo-
tions recorded in the observation of teachers in grades one to five (Table 1):
among pleasant emotions were joy, surprise and pride, while among unpleasant
emotions were anger, disappointment, fear, sadness, shame and guilt.
In all grades, there were more unpleasant emotions detected (353 times)
than pleasant emotions (188 times). The overall ratio between pleasant and un-
pleasant emotions was approximately 1:2. One of the important contemporary
researchers in the field of emotions, Frederickson (2008), recommends a ratio
of 3:1 in favour of pleasant emotions. For an individual to maintain an overall
positive ratio between the emotions, one needs to compensate for unpleasant
emotions with three times the amount of pleasant emotions, since unpleas-
ant emotions influence the emotional balance more. Pleasant emotions in-
crease the individual’s physical, intellectual, motivational and social resources,
which is why it is especially important to encourage the expression of pleasant
148 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

emotions in the classroom. Pleasant emotions in teacher-student interactions

may contribute to a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom, supporting students’
competence and autonomy (Meyer & Turner, 2007). However, our results,
showing approximately twice as many unpleasant emotions as pleasant emo-
tions, are not in line with Frederickson’s recommendation. The question is how
such a predominance of unpleasant emotions reflects in teachers’ work and in
classroom atmosphere. Teachers’ expression of pleasant emotions should be en-
couraged (Sutton, 2007), but it is important to consider their authenticity and
sensitive placement.
Of all of the detected emotions, anger was the most frequently reported
emotion (262 times), followed by joy (151 times). These results can be linked to
the findings of Hosotani and Imai-Matsumura (2011) and Shapiro (2010), ac-
cording to which anger was the most frequent unpleasant emotion of teachers
in the classroom, while joy was the most frequent pleasant emotion. This is why
these two emotions will be analysed in greater detail in the following sections
of the present article.
As mentioned above, besides joy and anger, other pleasant and un-
pleasant emotions were expressed by teachers in the present study. The fre-
quencies and the most common triggering situations of each emotion will be
stated. Among pleasant emotions, besides joy, there were surprise (N = 25),
when students did something pleasant or achieved unexpectedly, and pride (N
= 12), when students’ academic performance was excellent. Among unpleasant
emotions, besides anger, teachers also expressed disappointment (N = 52) or
sadness (N = 11), both when students did not fulfil teachers’ expectations, and
fear (N = 20) when students were in danger. Shame (N = 5) and guilt (N = 3)
also appeared, triggered by teachers’ perceived incompetency, but only in some
grades.
There was a trend of slight decrease in the average frequency of teachers’
expressed emotions from grade one to grade five, as shown in the last row of
the Table 1. Hargreaves (2000) found that teachers’ emotional expressiveness
decreased with their students’ age when comparing primary and secondary
school teachers. Teachers in lower grades established closer emotional bonds
with their students as a foundation for teaching and learning (Hargreaves,
2000). A similar argument may be applied to the results of the present study,
where teachers’ emotional expressiveness decreased from grade one to grade
five.
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 149

Frequencies and triggering situations of joy and anger in

different grades

As already mentioned, joy and anger were the two most frequent emo-
tions that teachers expressed in the classroom. Lazarus (1991) defines joy as a
pleasant emotion that people experience when they conclude they have accom-
plished a subjectively important goal. Anger is an unpleasant emotion that is
generated by a judgment that someone could and should have done otherwise
(Weiner, 2007).
Further analyses of these two emotions were performed, including the
triggering situations of joy and anger and the average frequency of teachers’
expressions of these two emotions from grade one to grade five (Table 2). Stu-
dents’ descriptions of the situations that triggered teachers’ emotions were re-
viewed by all three authors of the study and organised into six response catego-
ries for joy and another six response categories for anger. Each description was
then placed into one of these categories.

Table 2: The frequencies and triggering situations of joy and anger in different
grades.

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Together

Joy
Achievement 16 13 16 10 3 58
Funny events 7 8 4 10 6 35
Relaxation 5 3 10 4 3 24
Following instructions 4 6 4 3 2 19
Novelty 3 0 4 0 2 9
Others 3 1 1 0 0 5
∑ (joy) 38 31 39 27 16 151
M (average frequency of joy) 1.58 1.48 1.35 1.35 1.14 1.40
Anger
Lack of discipline 28 26 19 19 12 104
Not following instructions 15 12 17 15 10 69
Inattention 14 8 21 8 9 60
Underachievement 2 1 2 6 2 13
Danger 5 0 2 2 1 10
Others 1 1 3 0 0 5
∑ (anger) 65 48 64 50 34 261
M (average frequency of anger) 2.71 2.29 2.21 2.50 2.43 2.42

Note: N of all teachers= 108 (Nfirst grade = 24, Nsecond grade = 21, Nthird grade = 29; Nfourth grade = 20, Nfifth grade = 14)
150 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

In other studies of teachers’ emotions in the classroom, authors (e.g.,

Chang, 2009; Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Shapiro, 2010) have reported
that joy and anger were commonly triggered by students’ learning process and
achievement or by disciplinary issues. For example, Hosotani and Imai-Mat-
sumura (2011) have reported that teachers felt joy because of students’ achieve-
ments and autonomy or during pleasant daily interactions with them, and that
teachers felt anger when students were not following instructions, not moti-
vated or not doing their best.
The results in the present study show that teachers’ joy and anger were
aroused in various situations. In the case of joy, triggering situations included:
students’ achievement (N = 58, i.e., a student calculates correctly; a student does
her homework), funny events (N = 35; i.e., a student tells a joke), relaxation (N =
24; i.e., a student celebrates his birthday; students play), following instructions
(N = 19; i.e., students tidy the classroom; a student brings the required equip-
ment), novelty (N = 9; i.e., a student brings an interesting toy) and a few other
situations (N = 5; i.e., a vet’s visit to the classroom).
The average frequency of teachers’ expressions of joy decreased from
grade one to grade five. Such a trend can be explained similarly to the trend of
decreasing overall emotion expression mentioned above in the present study
and potentially explained by Hargreaves (2000): working with younger stu-
dents is characterised by the teacher’s greater psychological and physical close-
ness to them, resulting in his or her more frequent emotion experience and ex-
pression. Another reason for the decreasing trend of joy expression from grade
one to grade five in the current study may be connected to the issue of students’
achievement, since this was the most frequent triggering situation of joy. Why
did teachers express more joy at younger students’ achievements than at the
achievements of older students? Is it because teachers believe that expressing
joy at students’ achievements is a greater motivational factor for academic per-
formance in younger than in older students? It may also be that teachers’ ex-
pectations regarding students’ achievements grow with students’ age, allowing
less room for joy.
In our study, in grades one to five the majority of teachers expressed joy
once during the observation (modus = 1 for each grade). For different grades,
teachers’ expression of joy ranged from zero to seven. This range indicates that
joy expression varied among the teachers. The question is how the frequency
of joy expression contributes to teacher-student interactions in the classroom,
especially if there is no joy expressed by a teacher or when the joy is expressed
abundantly.
Teachers expressed anger when students lacked discipline (N = 104; i.e.,
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 151

students are fighting with each other; a student pinches her neighbour; students
are restless), were not following instructions (N = 69; i.e., a student does the ex-
ercise incorrectly because she did not follow the teacher’s directions), were inat-
tentive (N = 60; i.e., a student loses his belongings), did not perform well aca-
demically – underachieved (N = 13; i.e., a student does not know the answer when
asked), were in danger (N = 10; i.e., a student pushes someone, students jump
from a very high object) and in a few other situations (N = 5; i.e., a student rebels).
The average frequency of teachers’ expressions of anger decreased from
grade one to grade three (Mfirst grade = 2.71, Msecond grade = 2.29, Mthird grade = 2.21)
but increased again in grades four and five (Mfourth grade = 2.50, Mfifth grade = 2.43).
This may stem from various sources. The decrease in anger expression from
grade one to grade three may be explained by the fact that a lack of discipline
was the most frequent situation triggering teachers’ anger. Perhaps such situa-
tions decrease, as with age children gradually gain social competencies due to
increasing self-regulatory capacities and learn how to respond to disciplinary
demands by generating strategies for negotiation and handling social conflicts
(e.g., Papalia et al., 2009).
But why did anger appear again more frequently in the fourth and fifth
grades? It may be that this is facilitated by school subjects becoming increas-
ingly difficult in higher grades (Woolfolk, 2002), and by the change from de-
scriptive to numerical assessment of students in the fourth grade in Slovenia.
In line with this, teachers may feel more responsible for students’ achievement
and are therefore more often angry if students do not follow their guidance
regarding school work. This may be seen from the quite frequently detected
anger triggering situations in our study, such as “not following instructions”
and “inattention”. Shapiro (2010) assumes that teachers’ sense of powerlessness
in accomplishing their educational goal may also contribute to their anger.
Similarly as noted previously for joy, anger expression also varied among
teachers. In different grades, the majority of teachers expressed anger once or
twice during the observation (modus = 1 for first and fourth grades; modus
= 2 for the second, third and fifth grades), with teachers’ expression of anger
ranging from zero to ten in different grades. The lowest frequencies of anger
expression may indicate the teacher’s satisfaction with the students’ behaviour,
while the highest frequencies may have the opposite meaning. Perhaps rare or
frequent anger expression is also connected to teachers’ “ideal teacher” images
(Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011). Teachers who see any unpleasant emotion
(i.e., anger) in the classroom as inappropriate refrain from its expression. On
the other hand, teachers with an “emotionally expressive” ideal always try to
show all of their emotions, using them to evoke emotions in students.
152 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

The intensity and suitability of joy and anger in different grades

The two most frequently expressed emotions in our study, joy and anger,
were also compared regarding their level of intensity and suitability.
Intensity represents a dimension of emotions describing the power of
their expression. In our study, it was marked on a five-point Likert scale, ranging
from very weak (1) to very strong (5) expression. Suitability is another dimension
according to which emotions can be explored. It concerns the notion of how ad-
equate a certain emotion expression is in the specific context in which it appears.
An example of a highly inadequate emotion expression would be the teacher
shouting at the student when he or she unintentionally dropped a pencil. In our
study, suitability was appraised from very unsuitable (1) to a very suitable (5).

Table 3: Descriptive statistics of the intensity of teachers’ joy and anger in

different grades and ANOVA results.

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 ANOVA

M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD df F p
Joy 3.28 1.09 3.97 1.02 3.51 1.14 3.37 .88 3.50 .89 4 2.06 .09
Anger 3.25 1.19 3.47 1.14 3.33 1.02 3.16 1.04 3.21 .91 4 .62 .65

In all grades, the intensity of joy and anger expressions was above the
middle on the 5-point scale used for its assessment. The intensity of joy was
slightly higher than the intensity of anger. For both emotions, the results of
one-way analysis of variance regarding the intensity of teachers’ joy and anger
expressions in the classroom revealed no significant differences in this dimen-
sion throughout the first to the fifth grade. These results suggest that teachers’
joy and anger expression in all grades were moderate.

Table 4: Descriptive statistics of the suitability of teachers’ joy and anger in

different grades and ANOVA results.

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 ANOVA

M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD df F p
Joy 4.53 .86 4.71 .63 4.49 .82 4.63 .57 4.31 .95 4 .89 .47
Anger 3.91 1.18 3.82 1.30 3.95 .98 3.94 1.06 3.76 1.10 4 .24 .92

In all grades, the suitability of joy and anger expressions was quite high
(around 4 on the 5-point scale). On average, the suitability of joy was close to its
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 153

highest level and the suitability of anger was only slightly lower. For both emo-
tions, the results of ANOVA regarding the suitability of teachers’ joy and anger
expressions in the classroom again did not reveal any significant differences in
this dimension throughout the first to the fifth grade. In line with these results,
it can be concluded that students assessed teachers’ joy and anger expression in
all grades as highly suitable.
Notwithstanding, a number of questions are facilitated by the contents
of the dimension of suitability itself. Suitability is a complex dimension, since it
simultaneously includes both the evaluation of the emotion expression and the
context. Furthermore, suitability may be closely linked to the expectations that
teachers have regarding themselves, which are affected by their “ideal teacher”
images. Moreover, in the present study, the observers were future teachers and
their “ideal teacher” images may have contributed to their assessment of teach-
ers’ emotion expression suitability as well. The high values of suitability rates
are perhaps indicative of a concordance between the aforementioned ideal im-
ages of the teachers in the classroom and the “future” teaching professionals.
The suitability dimension could also be influenced by the social and cultural
expectations and rules on which, when and how emotions should occur.

Conclusions

The present study centred on teachers’ emotions that are often insuf-
ficiently represented in educational research, even though emotions are an in-
tegral part of “school life” (e.g., Jacobs & Harvey, 2010; Zembylas, 2004). The
results of the study indicate that primary school teachers from grades one to
five express various pleasant and unpleasant emotions, with unpleasant emo-
tions prevailing. The frequency of teachers’ unpleasant emotions was higher
than that of pleasant emotions, which fails to achieve the recommended ratio of
3:1 in favour of pleasant emotions (Fredrickson, 2008). The average frequency
of teachers’ emotion expression decreased from grades one to five. Overall, an-
ger was the most frequently expressed emotion (N = 261), followed by joy (N =
151). The intensity of expressed joy and anger was moderate in all five grades,
while the assessed suitability of these two emotions was high.
Teachers’ anger was aroused mostly in situations when students lacked
discipline, were not following instructions or were inattentive. Such trigger-
ing situations showed the importance of discipline for teachers and raised the
question of teachers’ coping strategies in managing discipline in their class-
room. The second most frequently expressed emotion, joy, was mostly trig-
gered by situations of students’ academic achievement. This may be connected
154 teachers’ emotional expression in interaction with students of different ages

to teacher’s feeling of responsibility for students’ achievement. The teacher is

responsible for the quality of teaching but cannot take full responsibility for the
students’ achievements, even though this line is hard to draw and requires an
awareness of teachers’ individual beliefs and reflection upon them.
The results of our study have many implications for (future) teachers
and for the professionals working with them. In this respect, teacher-oriented
education programmes should include different emotion-related content. By
encouraging teachers to become aware of the underlying appraisals they give
to certain student behaviour through their emotions, we may enhance their
emotional understanding and, where necessary, stimulate a change in their
“emotional rules” (Chang, 2009; Zembylas, 2004). The process of change is
sometimes difficult and may take a long time (Moè et al., 2010). In teacher-
oriented education programmes, we can promote the development of emotion
regulation strategies, especially regarding unpleasant emotions, which may
help teachers to improve teaching and learning in their classroom (e.g., Cowie,
2010; Ishak, Iskandar & Ramli, 2010). The efficient emotion regulation of teach-
ers contributes to better teacher-student relationships, as well as representing a
model for students (Bandura, 1997).
The strength of the present study was the application of the observation-
al approach to emotions, providing for an external view of teachers’ emotions.
The observational approach supplements the more commonly used self-reports
(e.g., Hosotani & Imai-Matsumura, 2011; Zembylas, 2004, 2005). Another ad-
vantage of our study was the observation of many different aspects of emotion.
Besides this, teachers in our sample came from 93 different schools from vari-
ous parts of Slovenia. However, the one-person observation of teachers’ emo-
tions, leaving more space for the observer’s subjectivity, was a weakness of the
study. Further research could include a longitudinal approach providing infor-
mation on the development of teachers’ emotions over time. The comparison
of teachers’ self-perceptions of their emotional process and/or their students’
perspective on this matter could also be considered. Further research could
also combine the observation and (self)experience of teachers’ and students’
emotions.
 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 155

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 c e p s Journal | Vol.1 | No3| Year 2011 157

Biographical note

Simona Prosen is Assistant of developmental psychology in the De-

partment of Education Studies at the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana. Her
particular fields of research are development in adolescence and the develop-
ment of attachment. She has encountered and presented the field of emotions
and dealing with emotions in her work with various groups – both at the faculty
and in healthcare institutions.

Helena Smrtnik Vitulić is Assistant Professor of developmental

psychology in the Department of Education Studies at the Faculty of Education
in Ljubljana. She specialises in emotions and personal development and
published various academic papers in Slovenian and international expert
journals.

Olga Poljšak Škraban is Assistant Professor of developmental psy-

chology in the Department of Education Studies at the Faculty of Education in
Ljubljana. Her fields of research are the family, development in adolescence and
adulthood, and working with parents. She has studied emotions and dealing
with emotions within the contexts of family and education.