What You Teach Impacts on How You Feel: A Study on Teachers` Emotionality across Disciplines

Abstract

The growing attention to teachers` emotion has been in line with the new necessities of modern life and has been considered as a leading exponent of fast-changing educational settings through the clarification of the new personal accountabilities. This unique study endeavored to compare levels of anxiety, depression, life satisfaction, job satisfaction and life pleasure between teachers in humanities, formal sciences and natural sciences. More than 720 teachers across 14 different academic disciplines were compared and contrasted based upon the result of the following standard psychological tests: Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Diener`s Satisfaction with Life Scale, Brayfield-Rothe Index of Job Satisfaction and Goldberg Depression Scale. The results were enlightening as the humanist teachers` psychological well-being was conspicuously superior to their counterparts in natural and formal sciences. Being that said, the result can broaden the horizon of educational researchers whose work revolves around emotionality of teachers as well as educational planners and programmers to consider the implications in their teacher training programs.

Keywords

• Teacher Emotion; Teacher Psychology; Teacher Education; Teacher Training

Kaynakça

1. (Report). Washington, DC. Retrieved June 16, 2014, from
2. http://www.all4ed.org/publications/TappingThePotential/TappingThePotential.pdf
3. Bayani , A., Koochek, A..M, & Goodarzi, H. (2007). The reliability and validity of the satisfaction with life scale (Persian). Journal of Iranian Psychologists, 3(11), 259-265.
4. Borman, G. D., & Dowling, N. M. (2008). Teacher attrition and retention: a meta-analytic and narrative review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 78, 367-409.
5. Bouras, N. & Holt, G. (2007). Psychiatric and Behavioral Disorders in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Brayfield, A. H. & Rothe, H. F. (1951). An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35, 307- 311.
7. Buchanan, J. (2010). May I be excused? Why teachers leave the profession. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 30, 199-211.
8. Bullough, R. V., Jr. (2009). Seeking eudaimonia: The emotions in learning to teach and to mentor. In P. Schutz & M. Zembylas (Eds.), Teacher emotion research: The impact on teachers’ lives (pp. 33–53). New York: Springer.

9. Bunge, M. (1998). Philosophy of Science. Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag.
10. Chang, M. L. (2009). An appraisal perspective of teacher burnout: examining the emotional work of teachers. Educational Psychology Review, 21, 193-218.
11. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention.New York: Harper and Row.
12. Damasio, A. (2004). Looking for Spinoza: joy, sorrow and the feeling Brian. London: Vintage.
13. Day, C. (2004). A passion for teaching. London: Routledge Falmer.
14. Day, C., & Gu, Q. (2007) Variations in the conditions for teachers’ professional learning and development: sustaining commitment and effectiveness over a career. Oxford Review of Education, 33(4), 423–443.
15. Dinham, S., & Scott, C. (2000). Moving into the third, outer domain of teacher satisfaction. Journal of Educational Administration, 38(4), 379–396.
16. Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1988). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 19, 51-55.
17. Evans, L. (1997). Addressing problems of conceptualization and construct validity in researching teachers’ job satisfaction. Educational Research, 39(3), 319–331.
18. Evans, L. (2001). Delving deeper into morale, job satisfaction and motivation among education professionals. Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, 29(3), 291–306.
19. Farrugia, C. (1986). Career choice and sources of occupational satisfaction and frustration among teachers in Malta. Comparative Education, 22(3), 221–231.
20. Fathi-Ashtiani, A. Ejei, J, Khodapanahi, M. & Tarkhorani, H. ( 2007). Relationship Between Self-Concept, Self-esteem, Anxiety, Depression and Academic Achievement in Adolescents. Journal of Applied Sciences, 7, 995-1000.
21. Feldman, B. (2012). Emotions are Real. American Psychological Association 12 (3), 413–429
22. Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project (2008). Final project report. The Government Office for Science, London.
23. Foroushani Ahmadi, H., Yazdkhasti, F. & Arizi, H.R. 2013. Monitor the effectiveness of psychotherapy with spiritual content Bershad, joy and mental health. Journal of Applied Psychology, , 2 (26) , 23-7
24. Fox, E. (2008). Emotion Science: An Integration of Cognitive and Neuroscientific Approaches. Palgrave MacMillan
25. Fraley, L.E. (1997). An academic home for a natural science. Behavior and Social Issues, 7 (2), 89–93.
26. Fried, R. (2001). The passionate teacher: a practical guide (2nd Ed.). Boston: Beacon Press.
27. Gross, J. & Feldman, B. (2011). Emotion Generation and Emotion Regulation: One or Two Depends on Your Point of View. Emotion Review 3 (1), 8–16.
28. Guardian (2003) Workload hits teacher morale. Report on General Teaching Council/Guardian/Mori Teacher Survey. 7 Jan 2008
29. Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education 14(8), 835–854.
30. Hargreaves, A. (2005). Educational change takes ages: life, career and generational factors in teachers’ emotional responses to educational change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21, 967–983.
31. Harpham, G. (2005). Beneath and Beyond the Crisis of the Humanities, New Literary History, 36, 21-36.
32. Hong, J. Y. (2010). Pre-service and beginning teachers’ professional identity and its relation to dropping out of the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1530-1543.
33. Ingersoll, R. M. (2003). Who controls teachers’ work? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
34. Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: an organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 499-534.
35. Izard, C. E. (1977). Human emotions. New York: Plenum Press.
36. Jackson, S.E., Schwab, R., & Schuler, R.S. (1986). Toward an understanding of the burnout phenomenon. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71,630–640.
37. Johnson, S.M. & The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. (2004). Finders and keepers: Helping new teachers survive and thrive in our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
38. Kelchtermans, G. (1996). Teacher vulnerability: understanding its moral and political roots. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(3), 307–323.
39. Kuper, A., & Kuper, J. (1985). The Social Science Encyclopaedia.
40. Levene, H. (1960). Contributions to Probability and Statistics: Essays in Honor of Harold Hotelling. Stanford University Press. pp. 278–292.
41. Liston, D., & Garrison, J. (2004). Teaching, learning, and loving. New York: Routledge Falmer
42. Loeb, S., Sarling-Hammond, L., & Luczak, J. (2005). How teaching conditions predict teacher turnover in California schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 80, 44-70.
43. Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: the cost of caring. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
44. Messick, D. & Cook, K. (1983). Equity theory: psychological and sociological perspectives. Praeger.
45. MetLife. (2001). Key elements of quality schools: A survey of teachers, students, and principals. The Metlife Survey of the American Teacher, New York: Metlife.
46. Myers, D. G. (2004) Theories of Emotion. Psychology: New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
47. Morris, J. A., & Feldman, D. C. (1996). The dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor. Academic Management Review, 21(4), 986–1010.
48. Muhammad, M., A., Uli, J., & Parasuraman, B. (2009). Job satisfaction among secondary school teachers. Jurnal Kemanusiaan, 13, 11 – 18.
49. Nias, J. (1996). Thinking about feeling: The emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(3), 293–306.
50. Palmer, P.J. (1998). The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscapes of a teacher’s life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.
51. Perie, M., & Baker, D.P. (1997). Job satisfaction among America’s teachers: Effects of workplace conditions, background characteristics, and teacher compensation. Statistical analysis report. ERIC Document 412181
52. Sargent, T., & Hannum, E. (2005). Keeping teachers happy: job satisfaction among primary school teachers in rural northwest China. Comparative Education Review, 49, 173-204.
53. Scherer, K. R. (2005). What are emotions? And how can they be measured? Social Science Information 44, 693–727
54. Schutz, P., & Zembylas, M. (Eds.). (2009). Advances in teacher emotion research: The impact on teachers’ lives. Dordrecht: Springer.
55. Sinclair, K., & Ryan, G. (1987). Teacher anxiety, teacher effectiveness, and student anxiety. Teaching and Teacher Education, 3(3), 249-253.
56. Sutton, R., & Wheatley, K. (2003). Teachers’ emotions and teaching: A review of the literature and directions for future research. Educational Psychology Review, 15, 327–358
57. Valli, L., & Buese, D. (2007). The changing roles of teachers in an era of high-stakes accountability. American Educational Research Journal, 44 (3), 519-558
58. Wriqi, C. (2008). The structure of secondary school teacher job satisfaction and its relationship with attrition and work enthusiasm. Chinese Education and Society,
59. Yana, S. (2011). Clinical neuropsychology of emotion. New York, NY: Guilford.
60. Zembylas, M., & Papanastasiou, E. (2004). Job satisfaction among school teachers in Cyprus. Journal of Educational Administration, 42(3), 357–374.
61. Zembylas, M. (2005). Beyond teacher cognition and teacher beliefs: the value of the ethnography of emotions in teaching. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 18(4), 465–487.