Stating the obvious
In which I share a recent psychological study of teachers' emotions
I have written about my snarky attitude towards the field of psychology here. I stand by it even as I draw your attention, dear readers, to a recent article published in the Journal of Educational Psychology as reported on the American Psychological Association’s website.
Once again, intrepid researchers have proven the obvious.
“Teachers’ emotions in the classroom play a critical role in how students learn,” the APA article begins.
Um.
I confess: This statement brings out the sour grapes in me. (If you haven’t noticed.) I studied teachers’ emotions and the effects on their knowing and acting in the classroom way back in the mid-1990s. I wrote up my findings in my dissertation, completed in 1998. (Title: Spontaneity in the Classroom: A Systems View of Teachers’ Knowing-in-Action) I tolerated ridicule from a professor on my dissertation committee (he was a famous psychologist who told me that I and others were “dragging him kicking and screaming” into the realm of emotions in teaching. He didn’t think they mattered).
I earned a MSW in 2008 so I could understand better how emotions work for teachers and everybody else. (Here’s the thesis I wrote for that program.) I’ve been blogging about emotions in teaching, what I have called Teaching through Emotions (here we are!), since 2012. I published a book about it in 2015. I have been running Teacher Support Groups and psycho-coaching teachers and administrators ever since.
Thirty years later, psychologists are publishing articles on the impact of teachers’ emotions on students’ learning.
Well, huzzah.
OK, done with the sour grapes! This is very important research! I have not read the article this news item on the APA’s website refers to — because I don’t want to — but I do think it’s important to underline some key findings:
It’s better to be joyful than angry when you’re teaching.
This is true no matter where in the world you teach.
Teachers’ emotional well-being is important and should be supported in schools.
OK? So get on it, teachers. You need to be supported emotionally in and by your school. Not after school. Not on your own time. There must be places for you to go and people for you to talk to in school, during school, who can help you not just decompress when you need to but also, crucially, understand what your emotions are telling you. So you can learn from them and thereby transform them (and yourself) (and your classroom).
If you need evidence, don’t take my word for it. Take the APA’s.
(OK. Still sour grapes. I’ll probably take them to my grave.)