Introduction

There is an increasing number of teachers who suffer from negative emotional experiences such as stress, exhaustion, and depression all over the world. The negative emotional experiences do not only affect the quality and effectiveness of teaching, but also the mental and psychological health of teachers. Therefore, education researchers have studied the psychological causes of the teachers’ negative emotional experiences from psychological perspectives, such as the theory of burnout. Nevertheless, the large population of unhappy teachers on a global scale implies that the negative emotional experiences in teaching go beyond psychological factors and have become a social issue. In other words, a sociological analysis is required for the investigation of the social causes of teachers’ negative emotional experiences. Therefore, the book is going to sociologically analyze how teachers’ negative emotional experiences are socially constructed based on a research project on emotional experiences of secondary schoolteachers in Hong Kong. In this chapter, the psychological perspective of teachers’ emotions will be critically reviewed. Then, it will outline the sociological perspective underpinning the present study. Finally, the research method of the present study will be presented.