ABSTRACT
A teacher may be joyful at the end of a lesson which had the students engaged, talking on task and learning; happy for the student who is awarded a scholarship to study at a university; sad with a student whose mother has died; despairing of the student who is able but chooses not to learn; annoyed with a colleague who does not do his share of the team work; excited for a student winning a place in the final of the Science Fair; frustrated with a statement in the curriculum; fearful of the response of a student to disciplinary measures; guilty at not being able to help a student obtain the national standard; enthusiastic to trial a new teaching approach; relieved at the list of teacher criteria for registration; and upset by the comments of parents. The emotional practice of teaching (Hargreaves, 1998) is a sociocultural term which emphasises the complex relationship inextricably linking emotion and teaching (Zembylas, 2004b), as well as linking emotion and cognition, without equating emotional and irrational (Zembylas, 2004a); and linking emotion and the social, cultural and historical contexts in
Teachers have emotions linked to their interaction with people vulnerability (Kelchtermans, 1996), especially during educational reforms (Kelchtermans, 2005). Demetriou et al. (2009) argue that emotional engagement with students can engage students more in learning, resulting in increased learning outcomes. Liking and loving the students was a positive expression about teaching by one beginning teacher. For example:
Oh, the kids [are important in teaching], it’s always the kids. Even [the] ratbags. Oh, they’re cheeky and there’s no way I would have said half the things they say to me to any of my teachers, but they’re wicked. I love the ones who, you know, will sit down, know the expectations, get on with it. I like the ones who get on with it but are cheeky as well, and I actually, I like trying to get the best out of the ones who really can’t be bothered. And some are nightmares, they are absolutely pains . . . because they don’t want to work at all . . . it’s always the kids. The kids make it more than the staff I’ve got to say, [they are] what you come to school for basically. . . . another thing I love about this job is that they make every day different . . . It’s great that you don’t know what you’re going to get [from them] . . . there’s routine but there’s, you know, fun and excitement in the meantime sort of thing, so yeah. [Samantha]
Pride in the students was expressed. For example:
I was so proud of them [a tourism class on a field trip] and I told them that when we got back as well, before I let them off the bus and I said ‘Look you were a credit to the school, you are a credit to yourselves’ . . . Apart from anything else, it was relief on my part, because it was a bit of a gamble taking them over there [to a rally car practice venue], never having done it [before]. . . . They were very much, not only representative of the school, [they] were representative of me, if they made a terrible impression it would have really gutted me, and also I just wouldn’t have considered taking anybody back next year. . . . They’ve set a nice pathway for me to take some more kids next year, and, yeah, that was a really nice feeling I’ve got to say. . . . They were real stars, I was really proud of them. So yeah, that’s probably the best day [of teaching for me]. [Samantha]
However, one beginning teacher mentioned the feeling of being scared in relation to the management of students:
thinking ahead and being on your toes all the time. [Samantha]
Colleagues were talked about positively, usually about giving support. For example:
[What has sustained you in your first 18 months?] . . . the excellent support of my colleagues, [it] has been incredibly supportive. You know if you have had a bad day or a problem, they have been there done that, and laugh about it, those things have kept me going. There have been some low points, ‘I’m in the wrong job’, ‘I can’t do this anymore’ or that type of thing. I don’t know if you really truly believe that, it’s just the nature of teaching, you just want to drive out the school gates and keep going sometimes, but not often. It’s more an exceptional thing [that’s got you low], but you just simply don’t go. Every day isn’t joy and fun, wonderful. And yet I do hear some teachers saying that they do feel that, but I don’t know whether they are telling the truth or whether they are just in a different type of school. But it’s quite tough and you do need the support of colleagues and family as well, that is what has kept me going. And also believing that, yes, you can do it in the end, that you are contributing in some way. [Ellie]
[Have there been any rewarding experiences for you while you’ve been here?] I think one of the rewarding experiences is working with my mentor, who is a classroom specialist [teacher]. And he’s told me a lot of ways of dealing with kids, like . . . they’re different kinds of kids than you would find in another school, so doing things in the class like . . . fun activities and lots of experiments and dealing with their misbehaviour and stuff. I’ve been able to raise the achievement levels a bit so that is like a personal success for me. I’ve been able to develop quite a good rapport with them, but it is not that great, but I’ve been able to talk to them. . . .
