EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES AND EMOTION MANAGEMENT

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AT COLLEGE LEVEL

Submitted To: Dr. Azhar Pervaiz

Submitted By: Fahad Ali Hassan

Roll No:
ENGLF21S090

BS English (R) Sem VIII

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

UNIVERSITY OF SARGODHA
EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES AND EMOTION MANAGEMENT
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS AT COLLEGE LEVEL

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the emotional experiences and emotion management of English
language teachers working at college level. The study is mixed method in nature. The
population of the study comprised all English language teachers working at college level in
District Bhakkar, Punjab, Pakistan. The sample of 20 teachers from both government and private
colleges of District Bhakkar was selected by using the technique of convenient sampling. The
data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The collected data was analyzed
thematically. The results of the study revealed that the teachers felt emotionally challenged in
certain situation no matter how much experience of teaching they had. The findings of the study
also suggested that reflection, reviewing and thinking about their experiences of emotionally
challenged situations, and discussing with challenging situations with teachers were the effective
strategies used by the teachers in handling the emotionally challenged situations. The study is
significant as it can help the teachers in handling stress and controlling the classroom
environment. The study is also helpful for the researchers who are interested in studying the
emotion management by the language teachers.

Keywords: Emotional experiences, emotion management, semi-structured interviews,

thematically, reflection, emotionally challenged situations, reviewing, and thinking
 1. Introduction

Emotions have long been a topic of study in a variety of fields, and scientists have focused on
their central significance in the human experience ( Plutchik, 1962). Scholarly interest in the role
and function of human emotions in applied linguistics and second language education is
relatively recent, and it is part of a shift toward addressing the influence of a variety of socio-
cognitive variables and antecedents in the development of target language competency.
However, emotions have received little attention in comparison to numerous socio-cognitive
concerns in second language instruction, such as the various antecedents of motivated behaviour,
which have dominated the study agenda over the last decade (Dewaele, 2015). Swain (2013, p.
205) said that "emotions are the elephants in the room - little studied, poorly understood, and
considered as inferior to rational cognition" while discussing the state of affairs in second
language instruction.

A good definition of emotions is offered by John Marshall Reeve (quoted in MacIntyre and
Gregerson, 2012: 194):Emotions are fleeting, feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive phenomena
that assist us in adapting to the opportunities and challenges we confront throughout significant
life events.

The experience of teaching can elicit both pleasant and negative feelings in teachers. Feelings
like confidence, curiosity, engagement, enjoyment, eager interest, amusement, gladness,
gratitude, cheerful, joyful, passionate, pleased, proud, and satisfied are examples of positive
emotions.

Angry, annoyed, apprehensive, bored, concerned, depressed, disgusted, dissatisfied, weary,

frustrated, jealous, mad, nervous, sad, stressed, tense, uneasy, worried are examples of negative
emotions. Instructors' feelings about themselves, their colleagues, their learners, classroom
activities, their teaching context, and teaching materials, as well as their views about the
advantages and pleasures of teaching, are the result of interactions between teachers and their
teaching surroundings. Emotions can have an impact on a teacher's decision-making process as
well as future decisions and behaviour. They can, for example, have an influence on:

• When teaching English, the teacher's usage of English.

• Her or his reaction to unplanned classroom occurrences.
 • The teacher's policies and procedures for dealing with classroom management
difficulties.
• The level to which she or he uses activities like as games, songs, personal tales, and
humor to address classroom environment.
• Collaborating with the people you want in activities like team teaching and peer
observation.
• A preference for teacher development activities such as lesson preparation and
curriculum development that are done in groups or individually.
• The extent to which the instructor uses collaborative rather than competitive learning
activities
• The extent to which the teacher takes emotional variables into account while teaching
commercial materials and resources.
• The amount of pleasure a teacher gets from instructing.

What is known as 'emotional competence,' refers to a teacher's capacity to create and

maintain an emotionally-managed classroom, one in which neither the teacher nor the students
exhibit excessive or insufficient emotion (Benesch, 2012; MadalinskaMichalak, 2015). Negative
emotions such as wrath, boredom, or anxiety are not encouraged by either teachers or students.
Different teaching environments, on the other hand, can produce 'favorable' or 'disfavor able'
potentials for teaching, influencing the teacher's emotional experience of teaching (Tsang and
Jiang, 2018). 'ESL teachers' relationships with the school community, including students,
colleagues, and administrators, play a crucial role in their emotional experiences and in
influencing the way ESL instructors execute their work,' according to Ngyuen (2018: 243).

Motivated students, small class sizes, good facilities, resources, and equipment, skilled and
supportive administrators who are open to new ideas, innovation, and inquiry, a collaborative
school culture, and a good compensation, benefits, and reward system for teachers are all
examples of favorable contexts. Large class sizes, poorly motivated students, an emphasis on
book learning, rote learning, and test scores, a lack of encouragement for innovation or
creativity, limited teacher agency and autonomy (de Costa et al., 2018), substandard and/or
limited facilities, resources, and equipment, unskilled and unsupportive administrators, little
collaboration among teachers, poor compensation, benefits, and reward are all factors that can
contribute to teacher stress and anxiety (Pennington and Richards, 2016).

In many cases, such characteristics contribute to a bad emotional experience of teaching,

preventing instructors from fulfilling their ideal or aspirational teacher identities and leading to
feelings of frustration, disappointment, and even wrath. 'Teachers need an emotional
thermometer to reduce foreign language classroom anxiety,' says Dewaele (cited in Martinez
Agudo, 2018: 13).

In addition to the aforementioned, a lack of confidence in one's subject can lead to emotions
of dissatisfaction and insecurity, leading a teacher to doubt her or his identity and question who
she or he is, as shown in this example of a teacher's trouble in teaching the passive. Helen, a
Hong Kong Chinese English teacher, explains:

"If you ask them to rewrite the sentences, it's straightforward because they find it easy to
follow." They just don't understand when to use the passive voice and when to use the active
voice. "Miss Wong, who do we have to utilize passive voice in our daily lives?" one of the pupils
inquired. And I'm having trouble answering this question, ha, so I say, "Oh, I'll tell you next
time..." "Why do we teach and use passive voice?" I asked my colleagues. And no one seems to
be able to provide me with the correct answer. Then I go home and reflect on it. But even now,
I'm not sure how to respond to the student's queries. I work with them to complete the
worksheets, and they understand how to rewrite the sentences. But I'm at a loss as to how to
explain them. It's quite stressful (cited in Andrews, 2001: 76).

Using English to teach English might lead to an emotional battle for the teacher: I'm not sure
my English is up to par. Every lesson, I truly want to give it my all. However, I was frequently
annoyed because I was unable to accomplish my objectives or the standard that I had established
before class. Because I didn't want to lose face in front of my students, I constantly practiced my
English lessons before class started (cited in Teng, 2017: 214). Limitations in a teacher's English
or professional expertise, like in the instances above, can cause anxiety, frustration, and guilt
since they may not be able to answer students' questions and may be fearful of making mistakes
in their English if they use English during a session. Negative experiences like these may lead to
attempts to repress or hide negative feelings in certain teachers. Others may be motivated to seek
out possibilities for further professional growth, such as academic courses, language training, or
various types of teaching experiences. Collaboration with peers through peer observation,
discussion groups, or online support groups can also help teachers share and overcome emotional
challenges they face in the classroom.

While it's vital to realize that emotions haven't gotten enough attention, they haven't been
completely overlooked. Emotions have traditionally been studied as part of other processes such
as motivation or individual differences under the heading of "affective variables." Pavlenko
(2013) points out that when it comes to discussing emotions in terms of language learning, the
sole feeling of anxiety has been the dominant emphasis, ignoring many others. Indeed, many
recent studies have focused on the function of anxiety in language learning (Dewaele &
MacIntyre, 2014; Gregersen, MacIntyre, & Meza, 2014; Mercer, 2006).

It is vital to interact more thoroughly with language learners' living experiences outside of
the classroom in order to better grasp the nuances of their emotional experiences. Shifting the
context focus away from the formal classroom environment and toward the dynamic complexity
of life outside the classroom necessitates researchers engaging with a broader spectrum of
emotions in situations that are meaningful to individual language learners. Exploring emotions in
this way allows us to see beyond the narrow implications provided for the development of
second language proficiency and instead to enjoy the human experience as a whole, which
includes but is not limited to second language learning.

Both teaching and learning a second language are emotionally draining endeavors. Learning
to become a second language teacher is a similar process. Emotions play a significant role in
language education because it is a social as well as a rational activity. It entails people
congregating in a social environment in which emotions impact both teachers' instructional
practices and learners' responses to the teaching and learning experience (Dornyei, 2005).
Emotions can influence the way teachers teach and the desire of students to apply what they've
learned. As a result, learning to teach entails knowing not only how to transmit subject matter to
students, but also how to handle the emotional aspects of teaching and learning.

Teng (2017: 118) adds his comment: Teachers – particularly pre-service teachers –
experience a range of emotions, including anger, love, fear, worry, enthuse, grow impatient,
doubt, brood, feel proud, joyous, apprehensive, and sad. Teachers can choose whether to make
their classroom lively or dull by demonstrating proper behaviours as emotional practitioners. A
teacher's strong emotions may lead him or her to do acts that he or she would not normally do.

The revived attention on the importance of emotions in language education aims to better
comprehend teaching and learning from the perspective of the participants in the classroom's
social space, as well as to capture how teachers and students feel and deal with its subjective
reality (Anttila et al., 2016; Benesch, 2012; Dewaele, 2005; Garret and Young, 2009; Martinez
Agudo, 2018). The introduction of positive psychology into applied linguistics has increased
awareness of the breadth of emotions experienced by language teachers and learners, as well as
the role those happy emotions can play in improving teaching and learning (Dewaele and
Afawazan, 2018). Emotions have long been seen as instances of 'affective elements' in language
education literature. Due to the prominence of paradigms that highlighted the importance of
cognition in learning, such traits have received little attention in mainstream applied linguistics
(White, 2018). Emotions have long been seen as a hazy concept that is difficult to dissect into its
various components and study. In comparison to the 'hard', quantitative, and rational facts
regarding second language learning and instruction that were the focus of much academic
attention beginning in the 1970s, they were frequently seen as ‘soft' and irrational.

However, the so-called 'affective turn' in applied linguistics has encouraged a re-examination
of the role affective elements, particularly emotions, play in language acquisition and teaching
(Benesch, 2012). This has led to a focus on what emotions do socially and how they affect
second language (L2) education through daily classroom transactions and interactions, rather
than on what emotions are (or are not) (Barrett, 2017). Emotions are viewed as a sociocultural
experience that is primarily influenced by relationships and social situations, as well as by
individual qualities.

1.1. Research Objectives

This study aims to achieve the following objectives:

 1. To assess the emotional experiences of English language teachers working at college
level
2. To find out the strategies that they use in emotion management
1.2. Research Questions

The study answers the following questions:

1. What are emotional experiences of English language teachers working at college level?
2. What strategies do the English language teachers working at college level use in
managing emotions?
1.3. Significance of the study

The study is significant as it can help the teachers in handling stress and controlling the
classroom environment. The study is also helpful for the researchers who are interested in
studying the emotion management by the language teachers.

2. Literature Review

English Language Teachers' Emotions Teachers' emotions are social constructions that are
influenced by their relationships with educational policies, authorities, colleagues, parents, and
students (Hargreaves, 2001; Zembylas, 2005 ; Nguyen, 2018). Although each teacher's
experience of an emotion is unique, the context in which it occurs shapes that experience. As a
result, understanding the situations in which emotions are experienced is critical to
comprehending not only the feeling itself, but also the reaction and behaviour that follows.

Several studies have looked into the wide spectrum of emotions that instructors experience
(Golombek & Doran, 2014; Sutton & Wheatley, 2003), with some concluding that the three most
common emotions described by teachers are enjoyment, worry, and anger (Chang, 2013; Frenzel,
Becker-Kurz, Pekrun, & Goetz, 2015). Students and teachers have been shown to be affected by
emotions in both positive and negative ways (Méndez López, 2017; Méndez López & Pea
Aguilar, 2013). Preservice instructors, whose lack of experience may be viewed as a source of
additional emotions, have been willing to enhance their teaching practice as a result of emotions
derived from contacts with students, colleagues, or institutional authorities. Other pre-service
teachers, on the other hand, have been enraged and disappointed by similar circumstances. Pre-
service teachers who do not manage their negative emotions create stress, which is detrimental to
their teaching.

Due to the new experiences with which they are confronted, pre-service teachers are prone to
experiencing both positive (enthusiasm, contentment, enjoyment, etc.) and negative (anxiety,
anger, irritation, etc.) emotions during their teaching practicum (Martinez Agudo & Azzaro,
2018). Beliefs influence teaching, hence they play a significant part in pre-service teachers'
emotional experiences (Borko, Davinroy, Bliem, & Cumbo, 2000). According to Nguyen's
(2018) study, pre-service teachers may have opposing ideas regarding various teaching methods
they are expected to do by their supervisors during practicum, and this belief mismatch can lead
to worry and tension. Positive feelings have been found in contacts with students in many studies
(Cowie, 2011; Gkonou & Miller, 2017; Méndez López, 2017; Nguyen, 2014). The development
of positive interpersonal ties with students is seen as crucial not just for students' learning but
also for teachers' emotional well-being. 2016 (Mercer, Oberdorfer, & Saleem)

Preservice instructors frequently experience negative emotions as a result of their pupils' low
involvement, passivity, noisiness, lack of desire, and exhaustion, among other factors (Nguyen,
2018). Although Gu and Day (2007) discovered that pre-service teachers with a teaching
vocation are more robust to negative experiences, pre-service teachers with a passion for
teaching also experience unpleasant feelings (Arizmendi Tejeda et al., 2016). However, pre-
service teachers who have a passion tend to see negative emotions in a positive light, which
helps them maintain their energy and enthusiasm (Cross & Hong, 2012). This is a significant
discovery for nations like Mexico, where university entrance is restricted (Méndez López &
Fabela Cárdenas, 2014). Some students who do not have a passion for teaching choose to enroll
in ELT programs because access is easier or because their families cannot afford to send them to
another location to pursue their dream vocation. As a result, pre-service teachers' emotional
experiences, as well as their motivation, responsibility, and dedication, may be influenced by
their lack of vocation.

Novice instructors go through five stages, according to Furlong and Maynard (1995, pp. 73-
98): (1) early idealism, (2) survival, (3) recognizing problems, (4) achieving a plateau, and (5)
moving on. Novice instructors may have idealistic feelings and pictures of themselves at the start
of their careers. While they are primarily concerned with putting what they have learned in
earlier years into practice, the demands of their new employment may come as a surprise, as
teaching requires more than just producing materials or using a strategy or approach. Pre-service
teachers may experience the same thing during practicum since they may encounter unpleasant
situations for which they are unprepared. It is therefore critical to offer them with the necessary
assistance so that they can build confidence in not just their teaching abilities but also in other
areas. As a result, it is critical to provide sufficient support to pre-service teachers in order to
minimize the negative effects of negative experiences (Mercer et al., 2016).

Teachers who experience positive emotions in the classroom, according to Sutton and
Wheatley (2003), are more likely to produce new ideas and solutions to help them better solve or
manage with difficulties. However, it appears that the variety of events that beginner teachers
encounter is more likely to elicit negative rather than good feelings. According to Britzman
(2007), novice teachers' negative emotions are a result of their lack of confidence, which means
that pre-service teachers may be more prone to negative emotions that negatively impact their
teaching practice. In some situations, the frequent occurrence of unpleasant emotions can lead
pre-service teachers to abandon the profession, according to research from around the world
(Hong, 2010).

Mercer et al. (2016) found that designing teacher education programs based on a knowledge
of the spectrum of emotions experienced by pre-service teachers and an awareness of the
meaning they assign to those emotions can help to mitigate their harmful consequences on future
teaching practice. Pre-service teachers require a venue where they can engage in teaching
experiences that are representative of the difficulties they may face later in their careers. They
must also be provided with the tools and resources necessary to overcome their difficulties
(Nguyen, 2018). Pre-service teachers can "gain authority over their own teaching" through
developing notions like identity, according to Furlong and Maynard (1995). (p. 73). It is critical,
then, that they be given the opportunity to reflect on their views and emotions in order to better
understand themselves as future professionals.

Two studies on pre-service teachers in Mexico were examined. Arizmendi Tejeda, Gillings
de González, and López Martnez (2016) looked into whether novice teachers employed ways to
manage negative emotions during practicum. They gathered information through observations
and semi-structured interviews. Participants utilized preventative and responsive emotional
management tactics like selecting situations and altering their emotional expression, according to
the findings.

These researchers discovered that pre-service instructors choose a teaching level based on
their image and self-confidence in order to avoid feeling challenged or threatened. They also
determined that other regulating tactics, such as emotional understanding or hiding emotions,
were not used by pre-service teachers because they needed to be instructed on how to utilize
them. Finally, they emphasized that ELT programs should contain a component concerning the
emotions involved in teaching a foreign language so that pre-service teachers are more prepared
for teaching.

Ocampo Martnez (2017) performed research to find out what emotions first-year English
teachers felt during their first year of teaching and what produced those feelings. The researcher
discovered that first-year English teachers' positive and negative emotions stemmed from their
interactions with students, administrative duties, and a lack of classroom management skills
using semi-structured interviews conducted at three different points in their teaching practice
over a six-month period. They felt anger, annoyance, and nervousness while interacting with
students and performing administrative chores, but also delight, confidence, and motivation.
Although the emotions experienced as a result of a lack of classroom skills were negative,
participants expressed optimism at the end of the school year because these emotions enabled
them to look for strategies to reverse difficult situations, such as talking to colleagues and
previous teachers about ways to control children. These studies illustrate that there is a modest
but growing corpus of research on how Mexican English teachers view their profession
emotionally.

"Humans are motivated to discover why an event has occurred," according to attribution
theory (Weiner, 1980, p. 276). As a result, people frequently attribute the reason of a certain
occurrence or situation to someone or something.

The current research focuses on the attribution awareness process that pre-service teachers go
through when reflecting on their practicum teaching performance.
 "The most prominent causal inferences are ability and effort," writes Weiner (1980, p. 393),
"but many other elements are also relevant." "But many other elements are also relevant," says
Weiner (1980, p. 393). Stability, locality, and controllability were highlighted by Weiner as
characteristics for causal conclusions.

Pre-service teachers, for example, can blame their lack of teaching skills on a lack of
vocation (a stable cause) or on insufficient education in an ELT program (an unstable cause).
Finally, causes might be controllable or uncontrolled, referring to our ability to influence or not
influence specific circumstances in order to make them work in our favor. If pre-service teachers
blame their lack of teaching abilities on a lack of vocation, they will assume that no matter how
many courses or training they receive, they will not improve. If they blame their lack of teaching
skills on insufficient training, they will be able to enroll in training classes to improve.

According to Weiner (1980), reaching causal inferences, or determining why one succeeds or
fails, necessitates the use and combination of many kinds of information. Some of the proof will
come from the current circumstance, while others will come from memories of earlier incidents.
(see p. 329)

Although attribution theory was created to understand human behaviour (Weiner, 1992), its
broad analytical lens has been applied to the investigation of student performance in other topics,
including mathematics (Baştürk & Yavuz, 2010) and technology (Maymon, Hall, Goetz,
Chiarella, & Rahimi, 2018). The current study used attribution theory to better understand pre-
service teachers' causal inferences regarding their teaching performances during practicum in
their final year of an ELT degree program.

The current study is based on pre-service teachers' attributions of emotions that arise during
their teaching practice, as well as the actions they do after reflecting on those emotions and their
causal inferences. Attributions of pre-service teachers can influence not only their future
teaching abilities but also their professional development. For example, if pre-service teachers
believe that their underdeveloped teaching skills contributed to the emergence of unpleasant
emotions during teaching practice, they will enroll in training courses to learn or strengthen those
skills. However, if pre-service teachers believe that the sources of negative emotions are stable
(national educational policies, institutional restrictions on the implementation of new ideas,
parental demands, etc.) and that there is nothing they can do about it, they may leave the teaching
profession, feel less motivated to try new techniques, or develop resilience to deal with these
negative situations. Thus, pre-service teachers' professional development is impacted by the
outcomes of previous events, as well as their understanding of the factors that influence the
success or failure of current teaching practices.

"What motivates us to pursue a specific course of action for new or future activities, or to
stop doing things because we believe we lack the capacity to achieve them," Méndez López says
(2011a, p. 90). These attributions are subjective, as they are generated based on our experiences
with and reflections on past and current events.

The current research establishes a link between attribution awareness and our beliefs. If we
believe that someone or some external factor (e.g., the students, the materials we are working
with, classroom activities, the focus of the syllabus) is the cause of our failure or success in
language teaching, our motivational intelligence will provide us with strategies to overcome such
barriers in the event of failure. As a result, pre-service teachers' personal assumptions drive their
actions or inaction, with any actions done based on their interpretations about specific teaching
scenarios. Understanding what pre-service teachers do after they've figured out what's causing a
problem might help teacher trainers come up with activities that will improve the former's
teaching practice.
 3. Methodology
3.1. Methodological approach

The study is mixed method in nature. The data was collected after selection of sample from
the population that comprised teachers of English at college level. The responses of the teachers
provided during semi structured interviews were analyzed qualitatively.

3.2. Population and Sampling

The population of the study consisted of the teachers of English at college level from the
District Bhakkar, Punjab, Pakistan. The sample of 20 English language teachers working in both
government and private colleges were selected for the data collection. The sample participants
were selected by using the convenient sampling, a technique of non-random sampling. The
sample participants responded to semi-structured interviews which were conducted by the
researcher who also belongs to the same district. The study is based on the responses of the
participants provided in response to the interviews. The technique of the sampling and the
patterns of the study were adopted from Gkonou and Miller (2021). The demographic details of
the participants have been provided in the Table 3.1.

Table 3.1

Demographic details of the participants of the study

Location District Bhakar

Gender Male: 10, Female:10

Government 10

Private 10

Highest Qualification M.Phil

Teaching Experience Ranged from 2 to 10 years

 3.3. Process of Data Collection

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data for analysis from the
participating teachers during the working premises of the colleges. In case of two teachers, there
had been some timing issues. Therefore, the responses of those two teachers were collected
online via Zoom meeting app. The strategy behind choosing interviews as the method for the
data collection lies in the fact that researching emotions through some way that is socially
constructed can be useful, and the interviews are the encounters in which understanding is
construed socially.

The interviews contained the questions which were directly associated with nature of the
research topic. It was kept in mind that the questions could reflect the background of the teacher,
and their emotional experience during the practice of the teaching. Resultantly, the interview
included 11 questions that focused on the current responsibilities of the teachers, their aspects of
interest in teaching, the strategies used by them in managing emotions, their views on teacher
autonomy, work stress, and their suggestions for the newly recruited teachers about the
management of emotions. The interview questions did not intend to merely attain the history of
emotional experiences, rather the interview allowed the participants of the study to deliberately
share the experience to the one who was interested in knowing (researcher). The reflection can
encompass the cognitive as well as affective domain. In case of the present study, the affective
domain of the reflection was focused as the interview questions helped in assessing the affective
aspect of emotional experiences of the teacher rather than the history of their experiences.

The average time length of the interviews was 27 minutes with some of the interview having
taken more than 45 minutes. It was asked by the teachers that how they deal with their emotions
while teaching. The responses of the teachers were transcribed and were read numerous times.
After reading the transcripts of the responses provided by the participants again and again, some
recurrent references of the teachers about the way they felt and managed their emotions
throughout their teaching were noted down. Then, it was examined that what kind of role their
emotion management or may call it emotion labor played in emotive aspect of their teaching.

In order to develop familiarity with the interviews, the transcripts were read numerously.
This helped us in gaining deep understanding of the themes which is significant aspect of the
qualitative thematic study (Tery et al., 2017). It was intended to understand the personal
emotional experiences of teachers and the emotional labor. The interview questions were asked
by keeping in view the interview guide, but some extra questions were also asked depending on
the direction the interviews took. Therefore, each of the interview was approached as a case
study. Both the researchers understood and analyzed the data separately at first. Then, we
consulted each other to outline the themes which were associated with our interest in the
emotional experiences of the teachers and their emotion labor. The responses of teachers helped
us in knowing the self-awareness of teachers about their emotions which they had achieved
through out their teaching experience. It was also assessed that what their perception of a good
language teacher was. The analysis of the emotional experiences of the language teachers and
their emotional labor has been illustrated in detail manner in the next section.

4. Findings and Discussions

4.1. Their notion of Being Professional

All of the teachers who participated in the study exhibited understanding of the norms of
emotions in the classes and the institution in general and to create distance from physical and
emotional challenging situations. To describe this advertent distancing from challenging
situations, 14 teachers used the term “ professional”. It was found that the teachers used this
term as term which was of common-sense knowledge, and the interviews followed that up too.
This meant that everyone understands that what being professional means in a class. The
transcripts of the interviews reflect that teachers stated that being professional means ‘not telling
things to students which were in appropriate’, ‘not being overexcited’, ‘behaving seriously’ ,
‘managing emotions’, and ‘ should not get personal’ .

The responses being provided here were in answer to the question asked about that what
advice they would give to the newly recruited teachers.

“ They shouldn’t be going and telling the students things which were inappropriate. They should
be honest and professional”

(T: 12)
“A good teacher is not a person who gets overexcited at any point in classroom. He should
maintain a balanced attitude and should behave professionally”

(T: 3)

The analysis of the responses of teachers about this question revealed that the teachers were
not against showing any emotion at all in the context of the classroom. Rather, the teachers were
of the view that a teachers display moderated kind of emotions. It means that they should behave
in balanced way. The use of words like ‘should be honest’ in the first excerpt and the words like
‘ not a person who gets overexcited’ and ‘ should maintain a balanced attitude’ depicts that they
were in favor of display of moderated emotions.

4.2. Emotions and Reflective Practice

The analysis of the responses provided by the participating English language teachers
revealed that 18 of the 20 teachers considered reflection as a significant way to control and
manage their emotions. They also highlighted the significance of reflection in making them
emotions self-aware, and therefore, increasing their teaching abilities. Their reflection activity
emerging in the situations of emotional labor was constructed by them as emotional distress.
Such as when they needed to associate themselves with emotional norms of the context, but the
situation also demanded them to respond to the students as well. This was told by a teacher that
when she had to inform the students about their results or about their performances, she faced
difficult times. This was because of the reason that students who failed to meet up the
performance standards or the students who achieved less grades or marks in their tests hear the
results with ‘sad faces’ or with ‘tears in their eyes’. This kind of news is consequential for the
students as the reports are delivered to their parents or sometimes, they get hurt as they had
developed some kind of competition with the fellow students. This kind of situations brings the
interviewee in tears sometimes and she wonder what she could for them. The excerpt from her
response has been provided here below:
“ In my career, many times I had to tell the students that you are fail. You have performed below
the level. I see sad faces. I see teary eyes. I’ve had tears. What could I do for them? Once you
realize that what is best for the learning of the students, you get less stressed”

(T: 7)

The excerpt shows that the teacher is highly experienced as she uses the words ‘ In my
career, many times’, but she still cannot avoid the emotions and gets affected by the behavior of
the students. She further states that engagement with such situations again and again, and
reflecting that what is best for the learning of students helps her in not getting emotional and in
getting less stressed in such emotionally challenging situations.

In response to the question asked about the strategies they use to manage their emotions,
the other teachers frequently told that they refer back and reflect to the emotionally challenging
situations they had in the past. It helps them in gaining confidence as well as provides them some
road map to handle the situation. T: 15 responded that once she had to handle very hostile kind
of a student. She was of the view that she kept on reviewing the situation all day, and the process
of thinking helped her in handling the situation. The excerpt containing her response has been
provided below:

“ The anxiety I faced in dealing that hostile student was very difficult to handle. I kept on
thinking the situation all day. I though whether I should talk to the student in classroom or
should talk to him individually. And what I will say when I talk to him. I kept on reviewing and
thinking. This is how I deal with emotionally challenging situations”

(T: 6)

One of the teacher reflected to a situation she faced in early days of her teaching
experience. She told that once she asked her students to write about influential historical figures
whom they admired most. Next day, one student came up with an admiring note on Hitler. She
states that she got stuck in situation where she did not that whether she should ignore the
situation or should address it. She then told that she addressed it in a way she considered
appropriate.
 The analysis of the responses provided by the participation teachers depicted that the
teachers were of the view that backlog of the experience provided them with skills and the
abilities to face the challenging situations as it helped them in managing the stress and
controlling the emotions. Therefore, it can be stated that the reflection helps in managing the
stress.

Another aspect of the interview revealed that most of the teachers, 16 out of 20, were in
favor of this notion that refection in collaboration with the colleagues was more effective in
dealing with the challenging situations. The rest of the four teachers stated that they had never
discussed the classroom problems they face with their colleagues and have always responded to
those problems by themselves. The excerpts from the English language teachers’ working in
Government and Private colleges of District Bhakkar, Punjab, Pakistan. responses about this
aspect of the reflection have been given below

“ This I have learnt from experience that don’t carry all your emotion by yourself. Share the
emotions with other teachers, it can help you in knowing things you don’t know. Eventually,
sharing with experienced teachers can help you in managing stress. Once experienced, you can
help the new teachers too”

( T: 11)

“ we as faculty have relationship of trust and friendship. We reflect a lot. We discuss issues and
challenging situations. This helps us a lot in controlling the difficult situations. I had many issues
with students who were creating disturbance in the classroom. I discussed with my colleagues at
college and successfully managed my emotions and handled the situations”

(T: 8)

“ I can surely say that discussing with the senior teachers can help you in solving many issues of
the classroom. They know a lot and they can help you get the skills to handle the challenging
situations”

(T: 9)
 This shows that reflection to the challenging situation with colleagues is one of the useful
strategies in managing stress and in controlling challenging situations as a teacher along with
many other strategies.

4.3. Discussion

This study was an attempt to advance in comprehending what the emotions of English
language teachers do in connection with the conscious use of reflection as strategy that helps in
handling and managing the emotions. The responses of the teachers demonstrated that they felt
emotionally challenged at certain times and being professionals helped them in handling the
situation. Further, it was demonstrated that Emotional labor could equip them with necessary
skills to handle the challenging situations. For the participants of this study, the reflection was
carried out in the form of writing, in collaboration with the teachers, and through the observation
of the lesson. The informal reflective activities were also common among the teachers. For
example, reviewing the emotionally challenged situation after the classroom premises. However,
the reflection in all these senses incorporated emotional aspect which helped teachers in gaining
abilities to handle the emotionally challenged situations. Reflection, according to the
participants, was no just a practice of reconsidering the emotional events, but it sometimes
challenged the long-held belief and norms about emotions and teaching practices. It was also
highlighted that positive results of emotional labor that develop emotional capital are increased
when the teachers associate with the institutional norms of emotions.
 5. Conclusion

The present study was conducted to analyze the emotional experiences and emotion
management of the English language teachers of District Bhakkar, Punjab Pakistan, working at
college level. The analysis of the responses collected from the sample of 20 participating
teachers of English language was carried out thematically by finding out the recurrent ideas in
their responses. The results revealed that teachers at certain moments felt emotionally challenged
in classrooms. The findings of the study also depicted that teachers were of the opinion that
reflection, reviewing and thinking, and sharing with the colleagues could be effective strategies
in the management of emotions. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that
teachers feel emotionally challenged at certain times in classroom no matter how much teaching
experience they have. The study also concluded that reflections, thinking, and discussing
emotionally challenged situations with colleagues can be really helpful in emotion management
and in solving classroom related issue.
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