Emotions and social reflection in being and developing as a university teacher

Abstract

AbstractThe purpose of this case study was to understand what kinds of emotions university teachers experience in teaching, how these emotions influence the way the teachers experience their pedagogical competency and being and developing as a teacher, and how they reflect on their teaching and teaching-related emotions. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with nine university teachers participating in an educational development project. Our results show that the teachers experienced positive, negative, and mixed teaching-related emotions and that these emotions influenced their experience of themselves as teachers and of their pedagogical competency. All teachers reflected on their teaching experiences, and most also shared and reflected on their teaching-related emotions with others. Social reflection can be a powerful tool in developing as a teacher, as it enables a personal evaluation and interpretation of teaching-related emotions and experiences. Higher education institutions should offer supportive environments for academic personnel, encouraging social reflection and providing opportunities for sharing teaching-related emotions. We found that an educational development project, in addition to more traditional staff training programs, can be a fruitful context for teachers’ pedagogical development, since it can provide opportunities for joint discussions on the application and development of pedagogical perspectives.

Keywords

• emotions
• social reflection
• developing as a university teacher
• educational development
• professional development