Early career science teacher experiences of social bonds and emotion management

Abstract

High demand for suitably qualified, high-quality science teachers is undermined by elevated teacher burnout/attrition rates within the early years of teaching. Effective emotion management can alleviate feelings of burnout and is also linked theoretically to sustaining positive social bonds. Scant attention has been directed at the importance of emotion management and social bonds in science education research. This study presents a methodology for studying emotion management and social bonds, delivering novel outcomes that elucidate how these two phenomena are interrelated. Video recordings of classroom interactions and reflective accounts in an early-career science teacher's ninth grade class were analyzed through a combination of ethnomethodology and interpretive techniques. Situated actions that constitute emotion management at the classroom level impacted the status of bonds between the teacher and one of his students, ultimately leading to a breakdown in their relationship. Results of the study detail how social actions of numerous students and the teacher led to the co-construction of emotion management and how this impacted social bonds. Theoretical and practical insights about the co-constructed nature of emotion management and social bonds present novel perspectives that can help to avoid pathologizing the actions of individual students and teachers for sustaining positive social bonds. Implications for science teaching and teacher education are offered. Study outcomes extend previous perspectives on emotion management in science

Critical relationships in managing students’ emotional responses to science (and evolution) instruction

“…There is, fortunately, a renewed call within the science education community to reconsider the potential impact on students' learning when emotional responses to science instruction are taken into account (Bellochi 2018;Bellochi et al 2017;Quigley 2016;Richie et al 2016;Zembylas 2016). The most pertinent of these contributions came from Quigley (2016), at least in relation to our current manuscript, because it speaks directly to the consideration of students' emotional responses vis-à-vis teaching practices when introducing the topic of climate change.…”

Actividades emocionales del trabajo docente: un estudio de shadowing en Chile

“…La construcción activa del campo común de experiencia emocional entre profesores/as y estudiantes también se ha conceptualizado como construcción de vínculo o vínculo social educativo (Bellocchi, 2019). Para Deolidia Martínez et al (2009), la relación maestro-alumno es el "núcleo del proceso de trabajo y de la subjetividad docente, y se constituye como vínculo en tanto establece un entramado afectivo reconocido -registrado-por ambos términos de la relación vincular" (p. 393).…”

Uniformity, diversity, harmony, and emotional energy in a Chinese STEM classroom

“…Selected episodes were transcribed using techniques adopted in studies of social interaction to provide a finegrained description of the video data (cf. Bellocchi, 2019). Spoken utterances were transcribed in Chinese simplified characters and in pinyin.…”