Teacher Emotional Experiences in the Pandemic
Project Name: Teacher Emotional Experiences in the Pandemic
Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified levels of anxiety and stress for P-12 teachers
around the globe. Prior to the pandemic, teachers experienced higher levels of stress,
and emotional labor compared to other professions. Still, through the pandemic’s effect
on schools and schooling, it has exacerbated these problem. Previous research has
found that teachers use a variety of emotion regulation strategies to regulate their
classroom emotions, some of which (e.g., cognitive reappraisal) are found to be protective
against burnout. However, little is known about how teachers specifically regulate
emotions related to the pandemic and to “pandemic teaching.” The purpose of this research
is to understand teachers’ emotional experiences and feelings of burnout during the
pandemic, and how individual (i.e., emotion regulation and coping strategies) or contextual
factors (e.g., school administrative support, social support) intersect with different
facets of their emotional experiences.
Participating IRML Members: Dr. Mei-Lin Chang, and Dr. Rachel Gaines (in collaboration with Kristen Mosley from
the University of Texas at Austin)
Timeline: 2021-2022
Funding Status: We expanded the project exploring teacher emotional experiences in the post-pandemic
classrooms. [insert NEW link here for “Active Project”]. This project was funded
by a 2022 BCOE Research Team Grant (TEAM TESCA; Teacher Emotion, Stress, Coping, and
Attrition).
Related Publications: Research to Practice Brief and Effects of Autonomy Support and Emotion Regulation on Teacher Burnout in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the high impact journal Frontiers in Psychology (2022).
