An empirical study on the emotional experiences of new teachers at the beginning stage of professional practice

The area of teacher's emotion does not receive much attention in the past few decades. In that teaching is a profession of not only knowledge delivery but also involves deep and intense affection with pupils, teachers should not be solely playing the role of giver. Teacher's emotions should be addressed and well-taken while we emphasize the emotional growth of pupils. The aim of this study is to understand the emotions and emotional experiences of new teachers. Its significance fes on the provision of first-hand research based information on teacher's emotions which can contribute to the planning and implementation of pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes. The study focuses on the emotional experiences of eight new teachers in their schools and classroom teaching. The method of study is a qualitative one where autobiography, journal writing and in-depth interview were employed. The result suggests that new teachers shared similar emotional experiences in their early year of professional teaching, whereby the differences lied on the intensity, frequency and impact of emotions of individual teachers. They experienced negative emotions much more than positive emotions and the intensity of such negative emotions was also on a high side. The most common emotion is fear, a negative emotion which can further be categorized into three, namely, fear of authority, fear of pupils' behaviour and fear of teaching competence. Other common emotions experienced by these new teachers are anxiety, anger, and disappointment.