Preservice Teachers’ Expectations for Emotional Regulation in the Classroom: Learning to Act Like a Teacher

Background: Teachers’ emotional labor (EL) has significant practical implications for their work, but teachers receive little or no preservice training on how to recognize, regulate, and express their emotions in the field. Early teaching experiences frequently evoke challenging emotions, yet research on preservice teachers’ emotional experiences and EL socialization remains limited. Research Questions: (1) What are preservice teachers’ understandings of the nature of the EL demands of the teaching profession? (2) In what ways and to what extent do preservice teachers feel prepared to meet the EL demands of teaching, and in what ways and to what extent do they desire further preparation? (3) In what relational and physical contexts do preservice teachers perceive learning opportunities related to EL? Research Design: We used a qualitatively driven mixed methods design with both concurrent and sequential components for the primary purposes of triangulation, enhancement, and development. Data collection included a questionnaire with both open- and closed-ended items ( n = 96) and qualitative interviews ( n = 17); participants were undergraduate candidates working toward teaching licensure at a mid-sized, public Midwestern university. Recommendations: In teacher preparation programs, we recommend: (1) introducing shared language around EL, therefore encouraging awareness, conversation, and self-reflection about experienced and expressed emotions; (2) framing EL as part of teachers’ work so that preservice teachers have the tools to integrate it into their understanding of what it means to be a teacher and better anticipate the scope of the skillset they will need to build; and (3) providing scaffolded EL learning opportunities for preservice teachers. In the field, we encourage school leaders to make space for practitioners to engage in reflective EL practice.