EMOTION REGULATION IN THE WORKPLACE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY WITH TEACHERS

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize the emotional labor of the professional and
technological education teacher by examining the emotions and the emotion regulation strategies
adopted by teachers. Eight focus groups were held, with the participation of forty-one teachers
in total, to collect the data. For the data analysis, we adopted the inductive and deductive
categorization methods. The results showed that different emotions are activated in the face of
specific emotional demands and that teachers use a variety of strategies, either in isolation or in
chains, to regulate them. However, cognitive change strategies and situation modification of the
procedural model of emotional regulation were more frequently reported. The results suggest
differences in the regulatory preferences of the teachers based on the career period and the
training /performance area. Future research could use varied methods (e.g., observation diary)
to investigate regulation's dynamic and contextual process and its outcomes and propose a
contextual scale of teacher emotional regulation. The findings have implications for teacher
training programs, educational management, and future research.