The Emotional Management Of Teachers

We can all get a clear idea of ​​the lack of emotional management of teachers because we have met some of them at some point. Teachers who scold their students, who lack empathy, who punish them when they should tell them “if you need help, here I am” and who even come to confront them.

These types of attitudes are the result of an inability to manage one’s own emotions. Something that they never teach us, neither at home nor, also, in schools. Therefore, achieving this seems almost unattainable. Concepts are given a lot of importance, but very little in the way of transmitting them and reaching those who will receive them.

Putting ourselves in the teachers’ shoes

This article is not intended to blame the professionals: most of them do the best they can and know how. In many cases, the teachers’ lack of emotional management is added to the anxiety of having to face a challenge that in many cases surpasses them, dealing with students who have problems at home, with parents who do not attend meetings or with those who are too demanding and always seek explanations when their children come home with grades that they consider “low.”

The truth is that, for example, cases of bullying in schools continue to increase (either because there are more or more are detected). But who prepares teachers to deal with these violent situations? Few or none  have worked on the emotional management of conflictive groups. However, the vast majority have.

Thus, this emotional management of the group begins with the management of one’s own emotions. Teachers do not become machines when they enter the classroom, leaving their emotions at the door. They teach with their own illusions, but also with their own concerns.

On the other hand, many students have left their studies because the illusion or conviction of their teachers was already exhausted. The influence of teachers is such that if they change, students benefit. Therefore, good emotional management by teachers has very positive consequences for students.

Basic competences for emotional management of teachers

There are 5 basic competencies in emotional management that, in this case, are intended for teachers. To talk about each of them we have relied on Salovey, who was the one who organized them in the way in which we are going to present them:

• Self-knowledge : knowing our own emotions and the relationship they have with our thoughts and actions allows us to be more aware and improve.
• Emotional control : allows you to control the impulsiveness that can arise in a situation of stress or lack of control in the classroom.

• Motivational capacity : it helps us to know how to motivate ourselves, which also allows us to know how to motivate students.
• Empathy : allows you to tune in with the students, reach them and understand them. Because that student who does not open the book in class, perhaps, has parents who are about to separate and who do not listen to him.
• Social and leadership skills : they allow to interact effectively with the students, getting closer to them but without losing their leadership.

“Students are like fresh concrete, anything that falls on them leaves a mark.”

-Haim Ginott-

A protective factor against teacher stress

Teachers’ emotional management gives them more resources to deal with certain stressful situations in which their actions can seriously affect the learning and well-being of students. This is because disorders related to depression and anxiety are avoided. Likewise, you learn to better deal with the new challenges and challenges that a conflictive class, an excessive number of students or the lack of motivation of these to learn can suppose.

We are in a society in which, every time, there is a demand for an education in values ​​and a more comprehensive approach to the multiple problems that may affect students. Because teachers influence more than they think.

Being a teacher is not easy and some of us have experienced this in our own flesh. Many classes, many students and a constant rush to get to everything. However, let’s not forget that many years ago we were behind those desks with our own problems and thinking “nobody understands me”.

How good it would have been if instead of receiving condescending glances from the teacher who we were not paying any attention to, he approached us after finishing the class and told us a phrase, only one, that made us feel that he was not like the others and that he had not forgotten that not many years ago he too sat in a chair, similar to ours, to learn.