Exploring teachers professional identity: Role of teacher emotions in developing professional identity

The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the connections between teacher's emotional development and professional identity. Twenty teachers in their beginning year of profession were interviewed to reflect on emotional events and how these emotions help them in developing their professional identity. The research question for this study is; how do teachers' reflections of emotional events contribute in the development of their professional identity? Findings of the research yielded a model of professional identity that reflected the teachers understanding of themselves in relation to different emotional events. This model includes four key indicators: a) Identity beliefs, b) emotional events and identity negotiation, c) Teachers' attributes and d) adjustment. All participants exhibited the role of emotional events in development of professional identity. Some teachers elaborated that pleasant emotional events confirmed their identities and others elaborated the unpleasant emotional events which caused them to confront and adjust their emergent identities.