Emotion identification by trainee teachers. A descriptive study based on picture books

Identification of emotions in the educational environment is fundamental for the development of social competence. The present article presents work conducted with trainee teachers on emotions related with anger, sadness, fear, love and joy. The aim of this work was to examine whether teachers are able to recognise such emotions when exhibited through text and describe the way in which they experience such emotions when they are narrated. Through the use of different picture books illustrating the aforementioned emotions, interactions took place with trainee teachers in order to familiarise them with the texts. Study participants came from the Faculty of Education at the University of Murcia and were undertaking a Primary Education double honours degree. Participants were administered a simple instrument through which they stated whether emotions described in presented texts corroborated their perception of the same emotions and whether, in addition, texts provoked the same emotion in them. Unlike implicitly illustrated emotions, those that were explicitly illustrated in picture books were generally detected by participants. This, therefore, indicates that emotion identification concurs with social awareness of emotions. It appears likely that the critical approach when applied to communication, in this case literary, is not yet well developed. Thus, inclusion of initial teacher training that includes emotions as a component of the communicative competence into the development of teaching and learning processes in the education system presents a challenge.