The topic of this presentation is the aspect of emotions in teachers’ learning processes. The point of departure is a three-year lasting R & D project, with the overall research question: “With the pupils learning as the starting point: How can teachers and researchers cooperate to develop the teaching practice and the school as a learning organization?” The project was related to one school, and the basis for research questions connected to sub-projects were challenges and problems the teachers encountered and experienced in their practice. As one of six researchers in the project, I collaborated with three teachers in the 7th grade. The pupils were new to them, and the teachers experienced that teaching the 50 pupils in this grade was demanding. Many of them were unfocused, and the teachers found it challenging to create good conditions for teaching and pupils’ learning. In cooperation with me, the researcher, the teachers decided that they should focus on developing their classroom management skills. Throughout the school year, the first year of the project, when I was cooperating with the teachers with the aim to “to transform the present to produce a different future” (Carr & Kemmis 1986, p.183), I observed their teaching, I participated in their team meetings and I talked with them individually. In the analysis of the data material it appeared that in the first weeks and months of the school year the teachers expressed their emotions as they reflected on problems connected to the turbulent situation. For example, they said “It makes me so mad,” and “It's so exhausting.” However, as time went by and the teachers increased their knowledge and started to manage the situation, they hardly commented on or expressed any emotions at all.

The cooperation work between the teachers and me was guided by R &D work (research and development work) developed by Engeström (2001). This work is based on the activity system (Engeström, 1987, 1999) and the expansive learning circle (Engeström, 2001). It implies a structured step by step process consisting of describing and analyzing the situation, planning, acting, reflection and new planning of the change.

The major part of studies focusing on teachers and teachers’ teaching does not pay attention to teachers’ emotions. With a few exceptions (se for example Furu, 2008) this also yields for studies on teachers’ learning. Here the focus appears to be on teachers’ cognition (se for example Postholm, 2008; Zwart, Wubbels, Bergen & Bolhuis, 2007). The purpose of this presentation is to explore the aspect of emotions in teachers’ learning processes. The theoretical framework of the study is constructivism, and in the presentation I will give a brief account of Vygotsky (1987;1999) and Dewey’s (1934/1980) theories on emotions. Thereafter I will present empirical data from team meetings and individual interviews with the teachers. The teachers’ utterances will be interpreted in light of the presented theories and I conclude the presentation with a discussion on some topics that emerge from the findings.