The significance of emotional dimension in teacher’s work has been increasingly acknowledged. Currently, there are number of researchers investigating teachers’ emotions in various educational contexts. The research has highlighted how emotions are inextricably linked to teachers’ work and how those emotions impact teachers’ lives (Schutz & Zembylas 2009).

This symposium proposal is related to a research project “Disentangling the emotional dimension in beginning teachers’ work” (EMOT) funded by the Academy of Finland. The project focuses on the emotional dimension of teachers’ work and contributes to theory development regarding teachers’ work and its character, specifically by viewing it as emotional, moral, and relational. The moral core of teachers’ work lies in human relationships in which emotions are inherently present (Hansen 1998, Hargreaves 2000, Noddings 2001). Prior research has not paid enough attention to the significance of emotions in beginning teachers’ work (Sutton & Wheatley 2003), although there is wide understanding of the challenges of the transition phase (Almiala 2008). The emotions that appear at the transition phase, when teachers are beginning their careers, are specifically examined in this project. The emotions are studied in the various relationships within teachers’ work: relationships with children, their parents, colleagues, principals (leaders), and other partners. However, those relationships do not develop in a vacuum but as a part of micropolitical contexts, which contain the social, political, and cultural conditions that determine teachers’ work (Kelchtermans & Ballet 2002, Shapiro 2010). The project has wide international network including research from Finland, Belgium and Japan, for example. The symposium addresses how emotions appear in beginning teachers’ work by introducing and discussing research findings from different research contexts.

The focus in each research presented in the symposium is on beginning teachers and the emotional and relational aspect of teachers’ work. Furthermore, narrativity as a wide theoretical and methodological framework (Spector-Mersel 2010) unites the studies. The starting point in understanding narrativity is that while telling, teachers reconstruct and make sense of their lives and experiences, constructing the meaning of their own emotional experiences (Clandinin & Connelly 2000, Elbaz-Luwisch 2005, Kelchtermans 2009).

The symposium includes three presentations. The first paper of the symposium presents a follow-up study of ten beginning teachers in Flemish (Belgian) schools. The second paper studies the emotional aspect in Finnish beginning teachers’ stories by specifically focusing on uncertainty. The third paper focuses on emotions that teachers narrate related to school leadership in Finnish and Japanese contexts.

After the presentations the symposium aims at turning the session into an academic forum for an engaged discussion between the presenters, the discussant and the audience. For that purpose we will leave enough time for reflection that will develop in three waves: Firstly, the presenters will shortly introduce comparative statements by reflecting on different data sets from different countries analytically and critically. Secondly, the discussant will provide her first comments. Thirdly, the discussant will invite the audience to engage in a structured discussion around the tentative comparative conclusions. Central issues of the reflection will include: e.g. what significance different relational, micropolitical and cultural contexts have on emotional dimension? What kind of emotional expression appears in different contexts? What kind of implications this has for teacher education in different countries?

The symposium contributes to theoretical discussion on beginning teachers and emotions. It highlights the crucial role that emotions have in the relational and micropolitical contexts of teachers’ work. The symposium is meant for teachers, administrative personnel, teacher educators and researchers interested in beginning teachers and the induction phase, emotions, teachers’ work, teachers’ professional development, narrative methodology and teacher education research.

Almiala, M. (2008). Mieli paloi muualle – opettajan työuran muutos ja ammatillisen identiteetin rakentuminen [The change of teaching career and construction of professional identity]. Joensuu: Joensuun yliopisto. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bas. Elbaz-Luwisch, F. 2005. Teachers’ voices: Storytelling and possibility. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing Inc. Hansen, D. T. (1998). The moral is in the practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14, 643–655. Hargreaves, A. (2000). Mixed emotions: Teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(8), 811-826. Kelchtermans, G., & Ballet, K. (2002). The micropolitics of teacher induction. A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialisation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 105-120. Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice 15 (2), 257–272. Noddings, N. (2001) The caring teacher. In Richardson, V. (ed.) Handbook of research on teaching, Washington: AERA, 99–105. Shapiro, S. (2010). Revisiting the teachers' lounge: Reflections on emotional experience and teacher identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 616-621. Spector-Mersel, G. (2010). Narrative research. Time for a paradigm. Narrative Inquiry 20(1), 204–224. Sutton, R.E. & Wheatley, K.F. (2003) Teachers’ emotions and teaching: a review of the literature and directions for future research. Educational Psychology Review 15 (4), 327–358.