Teacher Educators' Experiences and Expressions of Emotion During the Pandemic: International Perspectives

Teacher educators' emotions are shaped by the fluctuating conditions of their work and variable interactions with students and colleagues. Many studies report on emotions in classrooms and teachers' regulation of emotion, yet there is limited research on emotion in teacher education. This chapter focuses on emotions that teacher educators from diverse contexts encountered during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were written responses and interviews from teacher educators from 29 countries. Coding included identifying explicit and implicit emotion, the mood of the narrative/interview, and categorizing by theme. A shared excel sheet was used for comparison, which generated emergent themes. Interrater reliability was established using 7 data sets; the remaining were individually coded following the same procedure, then discussed. Common emotional experiences were expressed across all countries, save 3, despite the different people and cultures. Although not representative of the entire country, in general, seven themes emerged, which are: (1) feeling sorrow (2) feelings of optimism, (3) concern for future of teaching, (4) concerns for student mental and professional well-being, (5) fulfilment with ethic of care in higher education, (6) concerns over inequity, and (7) efforts in resilience. Viewed as a whole, the future of teacher education is made apparent. Despite the divergent contexts, the state of concern and goals are similar. Such insight can provide guidance for supporting teacher educators' careers, well-being, and professional development.