Title
Positive and Negative Effects of Empathy and Emotional Reactivity in Secondary School Teachers

Abstract
Teacher empathy refers to their ability to deeply understand the personal and social situations of students, to feel concern and kindness in response to their emotions, and to respond cwith compassion without losing sight of learning objectives. Empathy can influence the effectiveness of teaching styles and the well-being of both teachers and students. The aim of this presearch was to investigate the characteristics of vocational school teachers and how these traits relate to various aspects, including teaching effectiveness and burnout. Specifically, the primary goal was to identify potential challenges in managing empathy, such as experiencing strong reactions to pleasant and unpleasant emotions, and to explore the connections between emotion regulation and burnout. The ultimate goal was to propose strategies to help teachers better manage their emotional responses in class, improving their overall effectiveness and lowering burnout levels.

A total of 111 vocational school teachers in French-speaking Switzerland completed a survey measuring empathy, emotional reactivity, perceived teaching effectiveness, emotional regulation difficulties, and burnout. Teachers who struggled with emotional regulation and who tended to adopt others’ perspectives were more likely to have higher burnout scores. Additionally, teachers with higher levels of empathy in perspective-taking appeared to experience stronger reactions to positive emotions, which were associated with greater perceived teaching effectiveness. However, teachers with higher levels of empathic concern seemed to experience more burnout. Nonetheless, if these teachers could also fully appreciate positive moments—such as students’ progress, gratitude, or joyful situations—this could help them better manage burnout. Finally, teachers experiencing significant personal distress showed more burnout symptoms, partly due to difficulties managing their emotions, which heightened professional challenges.

Overall, the study suggests that strong emotional reactivity to pleasant emotions can be beneficial for teachers, as it is linked to perceived teaching effectiveness. In contrast, strong emotional reactivity to unpleasant emotions may be harmful, as it increases difficulties in regulating emotions. These findings support the importance of raising awareness among teachers about emotion regulation and emphasize the improtance for teachers to develop strategies to regulate emotions as a way to prevent or decrease burnout symptoms.

Caractérisée par différentes réactions face aux expériences observées ou imaginées d’autrui, l’empathie est étroitement liée à la détresse empathique et englobe donc des composantes plus adaptatives - identifier et comprendre les états internes d’autrui - et d’autres plus dysfonctionnelles comme la coupure ou la contagion émotionnelle pouvant conduire à l’épuisement. Dans le contexte de l’enseignement, l’empathie joue un rôle déterminant dans la création d’un environnement de classe de qualité. Elle permet à l’enseignant de fournir un soutien émotionnel adapté, de répondre aux besoins et aux intérêts des élèves, tout en contribuant à la prévention des problèmes de comportement des élèves (Aldrup et al., 2022). En outre, l’empathie pourrait également améliorer le soutien pédagogique en rendant les instructions plus claires, engageantes et adaptées aux besoins des élèves (e.g., Parsons et al., 2018).

Bien que différents modèles soutiennent la relation entre l'empathie des enseignants et la qualité des interactions entre enseignants et élèves et, par conséquent, les résultats des élèves, les recherches empiriques sur ce sujet restent limitées (Aldrup et al., 2022).

La présente étude vise à préciser les liens entre différentes facettes de l’empathie et de la qualité perçue des interactions liées à l’enseignement et l’apprentissage.

Dans ce but, 249 enseignants (197 femmes), ayant une expérience moyenne de 17,28 ans (ÉT = 10,46), ont rempli deux questionnaires auto-reportés évaluant

- trois composantes de l’empathie (Favre et al., 2005) : la contamination émotionnelle, l’empathie, et la coupure émotionnelle,

- le sentiment d’efficacité perçu dans trois domaines de l’enseignement / apprentissage (TSES; Valls et al., 2020) : la gestion de classe (p.ex., calmer un élève perturbateur ou bruyant), l’engagement des élèves (p.ex., motiver les élèves qui montrent peu d’intérêt pour le travail scolaire) et les stratégies d’enseignement (p.ex., de poser de bonnes questions aux élèves).

Les résultats indiquent que la contamination émotionnelle (tendance à être submergé par les émotions des autres en les reproduisant automatiquement) et la coupure émotionnelle (tendance à se détacher émotionnellement des interactions ou à bloquer la reproduction d’émotions) sont significativement et négativement associées à toutes les dimensions de la TSES. Plus précisément, la contamination émotionnelle est particulièrement liée à une moindre efficacité perçue dans la gestion des comportements des élèves en classe, tandis que la coupure émotionnelle est davantage associée à une diminution de l’efficacité perçue dans les stratégies d’enseignement.

En revanche, l’empathie – définie comme la capacité à reproduire intentionnellement et partiellement les émotions – est positivement et significativement corrélée aux trois dimensions de la TSES, avec une influence légèrement plus marquée sur l’efficacité perçue pour engager les élèves.

Les composantes dysfonctionnelles de l’empathie se révèlent donc néfastes alors que les dimensions fonctionnelles de l'empathie pourraient aider à engager et motiver les élèves, possiblement en identifiant tristesse ou anxiété et en y répondant par du réconfort et des encouragements.

La formation des enseignants devrait intégrer un travail approfondi sur l’empathie, car en tant que phénomène complexe et incontournable dans les relations interpersonnelles, elle joue un rôle central dans les processus d’enseignement et d’apprentissage.

Teaching is a profession where teachers experience and display emotions on a daily basis (Hascher and Waber, 2020). Emotional tendencies are habitual and enduring emotional outlines that individuals experience in response to situations; these trait emotions reflect a person's characteristic way of feeling about certain contexts over time (Zhu et al., 2024).Teacher emotions have been shown to impact teaching quality, teaching practices, classroom dynamics, student-teacher relationships and student outcomes (Burić & Frenzel, 2023; Frenzel & Burić, 2021; Hagenauer, Hascher & Volet, 2015). Positive emotions in teachers are associated with superior job satisfaction and self-efficacy (Burić & Moè, 2020). Furthermore, such emotions have been shown to be relevant for the well-functioning of learning environments, to assist teachers in addressing diverse student needs, to resolve conflicts constructively, to positively impact student-teacher relationships, and to be transmitted between teachers and students (Hagenauer, Hascher & Volet, 2015; Frenzel et al., 2024). Conversely, teachers' negative emotions have been demonstrated to have a detrimental effect on their self-efficacy, as well as on their general well-being and the risk of burnout (Burić & Frenzel, 2019; Chang, 2009).

Given that teacher emotions impact their professional lives, social support in the workplace has been also shown to influence teachers’ emotional experiences. Studies indicate that teachers who receive support at their workplace adopt antecedent emotion regulation strategies, which is linked to high job satisfaction (Wang et al., 2023). Moreover, mentor support mitigates negative consequences of stress in lateral entrants, and promotes teacher well-being (Richter et al., 2023; Soncini et al., 2023); and school principal support has been reported to have a negative relationship with teachers’ emotional exhaustion (Maas et al., 2021).

This study focuses on teachers entering the profession through lateral pathways. Lateral entry teaching programs have been introduced as a solution to address the issue of teaching shortage. In Europe, eighteen education systems have implemented alternative routes for professionals to enter the teaching profession (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2021). For lateral entry teachers their first year in the program (induction phase) is a crucial period, as they lack pedagogical knowledge and teaching experiences (Kwok & Cain, 2023).

Against this background this study explores the tendencies of lateral entry teachers to experience positive or negative emotions during their first year in the lateral entry program of Austria. It also examines differences among participants who experience more positive than negative emotions regarding their perceived social support, emotional exhaustion, and appraisals of teaching situations. The following research questions are addressed:

1. To what extent do lateral entry teachers show a tendency to experience more positive than negative emotions, or vice versa, during their induction phase?

a. How do lateral entry teachers that show a tendency to experience more positive than negative emotions in the induction phase of the program differ on their perceptions about social support at the workplace,

b. their emotional exhaustion and

c. their appraisals on teaching situations experienced during the first year in the lateral entry program.

This paper reports on the third measurement point of a longitudinal study that took place in June 2024 at the end of the first year of the lateral entry program. An online questionnaire was implemented at all measurement points, asking teachers about (i) their experience of four emotions (joy, pride, anger, anxiety), (ii) their emotional exhaustion and (iii) their appraisals on teaching situations experienced during the first year in the program. Results will be presented at the conference.

Examining the emotional tendencies of lateral entry teachers offers insights into their perceptions as they establish their roles and identities during this crucial phase of teacher training.