Why is it important for teachers to adopt a persona?

Teachers routinely encounter many challenging situations in their jobs when interacting with their students, their students’ families, and school colleagues with whom they work. These interactions can give rise to a wide range of emotions. How they manage those emotions can affect how successful teachers will be in building productive relationships that will be beneficial for the students under their charge. In some instances, it may be necessary for a teacher to mask their true feelings and act differently depending on who they are engaging with. Each type of job-related interaction brings its own set of dynamics that call for distinct ways of behaving and adopting a different outward demeanor. By assuming a persona appropriate for the interaction at hand, teachers will be better able to avoid potential conflicts, achieve a positive outcome, and attain greater career success.

When teachers regulate their emotions, it has a positive impact on child development

It is well documented that the ability of teachers to control their emotions, especially when working with young children, plays a significant role in creating an optimal classroom environment that promotes healthy child development. Similarly, research suggests that when teachers can regulate their emotions in interacting with adult family members of their students or school colleagues, this too can lead to better classroom outcomes for children. For example, a strong relationship built on trust between teachers and families can facilitate improved literacy skills, language development, and overall academic achievement in students. Likewise, strong teacher-colleague relationships can support improvement in student learning through better communication and shared instructional planning. Building relationships with families of students and school colleagues as described here may require teachers to assume a different persona or engage in ‘emotional acting,’ defined as the diverse ways in which teachers externally express the emotions they experience internally at work.

Mason researchers studied how teachers manage their emotions

Researchers from George Mason University’s School of Education recently conducted a study which examined how preschool teachers use emotional acting in different school-based interactions. The study consisted of interviews with 27 preschool teachers who worked in six publicly funded preschool programs located in a metropolitan area of the eastern United States. Among the questions posed by the researchers, the teachers were asked to describe a recent interaction they had with a child in which they felt they were successful. They were also asked how they felt when they worked with parents and families. Other questions focused on their daily routines in engaging with other teachers and administrators and their feelings about these encounters.

An analysis of the responses showed that the teachers displayed emotions in a variety of ways when interacting with students, families, and colleagues. The Mason team found that the intimacy or strength of these relationships determined the persona or behavior that these teachers exhibited outwardly. For example, several of the study participants practiced “surface acting” where, despite having a negative encounter that caused negative feelings, they suppressed their emotions and assumed a neutral demeanor in interacting with families and colleagues that they did not know well. While the study participants acknowledged that the emotions they showed while surface acting masked the internal frustrations they were feeling in the moment, they decided it was necessary to adopt a calm, pleasant persona in the hopes that over time doing so would lead to a productive, positive relationship benefitting the children they taught. Conversely, when study participants had close relationships and felt comfortable with family members of students or with their school colleagues, they were more likely to engage in ‘deep acting.’ This is a process where an individual tries to experience the same emotions of the person with whom they are interacting. The teachers who did deep acting believed that this provided them with a better understanding of why they had negative feelings after some school-based interactions. Often, it was due to a student’s family member or a school colleague struggling with a personal issue that had nothing to do with the teacher. This realization made it easier for the teacher to regulate their own feelings and emotions, feel a sense of empathy for the other person, and perform their job more successfully and more professionally.

Emotional acting and personas help teachers navigate school-based interactions

The study authors concluded that when teachers engaged in relationship-building with families, they were more likely to be able to deep act, and that this would result in “supporting effective collaboration as well as child and family development.” Mason researchers further concluded that teachers’ use of emotional acting and personas, whether deep acting or surface acting, helped them “navigate emotionally complex interactions in the moment” and allowed them to maintain positive relationships with children, families, and colleagues in emotionally charged situations.

To read more about how teachers use personas and emotional acting in school-based interactions, read this article by faculty from the Early Childhood Education program in Mason’s School of Education. The Early Childhood Education program at Mason prepares early childhood educators to work in early childhood education environments, including early childhood special education and prekindergarten to third grade settings. For more information about our degree offerings, please visit our program website.