Advancing Emotional Competencies in Educational Settings: The Impact on Work Effectiveness and Well-being

1. On the application of innovative emotion research in educational settings: A case of persons in contexts Konstantinos Kafetsios Department of Psychology. University of Crete, Greece www.soc.uoc.gr/psycho/kafetsios

4. Emotional competencies Given the changes, emotional competencies are increasingly important vehicles for: work effectiveness, well-being societal & within organizations

5. Emotion, Learning and the educational system ‘All learning has an emotional base’ (Plato) Emotions shape learning and teaching experiences for both teachers and students (Ingleton, 1991)

6. Emotional competencies

7. A fierce interest on Emotional competencies in education

8. Emotion competencies & education More than 5000 ‘hits’ in bibliographic databases covering the fields of psychology. social sciences, education, medical, nursing, neuroscience etc. More than 80% of those publications within the last decade

13. Emotions; why now? Social considerations • Globalisation forces: Individuation • Knowledge Society: • From manual to service and information oriented work • Realization of the importance of well-being at work and in society (e.g., Social capital, happiness economics etc.)

14. In such a complexity is EMOTION important? As an organizing construct within the person and with person’s interactions with the environment (Izard, 2008)

15. The argument Emotional competencies (EC) are important for excellence in education EC should not to be understood solely as ‘within the individual’ , implications: EC and interactions between educators EC and interactions between leaders and subordinates EC and teaching as leadership process EC and training – organizational change

16. A Social-Organizational Approach

17. Line of argumentation 1.Emotional competencies: A social – organizational perspective 2. Emotional competencies in Educational Settings 3. Emotion competencies and educational leadership 4. The cultural context of feelings, emotions and emotional competencies

18. What are Emotional competencies? The capacity for recognizing our own emotions and those of others, for motivating ourselves and others, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships • Perceiving others’ emotions and one’s own • Understanding others’ emotions and one’s own • Using/expressing one’s own emotions • Managing/regulating others’ emotions and one’s own

19. Looking at the emotional skills that predict interpersonal. organizational/educational and cultural settings

20. Emotional Intelligence as Emotional competencies • The capacity to reason with, and about, feelings (Mayer. Caruso. & Salovey. 2000) • Perception. • the ability to perceive accurately emotion in others and the self. • Facilitation. • the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; • Understanding. • the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; • Regulation. • the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

22. Two main approaches to emotion competencies • A. The ability approach (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 1997) • B. The self-efficacy approach (Petrides, 2000)

23. Line of argumentation 1. Emotional competencies: A social – organizational perspective 2. Emotional competencies in Educational & Organizational Settings 3. Emotion competencies in educational leadership 4. The cultural context of feelings, emotions and emotional competencies

24. A :Emotional Competencies in Educational settings

25. Emotion is important in educational settings In educational settings emotion labor and affect at work play important roles for educator outcomes (satisfaction, cohesion, affect at work) Emotion contagion processes are important for teachers’ burnout and work outcomes (Bakker & Schaufeli. 2000). School directors are considered the main source of subordinates’ positive and negative affect at work (Schmidt. 2000).

26. Evidence (1) Emotional competencies, affect at work and attitudes towards the teaching job

27. 523 teachers (155 males and 368 females) Primary (51%) and Secondary education from various regions in Greece. Ages 25–59 years (M = 38.48 years. SD = 8.02). Average length of service as an educator was 12 years (SD = 8.48).

28. WLEIS Wong-Law EI Scale • Four perceived emotional abilities that are • Broadly consistent with Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) definition of emotional intelligence (EI). • The Self-Emotion Appraisal (SEA): • Appraisal of Others’ Emotions (AOE): “I always know my friends’ emotions from their behaviour” • Use of Emotion (UOE) : self-perceived ability to use emotions to motivate oneself and enhance performance. • Regulation of Emotion (ROE) : concerns individuals’ perceived ability to regulate their own emotions. • AOE .75; SEA .80; UOE .83; ROE .81.

29. Understand Perceive others Use Regulate Among the four EI competencies Emotion Regulation was the most predictive of affect and job satisfaction

30. Evidence (2) Educators’ strategies of emotion regulation, affect at work and work outcomes

31. Emotion regulation • Refers to ‘‘processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions’’ (Gross, 1998a, p. 275).

32. Emotion regulation Gross & John. 2003

33. Gross’s model • Expressive Suppression • by arriving later in the emotion regulation process expressive suppression leads to the consumption of a significant amount of emotional resources • Reappraisal • coming earlier in the emotional regulation process. conserves resources since it regulates emotion at a more basic level

34. Gross’s (1998a,b) emotion regulation The two regulation strategies have consequences for personal well-being and emotions (Gross, 1998a) but also for social interactions in that they shape emotions that are experienced and expressed in certain situations (Frijda & Mesquita, 1994; Gross, 1998b). Reappraisal decreases the experience of negative state emotion (e.g., Gross & Levenson, 1997) and suppression decreases the trait positive emotion (Gross & John, 2003)

35. Sample Characteristics • 1008 educators in Primary from Macedonia (50%), Thessaly, & Athens (30%) • Gender: 33% males • Age distribution • 25-30 15% • 31-40 40% • 41-50 33% • 51-60 8%

37. CFI= .97. NFI= .98. RMSEA = .08 Χ2 = 294. df = 34. p < .001 .58 em1 e1 .55 e3 em3 .76 .74 .14 e5 .37 em5 Reappraisal .76 .59 e7 em7 .62 .76 .38 e8 em8 .58 .01 e10 em10 .01 .32 e2 em2 .57 .29 .53 e4 em4 Suppression .78 .61 .52 em6 e6 .28 em9 e9

38. Gender and Age • Females had significantly higher reappraisal and lower suppression scores (F (1, 997) = 6.56. & 32.05). • There was a weak positive association (r = .08) between age and reappraisal

39. MEASURES • STATE ANXIETY (Spielberger, 1977; α = .91) • Job Affect Scale (Brief et al.. 1988;α= .77) • Maslach Burnout Inventory (Papadatou & Anagnostopoulos, 1992; α = .76 , .65, .71) • JOB SATISFACTION (Brainfield & Roth, 1951, α = .85) • Social Support at work (α = .89)

40. ER & Work outcomes

41. Evidence (3) Career starters’ paths and differences in the emotional competencies

42. There are striking differences in the way trait and ability aspects of emotional intelligence are in positive and social science students

45. The evidence so far: Highlight the significance of EC for educators’ life in the organizational setting Highlight the impact of EC in difference educational paths BUT: The evidence concerns individual competencies, it does not demonstrate the significance of the social context

46. Line of argumentation 1. Emotional competencies: A social – organizational perspective 2. Emotional competencies in Educational & Organizational Settings 3. Emotion competencies in educational leadership 4. The cultural context of feelings, emotions and emotional competencies

47. B :Emotional Competencies in Education: Leadership and Team organization

48. Educational Leadership • Leaders are considered the most important factor in school culture (Dear & Peterson, 1990; Gronn, 1996, 1999). • Teacher efficacy (Hipp & Bredeson, 1995) • Teacher job satisfaction (Helle et al, 1993) • Teacher career (Beatty, 2001) • School improvement (Huberman, 1993)

49. Leadership as influence • Several definitions of leadership (e.g., Bass, 1990; Vecchio, 1997) • We will define leadership as “the social-influence process that occurs between and among individuals working toward a common goal”.

50. Evidence (4) A multilevel study of Directors’ Emotional capabilities effects on subordinates’ outcomes