Becoming a Teacher, Coexisting with Emotions: A Follow-up Study on Emotion Regulation of ECE Student Teachers in Teaching Internship Context in China

Abstract Early childhood education (ECE) student teachers experience “reality shock” and a heavy burden of emotional regulation as they encounter many challenges in their internships, such as failing to cater for children's needs and lacking autonomy and efficacy. Effective emotion regulation can alleviate the impact of negative emotions and facilitate the construction of teacher identity. However, existing research has paid less attention to the emotion regulation of student teachers, especially ECE student teachers. Previous researchers mainly categorize in-service teachers’ emotion regulation strategies, whereas ECE student teachers’ emotion regulation strategies are more nuanced and in need of additional theoretical perspective to uncover their emotion regulation strategies. To address the research gap, we conducted a qualitative and follow-up research to examine the emotional experiences and emotion regulation strategies of 25 ECE student teachers in Guangzhou, China, during their internships. Data were collected through interviews, observation, and critical incidents forms. Informed by an integrative perspective, this study classified the emotion regulation strategies of ECE student teachers into four categories, including expressive regulation, cognitive change, behavioral adjustment, and sequential regulation. The study also analyzed the emotion regulation strategies at different stages of their internships, presenting the uniqueness of ECE student teachers’ emotional regulation in the Chinese cultural context. The Chinese social culture of “ ren qing ” and the power hierarchy in classrooms have led ECE student teachers to use suppressing strategy to regulate emotions. This study enriches our understanding of ECE student teachers’ emotions and provides implications for ECE teacher education.