When technology meets emotions: Exploring preschool teachers' emotion profiles in technology use

The potential of technology in early childhood education (ECE) has been widely recognized. However, limited research has focused on preschool teachers' emotions in technology use and their relationship with emotional intelligence, technological self-efficacy, and school-level variations. To address this gap, this study adopted a multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) with Mplus 8.3 to explore (1) emotion profiles in technology use, (2) the predictive role of emotional intelligence in profile memberships, and (3) the association between emotion profiles and technological self-efficacy at both the teacher and school levels. Data was collected from 3,195 preschool teachers across 268 schools in Shenzhen, China. Specifically, MLPA identified four teacher-level profiles (Suppressed, Balanced, Engaged and Conflicted) and three school-level profiles (Innovative, Steady and Passive), emphasizing substantial variations across schools. Moreover, emotional intelligence, particularly perceiving, using and understanding emotions, predicted memberships in better emotion profiles. Teachers in better emotion profiles demonstrated higher technological self-efficacy, and school-level differences influenced these relationships. These findings highlight the importance of considering both the individual-level and school-level emotion patterns in supporting effective technology usage within the Chinese cultural context. • Teacher emotions include positive, negative activating, and negative deactivating. • Four teacher and three school emotion profiles in technology use were identified. • Negative activating and deactivating emotions showed no significant distinction. • Emotional intelligence predicted emotion profile memberships at both levels. • Cultural norms influenced emotion patterns in preschool teachers' technology use.