Teacher Emotion‐Regulation in the Elementary Classroom: A Psychological Case Study

ABSTRACT Elementary classroom teaching involves complex emotion labour with a wide range of often co‐occurring positive and negative emotions. How teachers engage in the executive function of regulating their emotions in the classroom can influence the quality of instruction they provide and promote their own well‐being. The objective of this study was to describe how one teacher regulated his emotions within the complexities of classroom instruction. Using single‐subject psychological case‐study methodology, an elementary school teacher, with over 15 years of experience in different countries and contexts, participated over the last 3 months of the school year. The teacher demonstrated emotion awareness of self and students, with emotion regulation encompassing an intersection of anticipatory and response‐focused strategies with deep and surface acting strategies. Emotions that could not be regulated in deep acting ways were consistently associated with workplace demands that the teacher had little or no agency to change.