Understanding shame and guilt among L2 teachers: what fuels and eases?

Abstract With increasing attention to positive psychology in second or foreign language (L2) education, research on fundamental L2 emotions has recently garnered growing attention. However, a specific category of emotions, often conceptualized as self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame, and guilt), is relatively underexplored in L2 research. Furthermore, while L2 learner emotions have recently witnessed a surge of focus, L2 teacher emotions have comparatively received sparse attention. There is specifically a scarcity of research on understanding how L2 teachers experience self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching. To address this gap, the present qualitative research sought to identify (1) the antecedents of L2 teachers’ experiences of shame and guilt, and (2) how they cope with shame and guilt-inducing situations in teaching L2. To achieve this, 65 EFL teachers voluntarily participated in the present study. Thematic analysis of data, collected through an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, extracted five causes of L2 teacher shame, namely lack of competence, negative feedback and criticism, perfectionism, emotional sensitivity, and contextual factors. Furthermore, the analyses revealed five main antecedents of L2 teacher guilt: failure to engage students, ineffective teaching, weak classroom management, overcrowded classrooms, and high workload. Results also demonstrated four main shame and guilt coping strategies: cognitive approach, behavioral approach, cognitive avoidance, and behavioral avoidance. Overall, while teachers predominantly relied on cognitive and behavioral approaches to regulate their feeling of guilt in L2 teaching, they were more prone to engaging in cognitive and behavioral avoidance strategies in shame-inducing situations.