Autogestão docente de emoções negativas em situações de conflitos relacionais na sala de aula

Abstract

This research analyzes self-management of negative emotions by teachers in context of interactive conflicts at classroom, with the epistemological basis on Wallon’s model, which considers the person as a social and organic being, composed by the affective, motor and cognitive functional fields. The sample consisted of 17 teachers (15 women and two men) belonging to two public elementary and secondary schools of João Pessoa-PB. Semistructured interviews were conducted within schools to collect data related to affective, cognitive and motor fields, inferred from how participants characterized the interactive conflict in their classrooms as well as the negative emotions arising from experience of these conflicts. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and identified themes from the categories created, based on the adopted theoretical model. These data were analyzed according Bardin’s perspective (2009) and in the light of the literature on indiscipline and violence in schools, on the Burnout and teachers’ malaise. Thus, the results were organized in four stages: identification of the concept of interactive conflict, the description of emotional experience and pedagogical interventions and self-assessment on the affection and actions taken in the context of the classroom. According to the results, violence and indiscipline in schools are perceived as interactive conflicts teachers have to face at classroom; the most frequently mentioned self-management of negative emotions (sadness, frustration, anger, anxiety, anger and fear, in descending order) were emotional restraint in the classroom and their expression outside that workplace (sometimes inappropriately, in context or form); beside these strategies, compensatory activities (leisure and self-care, especially) were referred. Self-management of negative emotions through these strategies, in the classroom, caused psychological distress to individuals: their symptoms were associated with the early stages of Burnout, such as physical pain, metabolic disorders, uncontrolled motor; and emotional stress (especially mood oscillations). In cognitive field it was observed that, despite these concerns, teachers considered that it was difficult to think about their negative emotions, as well as on their actions considering these emotions in this context. The analysis of interviews in regard to affective field identified, in speech, a significant amount of person’s and content’s disjunctions. However, in one case only, it also identified the integration of functional fields, by a teacher who referred to the use negative emotions as an element to motivate herself at work. As a result, in concluding remarks, it is affirmed to be necessary, in the context of interactive conflict, the intentional integration of functional fields to the teaching self-management of negative emotions, which should not be seen as obstacles to the educational intervention in interactions with pupils, but as a motivating factor to teaching, provided the appropriate self-governing, taken as a reference to emotional self-awareness and analysis of interactive processes. That implies developing skills to emotional self-awareness and to analyze interactions at classroom. Hence, it was emphasized that teachers’ training should include such conditions to benefit from negative emotions occurrence.