Emotion management among kindergarten teachers in their motivational interactions with their staff

The kindergarten staff comprises one teacher and two permanent staff members: an aide and a fill-in teacher. The study tracks the tactics that teachers use to motivate staff members to do their jobs effectively, in view of their considerations in choosing these tactics and the way staff members perceive them. The study is based on a multiple case study that focuses on ten cases in Israel (kindergarten staffs comprised of a teacher, a teacher’s aide, and a fill-in teacher), each treated via interviews and observations. Four main motivational tactics are found, all interrelated and each accommodating various strategies that the teacher uses to motivate staff members to do their jobs well: interpersonal and professional outreach, partnering, professional empowerment, and appreciation of job performance. The analysis and the discussion indicate that the emotional dimension generally, and the expression and management of emotions particularly, run like a crimson thread through the motivation processes that teachers set in motion. Accordingly, the article emphasizes the way teachers tend to express or repress their emotions toward their aides and fill-ins in the broader frame of the process of motivating them to work effectively.