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Negative Emotions and the Negotiation of Professional Boundaries in Pre-service Teaching



Author(s)

LIU Yuwei

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2025.12.003

Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing, China

Teaching is widely recognised as an emotionally demanding profession, particularly during the early stages of learning to teach. While research on pre-service teachers’ emotions often foregrounds the detrimental effects of negative emotions, less is known about how such emotions contribute to professional learning. This study uses qualitative thematic analysis to explore how 10 pre-service English teachers experience and interpret negative emotions during practicum and how these experiences shape professional boundary negotiation. Drawing on interviews and emotion diaries collected across a seven-week practicum, the findings show that frustration, helplessness, and loss of control surfaced when participants encountered limits of responsibility, authority, and role expectations. Rather than indicating incompetence, these experiences prompted reflection on what teaching can reasonably demand and supported more realistic, sustainable understandings of teaching.

pre-service teacher, teacher emotions, professional boundaries