Why teacher training should include emotional intelligence – The Hindu

Teachers who are empowered to recognise and manage their feelings tend to create a positive and inclusive learning environment

With the advent of technology, glocalisation and an urge to meet trends, education has seen significant transformation. Today, teaching is more than just curriculum delivery. It also involves helping students to develop holistically and foster knowledge, skills, and the confidence to overcome obstacles and thrive in society.

Teachers need to be role models, emotional pillars and frontline responders to the psychological needs of students. Considering the increasing student stress, behavioural challenges and mental health crises, teachers require training in emotional intelligence. Teacher education programmes predominantly focus on pedagogy, subject matter knowledge, and assessment techniques. Only a few emphasise the skills to navigate the emotional aspects of teaching. Emotional intelligence is a critical factor in determining both teacher wellbeing and classroom effectiveness.

From pride in student success to the stress of daily responsibilities, teachers navigate an array of emotions — guilt, demoralisation, helplessness, alienation, and anger — as they deal with student needs, classroom challenges, school management, parental demands, and personal stressors. If they are unable to deal with these, it can lead to burnout and lack of motivation, which in turn impacts the students.

Necessary skill

Emotional intelligence makes teachers more conscious of acknowledging what stimulates their emotions and how to manage their responses. It promotes empathy, enabling educators to recognise and respond better to student behaviours. It fortifies interpersonal ability, facilitating effective communication and conflict resolution. Teachers with higher emotional intelligence are able to manage classrooms better and develop healthy relationships with students. They also tend to create a positive and inclusive learning environment, fostering student engagement and academic success, leading to a growth-harvesting classroom environment. Emotionally safe classrooms in which students are understood, valued, and supported are more likely to be places of learning. Emotional intelligence training develops teachers to create such settings, employing relational rather than traditional methods of managing behaviour and conflict.

Systemic deficit

Due to the prioritisation of quantifiable academic achievements over soft skills in professional training, emotional intelligence training for teachers remains notably absent in mainstream teacher education. However, the rise of mental health problems reveal the pressing need to revamp teacher training and fill the gaps with real-time practical approaches.

Teacher education should accommodate today’s realities of contemporary classrooms, including structured opportunities for educators to reflect on their emotional patterns, understand their stress responses, and develop strategies for emotional selfcare. Peer sharing, reflective exercises, and experiential learning should become core components of teacher development programmes.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasises student centric education. Including emotional intelligence in teacher education is part of NEP’s vision and will reduce teacher burnout, and create an education system where learning can be exciting and productive.

When a teacher is empowered on several fronts to recognise and manage their feelings while teaching, they can create a productive environment promoting mental wellbeing, educational achievement and knowledge.

The writer is the Founder and CEO of ConsciousLeap.

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