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Recognising the emotional dimension is critical to understanding university educators’ professional lives. For example, Leutwiler et al.’s international scoping literature review (2024) examined affective interactions, emotional strategies, technical pedagogical aspects and intrapersonal factors influencing professionals internationally. This blog post presents further evidence on the theme of university educators’ experiences of emotional turbulence.

In the study we draw on in this post, we uncovered the lived perceptions of emotional labour in a UK initial teacher training (ITT) university where lecturers prepare trainees to teach children aged 3 to 11.

Thirty-eight staff were invited to participate, of whom 15 completed the questionnaire and 12 continued with semi-structured interviews. Ten participants identified as female, five as males; while one person did not disclose their age, the rest ranged from 37 to 60. The length of service in higher education ranged from three months to 17 years; seven had more than 10 years of experience and four had less than two and a half years’ experience. Thirteen were senior lecturers and two were course leaders.

Emotional lows: Disenchantment and isolation

A sense of emotional turbulence was divulged by participants in comments such as ‘I am an emotional wreck’, ‘I’ve got a love–hate relationship with [my role]’ and ‘it’s a rollercoaster’. They referred to specific positive and negative emotional experiences. Positive emotional responses included ‘satisfaction’, ‘fulfilment’ and ‘contentment’. These were generated by ‘[the] amazing privilege to shape future teachers’, ‘seeing them flourishing’ and recognising that student–lecturer relationships are transactional, benefiting both parties. When students were ‘appreciative’, they give lecturers the sense that: ‘We’re all human. We do like a thank you.’

However, this was countered by negative emotional responses. Some felt their work was ‘futile’ and ‘completely disregarded’. They experienced ‘psychological fear’, ‘frustration’, ‘disillusionment’, ‘emotional drain’, ‘resentment’ and ‘isolation’. This collectively conveyed a sense of disenchantment. Further disenchantment was expressed when lecturers felt that they had planned to provide a positive experience but were met with disengagement: ‘Why am I bothering? ’Cause nobody’s listening and there’s all this hassle for not much more money and not much thanks.’ A much broader sense of disillusionment was revealed in relation to colleague relationships as well, as one leader revealed:

I’m gonna say something controversial. Why did they leave schools? Was it because they wanted to work in HE? When we know that, we can work out what we can do because people who weren’t happy in school are not going to be happy in HE. What can the university do? Send them for training on being part of an organisation. Even if you gave them no teaching, one module a year, they’d still moan.

Emotional suppression and erosion of wellbeing

To function in the current climate, lecturers disclosed emotional suppression. One participant recorded ‘a complete disconnect’, and adopting a mentality of cycles of ‘just turn up and you gather your bits and pieces, you shuffle off to a room and then sort of unpack everything. You are hurried in and out … no real connection.’ Another noted: ‘We have to mask as a profession’, divulging that ‘being emotional means you’re not professional … people will look at you in a particular way. Perhaps you’re weak, you can’t do your job.’ Watts and Roberston (2010) explain that emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and dissatisfaction lead to burnout, making our findings relevant. As one participant summarised the current situation:

You can’t survive. What we’re doing it’s not sustainable. There’s no wellbeing factored in. It’s just a churn of work, work, work, and eventually you get burned out or you feel you can’t keep this momentum up.

Professional implications

‘Without consideration of the voices of lecturers, sustainability in this role is under threat.’

Without consideration of the voices of lecturers, sustainability in this role is under threat. Although this study is limited to England, Lofthouse (2025) calls for professional and relational agencies among teacher educators, student teachers and mentors to create a more sustainable ITT climate. Perryman et al. (2025) reinforce this with a large-scale study in England proposing increased autonomy to reduce fear of surveillance. However, questions remain about the feasibility of such a shift. International readers may want to consider the following questions:

How is emotional wellbeing supported in teacher education programmes spiritually or otherwise?

How do relationships between lecturers, student teachers and mentors shape emotional experiences?

Future research might explore cross-national comparative studies on emotional labour and burnout among teacher educators to identify systemic factors that promote or hinder sustainability.

References

Leutwiler, É. C. V., de Amorim-Ribeiroa, E. M. B., & Grangeiro, R. (2024). The emotional labour of higher education teachers: A scoping review. International Journal of Emotional Education, 16(2), 37–56. ÌýÌýÌý

Lofthouse, R. (2025, April 9). Ready for a new turn in teacher education? ½¿É«µ¼º½ Blog. /blog/ready-for-a-new-turn-in-teacher-education

Perryman, J., Bradbury, A., Calvert, G., & Kilin, K. (2025). ‘A tipping point’ in teacher retention and accountability: The case of inspection. British Journal of Educational Studies, 73(2), 181–200.

Watts, J., & Robertson, N. (2011). Burnout in university teaching staff: A systematic literature review. Educational Research, 53(1), 33–50.