Critical Management Studies (CMS)

In this era of complex and ambiguous societal and economic environments, self-awareness and management of emotions are emerging as strong differentiators for generating leadership presence, employee engagement, well-being and higher performance. We invite chapters for this edited volume that looks at how teachers can heighten their own emotional intelligence skills in order to convey – through role modelling and focused class curriculum - the imperative for future leaders to work on their own emotional self-awareness and social skills.

Honing self-awareness of faculty and future business leaders

Emotions connected with teaching & learning

Editors: Payal Kumar, Tom Culham, Richard J Major & Richard Peregoy

Publisher: Emerald Publishers

Emotional experiences are part of our everyday lives, and yet we have traditionally preferred not to acknowledge these either in the workplace or in the higher education sector. Even when the topic of emotions in the classroom is addressed this has been done so largely by education and psychology scholars, rather than management scholars. Yet, effectively preparing 21st century managers in business schools and other higher education institutions calls for teachers to not only be able to deal with the manifestation of emotions that frequently arise in the classroom, but also themselves develop heightened emotional intelligence skills in order to convey the imperative for future leaders to work on their emotional self-awareness and social skills.

Why should management scholars be concerned about managing and developing emotions in the classroom? Teaching in all ancient traditions, has been based on the exemplarity of the teacher, for students to be immersed in, observe, and be inspired by. The term immersed in refers to the understanding that teacher's unexpressed emotions are contagious and sensed unconsciously by students (Goleman, 2002). The teacher's own positive emotions contribute to student learning and can have long-lasting effects on the value of learning perceived by students, while the teacher's negative emotions such as anger or anxiety can negatively impact students.  This suggests there is an ethical obligation of teachers and leaders to develop their EI (Culham, 2013).

Furthermore, emotion management and self-awareness are a crucial as part of the training of the student for future leadership positions. Self-awareness is critical to personal, team and organizational performance according to authentic leadership research (Taylor, Wang, & Zhan, 2012), while emotional intelligence is seen to be a foundation of leader self-awareness (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2008). Teachers are in a unique position to encourage students to introspect and let their emotional consciousness grow largely through experiential learning techniques. For this it is essential that teachers themselves develop an ability to introspect, to gain awareness of their emotional states, and be able to deal with positive and negative affect in the classroom. After all, dealing with emotional situations is the litmus test of an evolved level of inner awareness, critical for managers to operate with a positive impact.

The literature so far has dwelt on origins of emotions in the education environment, which include analyzing student and teacher emotions. Researchers have also studied the antecedents for such emotions such as student stress, misbehaviour, relationships, and also the effects of these on instructional effectiveness (Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014; Schutz & Pekrun, 2007). Furthermore, a number of articles address the question of EI in higher education (Bair, Bair, Mader, Hipp, & Hakim, 2010; Hagenauer & Volet, 2014; Landau & Meirovich, 2011; Mazer, McKenna-Buchanan, Quinlan, & Titsworth, 2014; Meyers, 2010; Ramana, 2013). Also, the importance of developing the business student's emotional intelligence to contribute to learning virtue ethics has been acknowledged (Culham, 2013). So too has dealing with emotions as a means to develop wisdom and virtue for both educators and students (Culham & Lin, 2020).

While scholars have emphasized the pedagogical need to build emotional messages into course delivery and the curriculum (Cavanagh, 2016; Kumar, Kepell, & Lim, 2019), the literature so far does not provide the way forward in terms of rigorous pedagogical tools for teachers to raise self-awareness of students in the classroom. Nor do studies address in detail how teachers ought to develop their own EI to manage classroom emotions and role-model emotional maturity for their students. As management science researchers, in an era of complex and ambiguous societal and economic VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) environments, we believe the time has come to emphasize self-awareness and management of emotions as a strong differentiator for generating employee engagement, well-being and performance, and hence the need for this book.

References

Bair, M.A., Bair, D.E., Mader, C.E., Hipp, S., & Hakim, I. (2010) Faculty Emotions: A self-study of teacher educators. Studying Teacher Education, 6:1, 95-111, DOI: 10.1080/17425961003669490

Cavanagh, S. R. (2016). The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. West Virginia University Press.Culham, 2013

Culham, T.E. (2013). Ethics education of business leaders: Emotional intelligence, virtues and contemplative learning. In J. Lin, R. Oxford, (Eds.) Book Series: Transforming Education for the Future. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

Culham, T., & Lin, J. (2020). Daoist Cultivation of Qi and Virtue for Life, Wisdom, and Learning (pp. 59-164, 175-199). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Goleman, D. & Boyatzis, R. (2008). Social intelligence and the biology of leadership. Harvard business review. 86(9):74-81, 136

Hagenauer, G., & Volet, S.E. (2014). "I don't hide my feelings, even though I try to": insight into teacher educator emotion display. Australian Educational Researcher, 41, 261 - 281.

Kumar, P., Kepell, M.J., & Lim, C.L. (2019). Preparing 21st Century Teachers for Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM) Pedagogies. IGI Global.

Landau, J.C., & Meirovich, G. (2011). Development of Students' Emotional Intelligence: Participative Classroom Environments in Higher Education. The Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 15(3): 89-104

Mazer, J. P., McKenna-Buchanan, T. P., Quinlan, M. M., & Titsworth, S. (2014). The Dark Side of Emotion in the Classroom: Emotional Processes as Mediators of Teacher Communication Behaviors and Student Negative Emotions. Communication Education, 63(3), 149–168. doi:10.1080/03634523.2014.904047

Meyers, S. A. (2003). Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Conflict in College Classrooms. College Teaching, 51(3), 94–98. Published online: March 2010. doi:10.1080/87567550309596419

Pekrun, R., & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (2014). International Handbook of Emotions in Education, NY, NY: Routledge

Ramana, T.V. (2013). Emotional Intelligence and Teacher Effectiveness - An analysis. Voice of Research. 2(2), 18-22

Schutz, P.A., & Pekrun, R. (2007). Emotion in Education - A Volume in Educational Psychology. Elsevier.

Taylor, S. N., Wang, M., & Zhan, Y. (2012). Going beyond self–other rating comparison to measure leader self‐awareness. Journal of Leadership Studies, 6(2), 6–31. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21235

We invite chapters on the three themes below (other themes may also be considered):-

A.     Socio-historic traditions on teachers as role models

1.       A historical perspective of teachers as role models

2.       The role of emotions in learning, life and wisdom accordingly to spiritual traditions.

3.       Traditional cultures that integrate the emotional component into experiential education

B.      How to manage emotions and raise self-awareness for teachers

i.                     The views of neuroscientists and positive psychologists on the role of emotions in learning, life and wisdom.

ii.                   Literature review on the education literature on emotions.

iii.                 Tools for teachers to enhance their self-awareness

C.     How to manage emotions and raise self-awareness for students

i.                     The need for pedagogical innovation

ii.                   Why emotions deserve pedagogy just as reasoning does; and what are the variety of pedagogies that can be used.

iii.                 Artistic education addressing emotions (e.g theatre, poetry, dance, use of improvisation).

iv.                 Qualitative and/or quantitative research demonstrating the efficacy of emotion pedagogies.

v.                   Case studies of effective and ineffective pedagogies.

Timelines

Send your abstracts to payalk1@gmail.com