“The More, the Merrier; the More Ideas, the Better Feeling”: Examining the Role of Creativity in Regulating Emotions among EFL Teachers

2.1 Teacher’s Creativity

Creativity is believed to be a characteristic of a qualified English language teacher (Meihami, 2022). Therefore, rather than teaching sequential blueprinted ELT textbooks, creative teachers underwent individualized teaching styles by regulating and moderating their lessons to fulfill the individual needs of their learners. Thus, teachers should avoid repetition, which “kills creativity” (Aldujayn & Alsubhi, 2020). Similarly, teachers’ creativity is embedded in divergent thinking, seeing everything “out of the box” and striving for new thoughts regarding many correct answers rather than one absolute answer (Papalazarou, 2015). In this vein, uncreative teachers follow the traditions and do the routines, but creative ones think about regulating and tackling unanticipated questions and situations (Calafato, 2024; Constantinides, 2015).

When considering teacher creativity, it is critical to have an overview of the different bounds between teaching and creativity (Calafato, 2024). Beghetto (2017, p. 549) believed that “creative teaching, such as other forms of teaching, is a complex and multi-form activity.” Therefore, Beghetto (2017) defined three forms of creative teaching. The first form is teaching about creativity, aiming to prepare learners with a science about creative nature and help students comprehend such phenomenon. The second was teaching for creativity, pinpointing the improvement of creative thought, developing resources for creative problem solving, and teaching frameworks and maxims of creative thinking. The third form is teaching with creativity, which views creativity as an approach to teaching (Szmidt & Majewska-Owczarek, 2020) as an observable act of teaching rather than its product. Such relationships between teaching and creativity help teachers create a creative attitude toward their behaviors and emotions, such as risk-taking, learning from students’ mistakes, and utilizing distinct ideas.

Until now, almost a balk of research has foregrounded and studied the role of creativity in the cognitive domain, but scant research has delineated the role of creativity in the affective domain, specifically in teachers and teacher education programs (Chemi et al., 2017; Meihami, 2022). In this line, Hirt, Devers, and McCrea (2008) stated that happy people use creative thinking to regulate their positive moods. Overall, various theories, including Fredrickson’s (2004) “broaden and build” theory, have highlighted the importance of positive emotions in promoting original and creative ideas and performances.

In our study, we adopted a psychometric approach to define creativity, as proposed by Guilford (1967). According to Guilford (1967), creativity comprises several components, such as fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. These components are associated with the generation of ideas and the quality of those ideas. Fluency is the ability to produce a large number of ideas. It is believed that a fluent mind can generate more ideas. Flexibility refers to the generation of ideas that are diverse in nature. A flexible mind can produce ideas of different types to address a problem. Originality refers to the novelty of the idea. Lastly, elaboration refers to the ability of individuals to broaden and develop their ideas within a specific category of responses (Guilford, 1975). In the current study, we tried to see how EFL teachers’ creativity in terms of fluency, flexibility, and elaborateness helped them regulate their emotions. It is critical to note that we did not deal with originality due to the methodological problems in describing the novelty of the ideas.

2.2 Teachers’ Emotion

Emotion is an umbrella term that includes the physiological, psychological, and ecological features of every human being, which involve changes in blood pressure, heart function, and fluctuation of body temperature, further accompanied by personal interpretations (Cuéllar & Oxford, 2018). Although emotion is a prevailing research debate in second language teaching, an overlook of teachers’ emotions in research history is predominant (Cuéllar & Oxford, 2018). Teaching is an emotionally invested enterprise (De Costa, Rawal, & Li, 2018). Considering the complex essence of emotions (Cuéllar & Oxford, 2018), it can be argued that L2 teachers’ emotions emerge from the shadows. No definite definition has yet been determined as a full-fledged campaign assertion about teachers’ emotions. Teacher emotions have been spotted as the limestone of teaching (Hargreaves, 1998). In addition, it has notable influences on the teaching and learning process.

In Fredrickson’s (2004) “broaden and build” theory, positive emotions extend the individuals’ choices and build fruitful and conducive skills and capacities. Nevertheless, negative emotions hinder human productivity and victimize its aptitude. However, the broaden and build theory rebukes negative emotions and separates them from positive ones. Studies in L2 acquisition indicate that positive and negative emotions are not completely detached (Cuéllar & Oxford, 2018). A negative emotion (e.g., anxiety) and a positive emotion (e.g., enjoyment) emerged together in many female participants in Dewaele and MacIntyre’s (2014) study. According to Caruso and Salovey (2004), one emotional state can change into another. For example, a bitter experience from a low exam mark may lead to disappointment, aggressive manners, and depression, or it may lead to a tendency to prosper in future exams (Meirovich, 2012). The critical point, however, is that it is unclear how teachers’ creativity can help them regulate their emotions.

2.3 Teachers’ Emotion Regulation

Teachers withstand distinct positive and negative effects in every educational context. Jiang, Moreno, and Ng (2022) stated that experiencing happiness is common when teachers observe learners fully grasp the course material. They feel a sense of contentment when learners achieve high marks in their evaluations, yet they might be disappointed and demotivated when learners show a lack of interest in the material. Then, teachers’ emotion regulation can be defined as a teacher’s ability to handle these positive and negative emotions (Gong, Chai, Duan, Zhong, & Jiao, 2013; Taxer & Frenzel, 2015). In fact, regulating emotional experiences is the main ground for teachers’ success (Wang & Hall, 2021). Teachers utilize different strategies to regulate their emotions (Taxer & Gross, 2018). For instance, teachers use preventive/responsive strategies to regulate their emotions to decrease a student’s disruptive behaviors. Preventive strategies (Hepburn, Beamish, & Alston-Knox, 2021; Paramita, Sharma, & Anderson, 2020) stress prohibiting students’ inappropriate behaviors by creating constructive relationships, building classroom guidelines, and setting a secure class environment (Karasova & Nehyba, 2023). Research studies have supported preventive strategies as they lower disruptive behaviors and lessen conflict situations in class environments. Further, preventive strategies engage and motivate language learners and increase their successful performances (Clunies‐Ross, Little, & Kienhuis, 2008; Hepburn et al., 2021). Preventive regularity strategies can be postulated as prohibitive and use a positive approach to classroom discipline (Clunies‐Ross et al., 2008).

Responsive strategies are those that teachers use straight and immediately to respond to a student’s behavior (Karasova & Nehyba, 2023). These strategies involve unfavorable penalties, rebuking, threatening, shouting at students, and making fun of them (Paramita et al., 2020). Responsive strategies are inherently healing. Implementing responsive strategies in a student-centered approach can positively impact student behavior (Karasova & Nehyba, 2023). However, teachers are more interested in addressing a negative mood, so the student’s inappropriate behavior will increase. In the current study, we followed emotion regulation strategies (Figure 1) proposed by Gross (1998a,b, 2015). According to this model, two main types of strategies for regulating emotions are antecedent-focused (preventive), which we called proactive, and response-focused (responsive), which we called reactive strategies in this study. Teachers use antecedent-focused strategies to prevent emotions from arising in the first place. These strategies involve choosing or changing the situation, directing attention, and modifying thoughts. Response-focused strategies, on the other hand, are used after emotions have already been generated. They aim to increase, decrease, prolong, or shorten the current emotional experience, expression, or physiological response. Gross (2015) suggested that emotional responses can be modified by changing emotions’ physiological, experiential, or behavioral aspects.

Figure 1

Emotion regulation strategies (Adopted from Gross, 1998a,b, 2015).

3.1 A Descriptive Narrative Design

Narrative research originated from a variety of humanistic fields of study. It stresses individuals’ reports and narratives (spoken/written) about their lives (De Fina, 2015). It has been claimed to be an appropriate qualitative approach to obtaining every part of human life stories and experiences (Ary, Jacobs, Irvine, & Walker, 2018). A descriptive narrative design was used in this research to explore the role of creativity in Iranian EFL teachers’ emotion regulation in classroom situations. In the first step, we clarified the concept and then highlighted the concepts of teachers’ creativity, emotions, and emotion regulation. In the second stage, we used convenient sampling. Convenient sampling was used to collect data with topic-related knowledge and information from the available teachers. We used a convenient sampling, as the goal is not to generalize the result to other populations but to have a strong viewpoint about individuals, events, and a phenomenon (Omona, 2013). Further, these participants were available and interested in the research topic (Omona, 2013). In the third step, the participants produced their autobiographical narratives in Persian or English in an oral format. In the fourth step, we sorted out the narratives based on the collected data from narrators according to their experience, place of teaching, etc. Then, in the fifth step, we discussed the narratives with related participants. In the sixth step, we used MAXQDA 20 to scrutinize and explore the narrative reports according to the rules of deductive thematic analysis. At last, we pointed to the research rigors: credibility, transferability, and dependability.

3.2 Participants

In general, the sample sizes in qualitative studies should not be too small, making it tough to obtain saturation (Omona, 2013). At the same time, the sample should not be too large, making it difficult to have a deep, case-oriented analysis (Sandelowski, 1995). Consequently, the participants of this research consisted of eight Iranian EFL teachers, including five novice and three experienced teachers, who accepted our request and delivered their autobiographical narratives about using creativity to regulate their emotions in the class environment. To select the novice and experienced EFL teachers, we followed years of teaching experience through which EFL teachers with less than five years are considered novice teachers, and those who have more than five years of teaching experience are believed to be experienced teachers (Tsui, 2005). The EFL teachers who participated in the study were teaching English in schools and institutes.

3.3 Data Source: Autobiographical Narrative

Autobiographical narratives are valuable vehicles for understanding the teachers’ autobiographical mind (Given, 2008). The prospect of an autobiography is not just re-storying the past incidents but interpreting the meaning. This way, we could have access to explore the teachers’ reports of their practices related to the usage of creativity in tackling their emotions in challenging situations in the classroom. It also reflects on teachers who made such decisions in similar situations (Hooper, 2022). To this end, we requested the participants to explain their stories about using creativity to regulate their emotions before/after conflicting situations in their classes. We followed the “fully formed” narrative model proposed by Riessman (2008), according to which there are different components, including the abstract (addressing the overall points regarding creativity in their classes), orientation/introduction (identifying how they use creativity to regulate their emotions), complicating action (providing information about the changes and modification in their teaching after using creativity to regulate their emotions), evaluation (evaluating the overall role of creativity in regulating emotions), resolution (the overall conclusion), and coda (finalizing their narratives with any specific anecdote, experience, etc.). It is critical to note that the participants were asked to follow at least three main parts of “fully-formed” narratives, including introduction, complicating action, and evaluation.

3.4 Data Analysis: Deductive Thematic Analysis

Deductive thematic analysis was used to investigate the autobiographical narratives reported by the EFL teachers (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The thematic approach is fruitful and prevailing for finding prevalent and joint thematic elements through research participants and the events they narrate (Braun & Clarke, 2020). In this vein, pre-determined deductive coding was conceptualized, and we looked for similar categories between collected data from participants’ autobiographical narratives. To address the deductive nature of the thematic analysis, the codes were assigned to emotion regulation strategies (Gross, 1998a,b, 2015) and Guilford’s (1967) creativity components: fluency, flexibility, and elaboration. To do so, we followed the stages of thematic analysis. The first stage was to create a closer perspective and viewpoint through collected data. In the first stage, we transferred the data into the MAXQDA 20 and frequently listened and re-listened the data. The second step was to extract initial codes. Therefore, we largely listened to the narratives and tried to search for the main points related to the participants’ reports. In the third step, we tried to collect the possible themes. In the fourth step, we named the themes. The history of research and related theories largely helped us in this stage.

3.5 Rigor of the Study

Addressing the rigor of the study is critical in qualitative research (Ary et al., 2018). In this vein, we indicated the credibility by asking two participants to evaluate the themes, descriptions, and discussions from their viewpoints. The participants’ insights enriched our perspective through the obtained results. Transferability is similar to external validity in quantitative research in that both refer to replicable features of the research findings in similar situations in the future and the generalizability of research findings to other contexts (Ary et al., 2018). We chose participants from different schools and the English language institutes of different cities in Iran through cross-case sampling. We also addressed dependability, which is equal to reliability in quantitative studies (Ary et al., 2018). We accented the dependability of the findings through inter-coder agreement. To do so, one by one, we went through the data analysis procedure to codify the narratives. The whole process was done through the Work tools of MAXQDA 20. The agreement between the two coders was 85%, indicating an appropriate degree.

3.6 Findings

The study explored the role of teachers’ creativity in teachers’ emotion regulation. In the first stage, the researchers used Code Matrix Browser (CMB) to see if the collected and analyzed data from the EFL teachers, both novice and experienced ones, included the pre-determined codes, which were creativity (encompassing fluency, flexibility, and elaboration) and emotion regulation strategies (encompassing the proactive and reactive strategies). We used CMB to determine if the data sources were assigned predetermined codes. This matrix allowed us to get a complete overview of how the codes were distributed across the data sources. MAXQDA generated a circle when we assigned a segment of the data containing a specific code to that code. The size of the circle grew in proportion to the number of segments assigned to the code. Figure 2 shows the findings of CMB.

Figure 2

The findings of code matrix browser.

Figure 2 shows that both experienced and novice teachers mentioned the pre-determined codes in the analyzed data. The findings of CMB illustrate similarities and differences between novice and experienced EFL teachers concerning the segments that they used to mention the codes. The circles, which qualitatively show how teachers referred to each code, are similar in size in almost all codes except for flexibility. Moreover, most segments in the data were about fluency related to creativity and selecting situations related to proactive emotion regulation strategies. Although CMB helps show us how teachers referred to the pre-determined codes, it does not show us how codes are associated; therefore, we used Code Map (CM) to see how the codes co-occurred together, helping us reach the final themes. The CM arranges selected codes in a visual format, placing codes that are commonly used together closer to each other. This proximity indicates that these codes have a similar pattern of usage within the given data. We analyzed the intersection of codes in a segment to determine the number of times two codes were assigned to the same segment. By doing so, CM allowed us to identify the associations between different components of creativity and emotion regulation strategies. Figure 3 shows the CM for the analysis of the data collected from novice EFL teachers.

Figure 3

The main themes addressed by novice teachers (Results of CM).

The co-occurrences shown in Figure 3 are due to the co-occurrences of the segments in the data collected and analyzed. We tried to reach the main themes using the co-occurrences and the revealing extracts in novice EFL teachers. The co-occurrences of elaboration and cognitive change lead to “elaborateness of the context to feel better,” showing that the novice teachers “[…] would feel better when [they] try to see the situation more in detail and explain it to themselves” (Narrative) which led to their “[…] better understanding of the situation and how to control emotions” (Narrative). Figure 3 also shows that the co-occurrences among modifying situation, selecting situation, fluency, and flexibility would lead to the theme “the more, the merrier; the more ideas, the better feeling.” It indicates that novice EFL teachers tried to address emotion regulation strategies such as selecting and modifying situations “[…] by having various ideas related to teaching methods, assessing procedures, and classroom procedures […]” (Narrative), which can help them “[…] set the atmosphere of the class in a way not to lead conflicts and negative emotions […]” (Interview). The third theme we reached was “the proactive and reactive strategies, hand in hand,” meaning that the novice EFL teachers tried both proactive and reactive emotion regulation strategies in their classes. The point concerning this finding and the theme is that they did not mention anything about their creativity while trying to use both types of strategies together. However, “[…] the combination of both [proactive and reactive] emotion regulation strategies need creativity” (Narrative) since they have to “[…] know how to combine them and which one should have the upper hand” (Interview).

We also analyzed the data collected from experienced EFL teachers to see how they used their creativity in using emotion regulation strategies. Figure 4 shows the main themes obtained through the co-occurrences of the codes.

Figure 4

The main themes addressed by experienced teachers (Results of CM).

As can be seen in Figure 4, there are two main themes. First, the co-occurrences of flexibility and selecting situations made the theme “varieties give a better feeling to teach.” Experienced EFL teachers believed that they had to “[…] be able to make different activities, tasks, and procedures for teaching, assessing, and learning in different contexts to regulate [their] emotions and feel better in their classes” (Narratives). They specifically focused on flexibility, meaning the variety in the ideas that they have to make to select positive situations to regulate their emotion. There is also a mega-theme with two directions concerning how experienced EFL teachers used their creativity to regulate their emotions: “many elaborated ideas will help with the positive emotions.” The first direction of this theme is about the many ideas (fluency) teachers tried to make to attention deployment, emotional expressions, and cognitive change. For instance, they tried “[…] to evade the negative emotion (attention deployment) through different verbal and non-verbal expressions (emotional expressions) […] or ideas to change the essence of the situation inside [them] (cognitive change)” (Narrative). Interestingly, experienced teachers tended to use elaboration to address the modifying situation, emotional change, and emotional physiological response. They believed that having many ideas and expanding them (elaboration) “[…] would help [them] regulate [their] emotions constructively through having various options […]” (Narrative), which in its own place “[…] lead to [their] ability to always have some coping strategies to make the negative emotions positive […]” (Narrative).

4.1 Elaborateness of the Context to Feel Better

The findings of the study revealed that novice EFL teachers tend to focus on elaborateness. Elaborateness refers to their tendency to expand and implement their ideas while regulating their emotions. This is because teacher creativity is not limited to finding absolute answers to a problem but instead involves coming up with new and unique thoughts (Papalazarou, 2015). By thinking creatively and “think[ing] out of the box” while regulating their emotions, novice teachers can use cognitive change to deal with different situations and phenomena in their classes effectively. This cognitive change helps them feel better while trying to regulate their emotions, especially negative ones. The ability to elaborate ideas is a critical skill that helps teachers implement their ideas successfully (Meihami, 2022). Therefore, the elaborateness of novice teachers can be instrumental in helping them finalize and implement their ideas while regulating their emotions.

4.2 The More, the Merrier; the More Ideas, the Better Feeling

We found that novice EFL teachers tried to generate various ideas to regulate their emotions in the classroom. They believed that relying on routine ideas and repeating them would not be effective in controlling their emotions. According to Aldujayn and Alsubhi (2020), repetition can “kill creativity.” Thus, having numerous ideas in different aspects was like an energy boost for novice teachers to manage their negative emotions. The study showed that they used their creativity to modify and select situations to cope with their emotions. This might be due to the fact that flexible and fluent teachers can be more open-minded, adaptable, and cognitively agile; thus, they can deal with their emotions more effectively. It can be argued that novice teachers attempt to come up with diverse solutions when regulating their emotions by addressing and modifying situations. Additionally, since flexibility and fluency are two indexes of creativity that are closely related, it can be concluded that teachers with flexible and fluent minds are more successful in managing their emotions. Therefore, the more ideas, the better.

4.3 The Proactive and Reactive Strategies, Hand in Hand

The findings of the study indicated that novice EFL teachers tended to use a combination of proactive and reactive strategies. Although these combinations do not go together with the three indexes of creativity (fluency, flexibility, and elaborateness), they highlight another aspect of creativity that the study did not address: complexity (Holland, 2014). This index of creativity suggests that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Richards, 2021). Therefore, it can be argued that by employing different emotion regulation strategies, both proactive and reactive, novice EFL teachers were able to find creative solutions to critical incidents in their classrooms. They believed they could combine principles from different strategies to effectively tackle emotions in their classes. Although the effectiveness of such combinations requires further research, it aligns with the complexity index of creativity, which suggests that such combinations could lead to a variety of ideas for managing emotions in classrooms.

4.4 Varieties Give a Better Felling to Teach

The results of the study on experienced EFL teachers suggest that they tend to use flexibility as a means to regulate their emotions by selecting a range of situations. This may be attributed to their higher levels of experience compared to novice teachers, as their accumulated knowledge provides them with various strategies to manage their emotions. The dynamic nature of creativity, which evolves with the accumulation of experience, supports this argument (Conner, DeYoung, & Silvia, 2018). Additionally, teachers with higher levels of experience are able to draw from their past experiences and knowledge to develop new behavioral patterns (Walia, 2019). Ultimately, experienced EFL teachers possess the capacity to generate numerous ideas encompassing various types of flexibility, enabling them to choose the most suitable situation to steer their class towards positive emotions and avoid any unpleasant ones.

4.5 Many Elaborated Ideas Will Help the Positive Emotions

The findings of the study revealed a mega-theme displaying the efforts of experienced EFL teachers to regulate their emotions through the elaboration of various ideas. Emotions have a multidimensional nature, as stated in emotion-related theories (Fredrickson, 2004; Oxford, 2015), and regulating them is not an easy task. Therefore, experienced EFL teachers tend to possess dynamic idea generation, making them fluent thinkers capable of activating their divergent thinking to view critical emotions from multiple perspectives instead of searching for a definitive answer (Papalazarou, 2015) when seeking emotional regulation. Specifically, experienced EFL teachers expand on the ideas they generate to regulate their emotions. This ability to generate numerous ideas and elaborate on them would enable teachers to take their time and implement various regulating strategies in their classes.