Elementary teachers' emotional and relational expressions when speaking about disruptive and well behaved students

Elementary teachers' emotional expressions when speaking about disruptive students provide a previously unexamined source of classroom influence. The present study therefore examined how 47 elementary teachers spoke about their relationships with disruptive (n = 23) and well behaved (n = 28) students. Speech samples from classroom and support teachers were analysed for evidence of emotional and relational tone. Despite expressing similar relational closeness towards disruptive and well behaved students, classroom teachers expressed a more negative emotional tone (e.g. more frequent dissatisfactions) when speaking about disruptive students. Implications for the elementary classroom climate are discussed.