Towards a developing construct in dance education – exploring the relation of emotional intelligence to teacher’s sense of efficacy and teaching experience among dance education student teachers in the United Kingdom

Theories of emotional intelligence (EI) have already been applied successfully in the field of education, and EI has been found to predict different aspects of teaching such as influencing teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs (TSEB). This study aims to explore potential associations between EI, TSEB, and length of teaching experience amongst dance education student teachers (DEST), enrolled on a dance science and education (DSE) Master programme in the United Kingdom (UK). A sequential mixed-methods design was applied, including both qualitative and quantitative methods to capture examples of emotional intelligent dance education students. Assessments through the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) and the teacher sense of efficacy scale (TSES) were administered to a sample of eight DEST. The results suggest a positive association between trait emotional intelligence, its subscales and teachers self-efficacy, and between the TEIQue total score and the length of teaching experience. Qualitative data were collected via a multiple case study, evaluating four cases among the participants. Three main themes have been investigated: dance background, teaching experience and self-efficacy beliefs, exploring further the findings from the preliminary analysis. Specific dance education student teacher development programmes have been suggested to enhance dance teachers’ emotional intelligence.