Emotional Intelligence of Teacher Educators

Character development is to be the foundation of a society wherein, selfishness, violence and out of control emotions tear apart the goodness of day to day life of people. Our children have to be taught the ability to read emotions in others, to value others’ needs, to care for fellow human beings, to show compassion and to exercise self-restraint. These are qualities that possess proven benefits and are relevant to and appreciated in all human societies. An individual who has control over urge of emotions will be able to take another person’s perspective, which leads to tolerance and acceptance of differences. These capacities are crucial in an increasingly pluralistic democratic world. This can lead to the development of a community wherein people live together in mutual respect and peace. Working on the emotions for positive gain, and encouraging emotional growth of children in classroom has become more crucial now than ever before. Researches show that academically successful people had higher levels of emotional competencies. For helping students to acquire the skills of emotional competencies, in the first place, teachers need to be trained in Emotional Intelligence, to manage their own emotions and those of others. Emotional Intelligence is as relevant for teacher educators as it is for the teachers and learners. The present study assesses the Emotional Intelligence level of teacher educators of Barak Valley region in the Indian state of Assam. The results show that the group under study possessed average Emotional Intelligence. The gender and locality of the teacher educators did not make any differential influence on their Emotional Intelligence.