Keyword: teaching practicum

ABSTRACT: Teacher emotion has garnered increasing scholarly attention as a critical catalyst shaping professional performances and sustained professional development. This qualitative case study, anchored in Resilience Theory, investigated the emotional experiences and regulation strategies of Vietnamese pre-service EFL teachers during a school-based teaching practicum in the Mekong Delta region. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with ten pre-service teachers and five teacher mentors and analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings uncovered a spectrum of participants’ emotional fluctuations influenced by teaching responsibilities, feedback from stakeholders, and administrative tasks. Participants reported emotional uncertainty in dynamic real-life teaching settings, a feeling of being overwhelmed caused by multiple roles, and emotional conflicts in professional identity formation. To regulate these complex emotions, participants employed agent-based and antecedent-based emotional regulation strategies. These strategies aimed at mitigating self-doubt, cultivating emotional resilience, optimizing teaching practices, and fostering their sustainability in the teaching profession. These findings subsequently shed light on the emotionally intensive nature of the practicum and call for the integration of emotion-based assistance to enhance pre-service teachers’ overall well-being. Pedagogical implications were also proposed to advise relevant stakeholders to better their teacher education and training programs.