Abstract

School is a central arena for a wide amount of emotions. Previous research on academic emotions has, however, mainly focused on achievement, engagement and teaching, situated in classroom. The social embeddedness, as well as different learning environments of school, continue to be neglected in the research literature. Our study focuses on examining socially embedded academic emotions in school, including emotions described in peer interactions and in teacher-pupil interactions. Furthermore, the aim of the study was to investigate socially embedded academic emotions situated in both informal and formal learning environments. In the study, we combine both qualitative and quantitative methods by using picture tasks and questionnaires. In total, 146 sixth and eighth graders participated in the study. The results of our study showed that the interaction between teachers and peers is a central arena for pupils’ described socially embedded academic emotions in school. Furthermore, our study emphasizes the role of an informal learning environment as an important setting for socially embedded academic emotions. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.