A Notable Need for EI Among Students

In addition to be a counsellor, am I a part-time tertiary lecturer, involved with students primarily in their late teens to early adulthood stages of life. Since the content of the module I teach mainly focuses on self-reflection, I generally notice a definite gap in their level of EI competence, a low sense of self-worth, and a lack of self-esteem among a number of these students. From their perspective, most of them do not perceive (see) themselves as who they would like to be.

Consequently, they exhibit a hunger for aspects such as a sense of belonging, self-awareness, self-confidence, motivation, how they perceive others, a positive attitude and emotions, to be able to manage weaknesses and be aware of their strengths. Yet, I do notice a lot of courage, dreams, vision, and determination to create a better life for themselves. Students like these are our workforce of the future.

A study by Kadison and DiGeronimo (2004) reveals that college students experience significant challenges in areas of identity development, sexuality, finances, and relationships, succumbing to unhealthy coping mechanisms – resulting in high incidences of depression, anxiety, and sleep or eating disorders. Gliebe (2012) quoted Coppock, and Liau, Liau, Teoh, and Liau, who found that depression, stress, loneliness, anger, smoking, drinking, drug abuse, impulsivity, and aggressive behaviours are common among students with poor emotional health. She mentions that a growing number of educators are considering EI skills indispensable to education at every level. In the educational context, EI skills can be introduced as a preventative strategy in the promotion of emotional health, preparing students for a successful career, and setting them up for success. A study byFarooq, Riaz and Javid(2017) to investigate if there is any positive relationship between EI and academic success of MA English students, reveals that there is an overall positive relationship between emotional intelligence and academic success. Students with high EI had high academic achievement while those who had low EQ-I performed low in academics. Contributing to this

discussion, a study by Hagen (2012) claims that although there is an invaluable set of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills embodied in the EI construct

Equally, a study by Umaru and Umma, (2015) recommended that EI skills such as emotional self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, should be embodied in the school curriculum. They further

recommend that school principals, counsellors, psychologists, and subject

teachers should be exposed to training in these skills, as well. The implications for EI in education is thus growing.

Although in this role as an educator I am exclusively teaching subject content, I cannot stand indifferent to the notable lack of EI skills I observe among these students. Mentioning it, is therefore to reflect my own personal perception, but also intended to contribute to an understanding of this autoethnography in my experience as a professional person.

4.8 Conclusion

The discussion in this chapter is a testimony that reflects my experience of the impact of EI training in my life as a person and as a professional. Acquired EI knowledge and skills have added enormous value to the way I manage my life, whether I am on my own, in a social environment, or in my working role as a therapist. Comparing the feedback of the first EI evaluation I did, with the follow- up sometime later, reflected a significant improvement on how I carry myself in any given situation. Besides having much more confidence in my abilities, I feel comfortable, content and at ease. Being an analytical thinker, I prefer order, rhythm, and a systematic course of circumstances. Chaos makes me feel uncomfortable and confused. Having the ability to understand, identify, and to manage this in order to get back into balance again, was a great victory for me. It saves me a lot of time, energy, and inconvenience because I recognise it much sooner than before. I cannot deny the value of any of the sources of training that contributed to the knowledge I have now, as all were necessary and valuable. Pursuing a career in Psychology to understand the complexity of human nature, indeed offered answers to my questions.

However, it is from the NL program that I learned the most of myself and my personal relationship with fellow human beings. I can apply all aspects of the

program to my own life and experience every day how successfully it contributes to a better life. Together with other tests that provided insightful information about myself, the assessments on which this program is based was the decisive factor, as it analysed and described my personal neurological composition. The program is very personal because of its self-discovery qualities, as it revealed characteristic features that I was unaware of, features unique to me only. Something I could fully identify with and make my own. Such a comprehensive analysis of my neurological attributes, I have not found in any other assessment before. To understand some basic aspects of the tremendously complex functioning of the brain and how it interacts with the sensory system has brought a renewed

understanding of myself. This was dealt with in the first modules of the EI course. Together with the various aspects included in the remaining modules, it provides a well-rounded program based on the four legs of EI namely, self-understanding, self-management, social understanding, and management. As explained throughout this discussion, it equipped me with a workable knowledge that I positively incorporate into all aspects of my day-to-day functioning. Knowledge, without which I was definitely worse off. The social awareness modules offered valuable insight into the understanding of another’s truth to accurately interpret their behaviour.

CHAPTER 5

The Impact of Presenting the Emotional Intelligence Program

5.1 Introduction

In the previous chapter I explained how I experienced the Neuro-Link EI training program and the impact it had on me as a person and in my professional capacity as a therapist. In this chapter I will present the experiences of two EI facilitators named “Annie” and “Ben.” In doing so I will focus on the following:

• Their attitudes towards the program, from a personal and a facilitator’s point of view.

• Their perceptions of the sustainability of learnt skills.

The participants’ names in this chapter are pseudonyms, and as explained to them, their real identity will be kept confidential (see Appendix C).

As all my participants, in this and the following chapter, are Afrikaans-speaking the interviews were conducted in Afrikaans. For the discussion in this study,

interviews, and quotes were translated. Evidence from various sources such as interviews, documents, and case notes, were used.