There is something magnetic about passionate people. You can hear it in their voice when they start talking about the thing they love. Even if the topic itself isn’t that interesting to you, their enthusiasm pulls you in. It can be the same with teaching, too. Whether you are standing at the front of the room or sharing digital space, a passionate teacher’s classroom just feels different.
My high school English teacher was charismatic like that. Ms. A. wasn’t trendy or nurturing or really very relatable in the usual sense. She could be blunt. She complained with delicious sarcasm about the curriculum and her colleagues. But she loved literature so completely that even the most reluctant students couldn’t help being drawn in. She called us her scholars. She meant it. And every time she said it, I felt myself sit up a little straighter. A scholar! Me? I liked the sound of that.
She talked about books and poems like they were old friends and sprinkled literary quotations into ordinary conversation. “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons,” she would exclaim as she stirred her mug of tea. When a chronically-late troublemaker sauntered in with elaborate excuses, she waved them out again: “It is a tale told by an idiot,” she pronounced, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” We laughed and we listened up.
I didn’t really recognize it at the time, but what my teacher was doing was modeling what it looks like to be genuinely passionate about something in front of other people. And that modeling is more important than you might think.
Research suggests that passion in teaching isn’t just part of an eccentric teacher’s personality. It is a mix of three connected things:
- A love of the subject;
- A belief in the impact of teaching; and
- A genuine care for the students themselves.
Students can tell when those things are there and when they’re not. Passion is pretty hard to fake, and even harder to sustain over time if you’re just acting it out — especially when you’re teaching online and not enjoying the energy of seeing students face-to-face every day. When teachers have to pretend to love the content, the job, or even the students in front of them, the work becomes draining, and students tend to respond by disengaging. But when the passion is real, something different happens. Not only do students feel it when we really love what we teach, that feeling is actually contagious. Researchers applied a psychological lens called “emotional contagion theory” to education and concluded that “a teacher’s work passion can be transferred to a student’s work passion indirectly via emotional contagion” (Gilal et al).
Many of us came into teaching through paths that are pretty mundane — an opportunity that opened at the right time, work-from-home flexibility, pressure from a parent or spouse, or the allure of summers “off.” Even for those of us who did feel that strong pull at first, that feeling naturally changes over time: According to research, a teacher’s passion almost always dips mid-career. 2
The reasons for this are complex and varied, but one relatively simple factor is that teaching is emotional labour and emotional labour is hard work. Teachers, whether in-person or online, are expected to be endlessly patient, encouraging, engaged, and engaging, even on an empty tank, and eventually, how we feel inside and how we present ourselves to students aren’t lining up anymore. That’s a hard place to be in.
Of course, even the most devoted and genuinely passionate teacher experiences times when he or she has to force it. I remember noticing this happen with my high school English teacher once or twice, and when it did, it felt like the lights had gone out. On one memorable occasion when that same disruptive student had pushed Ms. A. a touch too far, she pointed to the door and shouted, “Out!” The silence that followed was awkward until one of my classmates timidly added, “Out, damned spot!” and our bedraggled teacher’s face lit up. She was back.
So, the good news is that passion isn’t something we either have or we have to fake. It’s something we can identify, tend, and return to as needed.
Here are a few strategies I’ve found helpful:
- Remember Why You Fell in Love, or Why You Stayed
Passion is tied to purpose. What drew you to this work in the first place? What was thrilling to you about chemical equations or tectonic shifts or the rhythm of a line of poetry? Was there a teacher you were once inspired by and wanted to be like? If the beginning feels too far away to remember, think about why you stayed. There have probably been moments throughout your career that made the work you do feel worthwhile. Whatever your reason is, revisit it often.
- Let Yourself Geek Out—Loudly
Find the part of your subject that still excites you and share that excitement out loud, even if it feels awkward. It will require some courage on your part, and an ability to tune out smirks and eyerolls, but even five minutes of authentic enthusiasm can be contagious and more impactful than an hour of forcing it. Remember, students have radar for what is real. I’ve actually had students say, “I really don’t like Shakespeare, but seeing how much you love it makes me want to.”
- Notice Passion Wherever It Shows Up
Emotional contagion can happen in reverse, too. Students are going to bring their own interests with them to class, and those interests can become unexpected points of connection you can draw inspiration from. One of my students emailed me during the World Series because he wanted to share his excitement about the Blue Jays with me, his English teacher. Passion recognizes passion, and when you make space for it and respond to it, it is surprising how it circles back.
- Change Something Small
When teaching starts to feel flat, remember that teaching is creative work. So, switch things up. That might mean saying yes to an unusual idea, offering students a different way to demonstrate their understanding, or experimenting with a style you haven’t used before. I once worked with a student who was struggling to understand Ophelia in Hamlet, and no amount of passionate lecturing on my part was going to make her interested. We ended up imagining a “Get Ready With Me” video (a social media trend that offers a behind-the-scenes look at an influencer’s daily routine) from Ophelia’s perspective. Through that lens, the character suddenly came to life for my student.
- Allow Yourself an "Off" Day
On days when your passion feels like it is miles and miles away, all the strategies in the world won’t help. Sometimes, the most practical thing we can do in that situation is to be vulnerable. It’s okay to let the students see that you’re a human being (within professional boundaries). It’s okay to shift things now and then into student sharing, discussion groups, partner work, independent study, etc., when you’re just not feeling it. You don’t have to be at your best every day to still be good at what you do.
- Feed the Part of You That isn't a Teacher
It can be hard to be passionate about anything at all when you’re feeling depleted. But what feeds you personally will also feed your teaching. What inspires you as a person? Make time for those things. Go to a play, take a hike, write a poem, do sudoku, or listen to music that moves you. Taking care of yourself changes what you can give to your students. It’s simple, but it’s true.
Two decades later, I still think fondly of my Grade 12 English teacher and the way she made literature come to life. I’m not as bold or eccentric or quotable as she was, but I call my students “my scholars.” And I mean it.
Passion in life isn’t constant, and it’s not constant in teaching, either. Research has found that it exists in the interplay between the subject we love, our belief in our work, and our care for our students. When one of those aspects is challenged in some way, the work can start to feel difficult and burnout isn’t far behind. But when we tend to it, it can be contagious to our students and contribute to the longevity — and the quality — of our tenure as teachers.
About the Author
Heather Smid
M.A. (English Literature)
Chen, Hui. “The Effect of Teaching Motivation on Teacher Burnout: The Mediating Role of Emotional Labor Strategies.” Journal of Education and Educational Research, drpress.org/ojs/index.php/jeer/article/view/34582?utm_. Accessed 22 Apr. 2026.
Gilal, Faheem Gul, et al. “Association between a Teacher’s Work Passion and a Student’s Work Passion: A Moderated Mediation Model.” Psychology Research and Behavior Management, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 23 Sept. 2019, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6765213/?utm#S0005.
1 See research by Gilal et al on emotional contagion in education.
2 This is a common finding in research on teacher burnout.
3 See discussion of emotional labour and burnout in teaching in Journal of Education and Educational Research.
