How Aeronautical Engineering Tutors Manage Their Emotions at Work

Author: Judith Hill

Supervisors: Jeremy Taylor Glenys Forsyth

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27 September 2026

Hill, J. (2026). How aeronautical engineering tutors manage their emotions at work [Master's thesis, Otago Polytechnic]. Research Bank. https://doi.org/10.34074/thes.7391

Abstract

The author’s 30 year global aviation industry business development experience, coupled with a later support role at an aviation tertiary organisation, gives her a unique insight into the conditions and behaviours of aeronautical engineering tutors managing their emotions within a complex organisation environment.
The in-depth critical literature review discusses emotions, emotional intelligence, emotional labour, reflective and reflexive practice, experiential and workplace learning, tutor identity evolving--merging technical and relational teaching alongside pedagogy development; cultural factors, individual self-actualisation for wellbeing and organisation sustainability.

With a qualitative methodology including the author’s autoethnographic worldview and positionality, semi-structured interviews and interpretive, reflexive thematic analysis revealed four key themes derived from participant inputs:
• Tutor pedagogy evolving
• The military workplace environment
• Tutor relationships with students
• Responses to emotions experienced

The study demonstrates that emotional intelligence skills underpin the self-directed professional efficacy tutors develop crucial to achieving their own wellbeing and learner success. Furthermore, it shows organisation sustainability is shaped by complex relationships between stakeholders.
These important findings are evidenced in the Tutor Ecosystem--an original and insightful framework developed by the author. The framework highlights the tensions present within the ecosystem, brought about through organisational hierarchy, rotation protocols and culture which appear to be misaligned in important ways with stakeholder values.

Several key insights are evident. Among these are: military hierarchy and rotation can restrict tutor pedagogy development; emotions and emotional intelligence are not simply attributes for individual wellbeing--emotion management cannot be viewed singularly as an individual skill, but must recognise the relationships, institutional systems and workplace cultures in which practitioners function; emotional intelligence practices are an indispensable suite of tools for personal and organisational sustainability; tutors are uniquely placed to model reflective practice knowledge-construction that will serve learners as they transition from academia to industry; and tutor value extends beyond teaching credentials to the specialist professional identity tutors develop within the workplace, and are critical to an organisation’s success.

Logically, recommendations support tutor pedagogy development through stronger tutor support, instructional-identity development to include reflective practice, emotional capability and mentoring. Organisations could provide clearer training objectives and improved values-alignment between stakeholders.
Overall, this study exposes emotional intelligence as an under-appreciated, under-utilised intellectual / emotional technology important for a highly technical, hierarchical and under-researched educational setting. On a broader scale, it provides a basis for discussion that could influence transforming complex human ecosystems for productive growth and flourishing, by prioritising emotional intelligence tools for personnel wellbeing.

Keywords

aeronautical engineering, emotional intelligence, tutor ecosystem, sustainability

Licence

This thesis is publicly available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International.  This licence applies except where otherwise indicated, especially for images. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/