Research on teachers’ emotion display and the quality of the
teacher-student relationship in higher education is increasingly
significant in the context of rapidly developing internationalization in
higher education, with scholars (and students) moving across countries
for research and teaching. However, there is little theoretically
grounded empirical research in this area, and the different research
strands remain relatively unconnected. The present study aimed to
address this gap. Psychological, educational and cross-cultural theories
were brought together to investigate the interplay of emotion display
and the quality of the teacher-student relationship from a teachers’
perspective and across “cultural-educational” context. Given that social
interaction, and the mores and norms associated with emotions display
are often culturally underpinned, this study explored how
university teachers in two so-called “individualistic” countries with
different educational systems displayed positive and negative emotions
in their teaching and what they perceived as an ideal teacher-student
relationship. Australian (N = 15) and German (N = 9) university teachers
in teacher education were interviewed. The study revealed that while both groups viewed
the open expression of positive emotions as integral to teaching, and
negative emotions to be controlled based on their understanding of
professionalism, significant group differences also emerged. While the
Australian teacher educators reported higher and more intense expression
of positive emotions their German counterparts reported more open anger
display. Subtle yet noteworthy difference in the TSR quality between
the two groups of teachers also emerged. The findings of this study have
implications for research and practice in international higher
education.