ISSN: 2782-893X
eISSN: 2799-0664
ISSN: 2782- 893X
—— This study researches the relationship between teachers’ emotional intelligence and their work performance and engagement, recognizing socio-emotional competence as a key factor for sustaining instructional quality and professional well-being. It pursued a descriptivecorrelational design, where data from public secondary school teachers were gathered using Likerttype instruments with established psychometric properties for both emotional intelligence and engagement; for work performance, official ratings were used. The instrument was expertvalidated and had excellent internal consistency estimates. Stringent ethical procedures were followed at data collection to ensure confidentiality and voluntariness of participation. Results revealed that teachers have moderate emotional intelligence, although marked by significant difficulties in emotional regulation and social-emotional awareness, and that their levels of engagement were generally low: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive. Despite these trends, teachers obtained very satisfactory performance ratings. Significant positive correlations emerged among emotional intelligence, engagement, and work performance, indicative of higher emotional competence translating to increased professional involvement and productivity. These findings point out the primordial role of emotional intelligence in shaping teachers’ motivation, well-being, and effectiveness. The present study concludes that developing the emotional competence of teachers is imperative in enhancing and sustaining engagement and performance and thus calls for a targeted, data-driven intervention framed within the current frameworks of professional development. Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Work Performance, Teacher Engagement, Socio-Emotional Skills, Professional Development