The purpose of this paper is to support educators working with young children in developing techniques for demonstrating positive emotional intelligence (EI) through the use of literature. Educators need to have strong EI to create learning environments that are inclusive, just, and emotionally secure. Young children require role models who can exhibit healthy ways of dealing with, processing, and understanding emotions, a responsibility that early childhood educators hold significantly. This study is based on Salovey and Mayer's four-branch model of EI, which encompasses perceiving, expressing, understanding, and managing emotions. The main research question examines how pre-service teachers in early childhood education can effectively use literature to demonstrate emotional intelligence (EI) to young children. This action research study is rooted in a transformative paradigm and reflects the principles of social justice, empathy, knowledge democracy, and lifelong learning. Data was collected from reflective journal entries and analyzed through thematic analysis. To ensure accuracy and reliability, I sought peer feedback to discuss my findings. The study concludes that literature is a potent and successful pedagogical tool for nurturing EI in young learners, under the guidance of educators who possess high EI. In the absence of positive role models for emotional regulation, teachers need to have a high level of EI to demonstrate emotional development for their students effectively.

Keywords: Emotional intelligence for teachers, early learning emotional development, ECD teacher education, classroom literature as resource, healthy emotional regulation.