The Invisible Glue of the Classroom: How Group Emotional Intelligence Shapes Learning Environments in Greater Mumbai Secondary Schools

Group Emotional Intelligence (GEI) refers to the collective capacity of a group to manage emotional norms, regulate shared affective states, and sustain productive interpersonal dynamics. Unlike Individual Emotional Intelligence, which is a personal cognitive-emotional capacity, GEI is an emergent group-level property constituted by normative patterns of interaction. This study examines teacher perceptions of GEI among secondary school students in Greater Mumbai (N = 673), using a 25-item structured instrument operationalising Druskat and Wolff's (2001) six-factor model: Perspective Taking (PT), Interpersonal Understanding (IU), Confronting Norm Violators (CNV), Team Self-Evaluation (TSE), Creating an Affirmative Environment (CAE), and Proactive Problem Solving (PPS). Descriptive analysis revealed a moderately high overall GEI mean (M = 3.16, SD = 0.42) with strong internal consistency (α = .87). A statistically significant and large-magnitude gap was found between the highest-scoring subscale (CAE: M = 3.31) and the lowest (CNV: M = 2.85), with a paired t-test yielding t(672) = 20.68, p < .001, Cohen's d = 0.87. Psychometric analysis revealed that CNV demonstrated unacceptably low reliability (α = .41) and failed the AVE threshold (AVE = .354), with near-zero inter-item correlations, suggesting that the four CNV behaviours — exclusion, blame, accountability, and bias — represent culturally disaggregated phenomena in the Indian collectivist classroom context.