A Study On The Emotional Labor Experience Of Rural Teachers

In the context of comprehensively strengthening the rural teaching staff in the new era,rural teacher studies have become research hotspots.However,these studies generally focus on the development of rural teacher in terms of knowledge,skills,and abilities,rather than emotion.Emotional labor is defined as how rural teachers make an effort to manage their emotions and expression to achieve educational goals according to the emotional rules held about the teaching profession.This study draws on the principle of “returning to things themselves”(aufdie Sache selbst zurueckgehen)of phenomenological pedagogy,which broadened research horizons for rural teachers’ emotional labor.In this study,firstly,we collected rural teachers’ experiences of emotional labor through dialogue interviews and educational observations in the actual education contexts,based on the lived-experience methods.Next,we demonstrated rural teachers’ experiences of emotional labor using the expression of naturally felt emotion,surface acting,and deep acting strategies as they interact with students,parents,and colleagues.And then,through phenomenological reflection,we explored the themes of rural teachers’ emotional labor experiences and interpreted their meanings.The results pointed out that the need for role identity,individual needs,and maintain face are the sources of rural teachers’ emotional labor.The “on stage” and backstage,the objects of interaction,the reality of helplessness,and the development of their careers affect rural teachers’ emotional labor in various ways.And emotional labor affects rural teachers positively or negatively in four ways: spatial,physical,temporal,and interpersonal.Thus,in order to improve the emotional labor of rural teachers,our suggestions are as follows.Firstly,society should narrow the urban-rural gap in educational resources and create a favorable atmosphere of respect for teachers to promote rural teachers’ professional identity.Secondly,schools should promote a people-oriented management system and create an emotional care support system to stimulate rural teachers’ positive emotions.Thirdly,rural teachers should unify professional roles and themselves,cultivate emotional wisdom in educational practice to move toward continuous professional development based on emotion.