A Study On EFL Teacher’s Emotional Labor Strategy In Secondary Schools From The Ecological Perspective

In the research field of teaching,interests have been continuously directed toward teacher emotional labor.Although researchers have examined the status quo and factors of emotional labor,most studies mainly focused on teacher’s emotions from the individual perspective.Scant attention has been paid to the interaction between the individual and the environment from the ecological perspective.Meanwhile,there is insufficient research on EFL teacher’s emotional labor at the secondary school level which is junior and senior high school,especially during COVID-19.In the research method,current research is dominated by qualitative and quantitative methods and is deficient in studies of the mixed method.This study aims to explore the status quo and factors of secondary school EFL teacher emotional labor strategy from the ecological perspective.The research mainly concentrates on the following three questions.(1)What are the most common emotions of secondary school EFL teachers?(2)What is the status quo of secondary school EFL teacher’s emotional labor strategy?(3)What are the factors of secondary school EFL teacher’s emotional labor strategy from the ecological perspective?To solve the problems,a mixed-method study was designed and conducted on EFL teachers in secondary schools.The Teacher Emotional Labor Strategy Scale and semi-structured interview were combined to examine teacher’s emotional labor strategy.213 teachers in different secondary schools in Sichuan participated in the questionnaire.After being analyzed by SPSS 25.0,the results demonstrated the EFL teacher’s common emotions and the status quo of their emotional labor strategy.To further examine the factors of EFL teacher’s emotional labor strategy,six teachers volunteered to participate in the interview,revealing the influence of the individual and the environment factors.The findings of the research can be concluded as follows.First,EFL teachers in secondary school generally perceive more positive emotions than negative ones.Among all emotions,happiness,love,loss,and anxiety are their most frequent emotions.Second,in the adoption of emotional labor strategy,deep acting is EFL teacher’s favorable strategy,followed by the expression of naturally felt emotions and surface acting strategies.Third,EFL teacher’s emotional labor is significantly correlated with factors situated in different layers of the ecological system framework,namely the microsystem,mesosystem,and macrosystem.In the microsystem,personality,beliefs,identity,and teaching experience have different impacts on EFL teacher’s emotion.In the mesosystem,the three pairs of relationships affect teacher’s emotional labor,including the teacher-student relation,teacher-parent relation,and teacher-colleague relation.In the macrosystem,the school and COVID-19 indirectly influence the adoption of teacher ’s emotional labor strategy.Based on these findings,implications for teachers,schools,and the nation were proposed to alleviate EFL teacher’s emotional labor,hoping to shed light on the pedagogical practices and future studies on teacher’s emotional labor.