Faith - Based Teacher Emotional Experiences: A Case Study of a Veteran English Lecturer in China

Abstract

Abstract The exploration of links between faith and second language pedagogy has been underexplored, and the emotional experiences of English language teachers of religious faith are even less studied in applied linguistics circles. This qualitative case study is an effort to address this gap in the research by investigating the faith-based emotional experiences of May, a veteran English lecturer practicing Buddhism in China, by drawing on multiple data sources that include interviews, classroom observations, WeChat conversations, student evaluations, and researcher journals. Our findings revealed that (1) May’s emotional experiences were strongly driven by and deeply derived from her Buddhist faith and other aspects of identity in the classroom; (2) her faith-based emotional experiences were dynamic and fluid; (3) her faith-based identity occupied a central position alongside her professional identities and had a transformative influence on both her emotional experiences and her identity development; and (4) the interactions among her emotional experiences, multiple identities, and pedagogical praxis were complex and reciprocal. The research implications, limitations and future directions are also discussed.