The emotional work of being a teacher educator and persisting through a pandemic

Abstract

Dunbar and Baker (2014) identify the personal experiences of teaching as “emotional labor” based on Hargreaves (1998) “emotional practice” of teaching. We engaged in a collaborative self-study investigating the emotional work of teacher educators during a global pandemic. We examined the role of liaison in our context - university faculty working to support teacher candidates in school placements for a “professional year.” Liaisons serve in “boundary crossing” (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011) roles and negotiate stressors within multi-membership across contexts. The development of teacher educators would benefit from explicit attention to care, relationships, and negotiating boundaries in sites of clinical practice.