Abstract
The existing literature has established the effects of emotional labor on teachers’ wellbeing indicators and teaching efficacy, leaving its impact on students’ outcomes unexplored. Following Grandey’s integrative model of emotional labor and social-emotional learning (SEL) framework, this study explored the relationship between teachers’ emotional labor, teaching efficacy, and young children’s social-emotional development and learning in early childhood settings. Thirteen preschools were recruited through stratified random sampling in Shenzhen, China. Altogether, 49 classrooms were involved, and three teachers and six children were sampled from each classroom, resulting in a sample of 124 teachers and 241 children. Teachers’ emotional labor strategy, sense of efficacy, and children’s social-emotional development and learning were surveyed. Structural equation modeling has confirmed that teachers’ natural and surface acting predicted their teaching efficacy. Bootstrapped mediation analysis revealed that the mediation paths from teachers’ emotional labor to children’s learning approaches and social-emotional development varied significantly for teachers in different positions. The study implies that different guidelines and training are needed for teachers in different positions to help them cope with varied emotional labor at work and promote their teaching efficacy for young children’s better development.
Highlights
Published: 15 February 2022During the past decade, research attention has been paid to the impact of teachers’emotions, emotional labor, and emotion regulation on students’ achievement
This study aims to confirm the link by exploring the relationship between Chinese early childhood teachers’ emotional labor strategies and children’s learning qualities
This study took a step forward by examining the emotional labor of early childhood teachers from different positions and how it related to their teaching efficacy and children’s social-emotional development and learning
Summary
Published: 15 February 2022During the past decade, research attention has been paid to the impact of teachers’emotions, emotional labor, and emotion regulation on students’ achievement. As stated by the guest editors of this special issue, students’ social-emotional development and learning depend on schools’ professional capital, including teachers’ emotional and professional capacity [1,2]. This statement indicates that teachers’ well-being and social-emotional skills might be the key factors influencing students’ social and emotional development and learning. The existing studies have focused on primary and middle school teachers’ emotional labor and their students’ development; very few have focused on the association between early childhood teachers’ emotional labor and young children’s socialemotional development and learning [2,3]. To fill these research gaps, this study adopted Grandey’s integrative model of emotional labor and social learning theory [3,5,6]
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