The role of emotion labor in English language teacher identity construction: An activity theory perspective

Abstract

Current scholarship on language teacher emotions and identity construction emphasizes the substantial role of contextual discourses and power relations in shaping teachers' professionalism. In line with this scholarship, the present study examined the role of emotion labor in Iranian English language teachers' identity construction. Grounded in activity theory as the conceptual underpinning, the study shows how institutional work functions as a regulatory mechanism for teachers' emotion labor and their multi-faceted identities. Data analyses indicated that the teachers' emotion labor and identity construction are shaped by institutional particularities in three dimensions: (1) emotion labor of managing conflicts in subjectivity and adopted identities, (2) emotion labor of dealing with tensions in caring for students and assigned identities, and (3) emotion labor of aligning agency with resisted identities. The findings reveal how the teachers engaged in and interpreted emotion labor in light of tools, goals, division of labor, and communities of practice that come to shape their multi-faceted identities. Based on the findings, we argue that gradual policy adaptation accounting for emotions and identities, rather than policy overhauls that may create resistance, would reduce institutional clashes and transform teachers’ management of emotions into a site of mutual emotionality, rather than a site of vulnerability.