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Developing a taxonomy of teacher emotion labor through metaphor: personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural angles

  • Peter I. De Costa ORCID logo , Sedigheh Karimpour ORCID logo EMAIL logo and Mostafa Nazari ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: September 13, 2023
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Applied Linguistics Review
From the journal Applied Linguistics Review Volume 15 Issue 6

Abstract

Emotion labor is a multidimensional construct that plays a key role in teachers’ emotional knowledge and emotional development. However, little empirical research has focused on such multidimensionality of emotion labor at personal, institutional, and sociocultural levels. The present study aimed to fill this gap by drawing on metaphors and integrating data from Iranian English language teachers through open-ended questionnaires, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews. The analyses of the data revealed that the teachers used metaphorical language to display their negative emotions against the relational power that shaped their professional emotions and practices. Moreover, the teachers deployed such metaphors to represent the clashes between external power relations and their internal feelings. Our findings demonstrate the rigor and relevance of metaphor in capturing emotion labor. As a consequence, we present a taxonomy that can serve as a heuristic for institutional stakeholders to engage in closer scrutiny of teachers’ emotion work and the power relations that shape such work.

Keywords: emotion labor; metaphor; personal level; institutional level; sociocultural level; Iranian English language teachers
Corresponding author: Sedigheh Karimpour, Department of English, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran, E-mail:

  1. Research funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

  2. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Appendix A

Questions about expectations.

Please write about the expectations that you have of yourself. Please use a metaphor to characterize each of the expectations.

Please write about the expectations that colleagues have of you. Please use a metaphor to characterize each of the expectations.

Please write about the expectations that policymakers have of you. Please use a metaphor to characterize each of the expectations.

Please write about the expectations that students have of you. Please use a metaphor to characterize each of the expectations.

Please write about the expectations that parents have of you. Please use a metaphor to characterize each of the expectations.

Please write about the expectations that the society and culture have of you as a teacher. Please use a metaphor to characterize each of the expectations.

Appendix B

Among my own expectations, I consider ……………………… as the highest expectation of myself. This is because it is (talk about the emotional aspects of the expectation) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. The reason I characterized this expectation through the metaphor of ………… is because …………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………….

Among the collegial expectations, I consider the ……………………………… as the highest expectation. This is because it is (talk about the emotional aspects of the expectation) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. The reason I characterized this expectation through the metaphor of ………………………… is that ……………… ………………………………………………………………….

Among the policymakers’ expectations, I consider the …………………………… as the highest expectation. This is because it is (talk about the emotional aspects of the expectation) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. The reason I characterized this expectation through the metaphor of ………………………… is that ……………… ………………………………………………………………….

Among the students’ expectations, I consider the …………………………… as the highest expectation. This is because it is (talk about the emotional aspects of the expectation) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. The reason I characterized this expectation through the metaphor of ………………………… is that ……………… ………………………………………………………………….

Among the parents’ expectations, I consider the …………………………… as the highest expectation. This is because it is (talk about the emotional aspects of the expectation) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. The reason I characterized this expectation through the metaphor of ………………………… is that ……………… ………………………………………………………………….

Among the social expectations, I consider the …………………………… as the highest expectation. This is because it is (talk about the emotional aspects of the expectation) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………. The reason I characterized this expectation through the metaphor of ………………………… is that ……………… ………………………………………………………………….

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Received: 2022-12-06
Accepted: 2023-08-20
Published Online: 2023-09-13
Published in Print: 2024-11-26

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  2. Research Articles
  3. Interactional features in second language classroom discourse: variations across novice and experienced language teachers
  4. English-medium instruction and impact on academic performance: a randomized control study
  5. ESL classroom interactions in a translanguaging space
  6. Motivation profiles of Chinese rural foreign language learners: link with learning strategy and achievement
  7. Translingual practice as a representation of heritage languages and regional identities in multilingual society
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  11. Investigating in-class and after-class boredom among advanced learners of English: intensity, interrelationships and learner profiles
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  14. Developing a taxonomy of teacher emotion labor through metaphor: personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural angles
  15. When women’s empowerment meets health communication: a critical discourse analysis of the WeChat official account “Health China”
  16. “I never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion”: unveiling EFL teachers’ perspectives about emotions in assessment
  17. How ‘good-enough’ is second language comprehension? Morphological causative and suffixal passive constructions in Korean
  18. The predictive effect of language achievement on multiple emotions in languages other than English: validating a distal mediation model based on the control-value theory
  19. Narratives of the self in bilingual speakers: the neurophenomenal space
  20. Uncovering English as a foreign language teacher resilience: a structural equation modeling approach
  21. Documenting students’ conceptual understanding of second language vocabulary knowledge: a translanguaging analysis of classroom interactions in a primary English as a second language classroom for linguistically and culturally diverse students
  22. Investigating translanguaging strategies and online self-presentation through internet slang on Douyin (Chinese TikTok)
  23. Collaboratively pursuing student uptake of feedback through storytelling: a conversation analytic study of interaction in team doctoral supervision
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https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0191
Keywords for this article
emotion labor; metaphor; personal level; institutional level; sociocultural level; Iranian English language teachers

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Interactional features in second language classroom discourse: variations across novice and experienced language teachers
  4. English-medium instruction and impact on academic performance: a randomized control study
  5. ESL classroom interactions in a translanguaging space
  6. Motivation profiles of Chinese rural foreign language learners: link with learning strategy and achievement
  7. Translingual practice as a representation of heritage languages and regional identities in multilingual society
  8. Pedagogical implications of translingual practices for content and language integrated learning
  9. Understanding micro-blogging users’ translanguaging in Chinese language play: a qualitative phenomenological approach
  10. Do teachers’ well-being and resilience predict their Foreign Language Teaching Enjoyment (FLTE)?
  11. Investigating in-class and after-class boredom among advanced learners of English: intensity, interrelationships and learner profiles
  12. Africatown in Guangzhou as geosemiotic assemblage: connecting multilingualism, store signs, and chronotopes
  13. “I’m not angry!”: language ideologies, misunderstanding, and marginalization among North Korean refugees in rural South Korea
  14. Developing a taxonomy of teacher emotion labor through metaphor: personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural angles
  15. When women’s empowerment meets health communication: a critical discourse analysis of the WeChat official account “Health China”
  16. “I never make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion”: unveiling EFL teachers’ perspectives about emotions in assessment
  17. How ‘good-enough’ is second language comprehension? Morphological causative and suffixal passive constructions in Korean
  18. The predictive effect of language achievement on multiple emotions in languages other than English: validating a distal mediation model based on the control-value theory
  19. Narratives of the self in bilingual speakers: the neurophenomenal space
  20. Uncovering English as a foreign language teacher resilience: a structural equation modeling approach
  21. Documenting students’ conceptual understanding of second language vocabulary knowledge: a translanguaging analysis of classroom interactions in a primary English as a second language classroom for linguistically and culturally diverse students
  22. Investigating translanguaging strategies and online self-presentation through internet slang on Douyin (Chinese TikTok)
  23. Collaboratively pursuing student uptake of feedback through storytelling: a conversation analytic study of interaction in team doctoral supervision
  24. Languages ontologies in higher education: the world-making practices of language teachers
  25. English loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese: false friend cognates and English vocabulary acquisition
  26. Artificial intelligence and posthumanist translation: ChatGPT versus the translator
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