English language teachers’ emotion-bearing situations in a professional development course: a critical-ecological perspective

This study adopts a critical-ecological perspective and examines English language teachers’ emotion labour in a professional development course structured around sharing emotion-bearing situations (EBSs). Data were collected from 10 Iranian teachers via online discussion, reflective journals, and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses revealed that the teachers’ EBSs were connected to micro-level (classroom), meso-level (institution), and macro-level (society) particularities that came to influence their agency and emotional well-being through a discursive enactment of power. Moreover, the teachers engaged in surface and deep acting as well as the expression of naturally-felt emotions to mask and regulate their emotions relative to various participants and discourses. Based on the findings, we argue that EBSs are closely connected with the way history, culture, and power come to shape institutional performances and teachers’ attendant emotion labour. We discuss implications for teachers and teacher educators, and suggest ways to tap emotions within a socio-educational landscape to positively contribute to the overall emotional development of various stakeholders.