A Contrastive Study Of The Emotion Labor Strategies Between Novice And Expert EFL Teachers In Senior High School

In the wake of China’s development entering a new era and a new journey,education has been given a strategic priority.China’s Education Modernization 2035(2019)establishes the overall goal of promoting the modernization of education,which proposes higher requirements for the qualifications of teachers.The process of education and teaching involves not only the imparting of knowledge and skills but also rich emotional activities,requiring teachers to have certain emotional competence.However,insufficient attention is attached to the cultivation of teachers’ emotional competence,especially emotion labor.Under this background,focusing on the development of teachers’ emotion labor,this study explores and compares the current situation of emotion labor strategies use between novice and expert EFL teachers in senior high school,and attempts to seek out the underlying factors that contribute to different emotion labor performances.This study mainly answers the following three research questions:1.What is the current situation of emotion labor strategies used by novice and expert EFL teachers in senior high school?2.What are the differences in the use of emotion labor strategies by novice and expert EFL teachers in senior high school?3.What are the underlying factors that contribute to the differences?To address the above research questions,this study adopts mixed methods.Aiming to answer the first two research questions,the researcher obtained the data on the use of emotion labor strategies by novice and expert EFL teachers through a questionnaire.A total of 150 valid respondents,respectively 69 novice teachers and 81 expert teachers were engaged.For the third research question,the researcher constructed a theoretical framework guided by Emotion Regulation Theory and Ecological Systems Theory and invited 5 novice teachers and 5 expert teachers to participate in semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling,following the principle of voluntariness.Through the processing and analyzing of quantitative and qualitative data,this research concludes the following findings.First,imbalances exist in the use of emotion labor strategies by novice and expert teachers.Specifically,novice teachers have the highest recognition for expression of naturally felt emotions,followed by deep acting,and finally surface acting.Among them,the scores of expression of naturally felt emotions and deep acting are significantly higher than that of surface acting.The order of recognition of the three major strategies by expert teachers is consistent with that of novice teachers,and the score of expression of naturally felt emotions is significantly higher than that of deep acting and surface acting,and the score of deep acting is significantly higher than that of surface acting.Second,comparing the scores of the two groups of teachers,it is found that the scores of deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions of expert teachers are significantly higher than that of novice teachers,and the surface acting of novice teachers is significantly scored higher than that of expert teachers.Third,individual factors that contribute to these differences include emotional intelligence,teaching practice,teacher identity,and teacher beliefs;organizational factors include job autonomy,coworker support,and supervisor support;sociocultural factors include teacher authority and emotional rules.Based on the findings,the study proposes implications from three aspects:teachers,school organization administrators,and pre-service teacher education.In detail,teachers should deepen their understanding of the significance of emotional competence and emotion labor strategies;school organization and management should create an equal and democratic organizational atmosphere and establish a positive emotional development community;pre-service teacher education should introduce courses related to the cultivation of teachers’ emotional competence and emotion labor literacy,and invite front-line teachers to carry out workshops according to the emotional challenges faced by teachers in the early stages of career.