Emotional Labor as a Teacher Strategy

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  • 教師ストラテジーとしての感情労働
  • キョウシ ストラテジー ト シテ ノ カンジョウ ロウドウ

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Abstract

<p>This paper examines and presents the characteristics of the “emotional labor” of teachers by analyzing interviews with ten elementary teachers. Moreover, it discusses the notion that the emotional labor of teachers is a teacher strategy. The concept of emotional labor, introduced by Hochschild (1983), contends that the emotion of workers becomes commoditized when these acts are sold for a salary and thereby estranged from the individual. Although Hochschild emphasizes the negative aspects of emotional labor, I contend here that the emotional labor of teachers may have strategic aspects even if it is compulsory.<br><br>The differences between Hochschildʼs argument and that put forward by this author arise from two points. The first depends on the autonomy of work. The second depends on the aspect of emotional labor as a means by which teachers carry out their core classroom purposes. In this paper, I present a concrete analysis of the latter point.<br><br>In Hochschildʼs argument, the commercialization of feelings and their instrumentality are dealt with as identical things, but the two aspects should be distinguished. I insist that the emotional labor of teachers has an instrumental aspect rather than one of commercialization. That is to say, for emotional labor in teaching it is important to consider how teachers manage pupilsʼ emotions. Japanese teachers hope that pupils will grow up not only academically but also emotionally. In addition, a teacherʼs instruction is based on working on pupilsʼ feelings. Thus teachers need to manage both pupilʼs feelings and their own in order to build relationships in which the parties are linked together by emotional bonds in order to enable teachers to control classrooms.<br><br>Because of this, teachers are required to carry out emotion management of their work, and in this sense they constrain their emotional labor. However they carry out emotional labor strategically by changing the meaning of heteronomous emotion rules into valuable instruments for their pedagogical purposes. This strategic aspect of the emotional labor of teachers is a skill acquired in the process of socialization as teachers. Thus negative aspects do not reside in the characteristics of the emotional labor of teachers, but are caused by aspects (compulsory/strategic) which are emphasized when a teacher carries out emotional labor.<br><br>However, as Hochschild shows, emotional labor becomes negative and draining when poor working conditions make it impossible for teachers to perform their work well. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct further studies concerning the emotional labor of teachers in relation to the circumstances surrounding the teacher.</p>

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