Emotional labour and professional development in ELT

Abstract Building upon the concept of emotional labour, this study explores one pre-service teacher’s emotional responses to her internship teaching experiences. Interviews, observations, and self-reflection statements revealed that her emotional struggles and tensions were generated, in part, from dissatisfaction with what she experienced as a gap between her theoretical understanding and the reality of ELT and with the perceived unfair practices and negative attitudes towards English learners. The student teacher’s efforts to manage her emotions in and out of the classroom became her emotional labour, and her emotional awareness of and resistance to what she perceived as negative attitudes towards her students evoked a deeper emotional reflexivity, which led to her emotional and professional growth. The results suggest that a student teacher’s understanding of her own emotions in relation to teaching may serve as a catalyst for problematizing practices and construct/transform teacher identity, leading to important implications for teacher education.