Too emotional to be capable? The changing nature of emotion work in definitions of ‘capable teaching’

doi:10.1080/02680930701625312

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Too emotional to be capable? The changing nature of emotion work in definitions of ‘capable teaching’

Journal Article•DOI•

Too emotional to be capable? The changing nature of emotion work in definitions of ‘capable teaching’

Gail Hebson¹, Jill Earnshaw, Lorrie Marchington¹•Institutions (1)

University of Manchester¹

25 Oct 2007-Journal of Education Policy (Routledge)-Vol. 22, Iss: 6, pp 675-694

TL;DR: This article used the concept of emotional labour to understand some of the changes that are ongoing in the teaching profession, using interviews with teachers who have had their capability questioned, in the majority of cases through the threat or implementation of capability procedures.

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Abstract: This article uses the concept of emotional labour to understand some of the changes that are ongoing in the teaching profession. While research has explored the impact of the new performance culture upon teachers’ work and identified a marginalisation of the caring and emotional aspects of teaching, the concept of emotional labour allows us to extend this argument. Using interviews with teachers who have had their capability questioned, in the majority of cases through the threat or implementation of capability procedures, this article draws upon newer conceptualisations of emotional labour to analyse some of the changes teachers are experiencing with the introduction of new accountability and performance systems. Utilising Bolton’s typology of different forms of emotion management in the workplace, we argue it is possible to recognise the distinctiveness of the emotion work carried out by teachers and identify why teachers’ emotion work is particularly vulnerable to the educational reforms associated wit...

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Journal Article•DOI•

Good teachers on dangerous ground: towards a new view of teacher quality and professionalism

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Raewyn Connell¹•Institutions (1)

University of Sydney¹

29 Sep 2009-Critical Studies in Education

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace models of the good teacher in Australia from the colonial-era good servant, through an ideal of the autonomous scholar-teacher, to contemporary lists of teacher competencies.

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Abstract: Ideas about what makes a good teacher are important in thinking about educational reform, and have come into focus recently. These ideas are contested and open to change. The first part of this paper traces models of the good teacher in Australia from the colonial-era good servant, through an ideal of the autonomous scholar-teacher, to contemporary lists of teacher competencies. The second part looks more closely at the incoherent but insistent way the good teacher is now defined under neoliberal governance by teacher registration authorities. The third part of the paper makes proposals for a new understanding of good teachers: based on understanding the labour process and occupational dynamics of teaching, the intellectual structure of Education studies, and the overall logic of education itself.

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386 citations

Cites background from "Too emotional to be capable? The ch..."

...Further, teaching involves a great deal of emotion work (Hebson et al. 2007, Connell 1985)....
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...A frightening recent study of "capability" proceedings in English schools, concerning teachers charged with failing to perform their duties to a professionally acceptable standard (Hebson et al. 2007), shows the systemic risk....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Emotional labour, burnout and job satisfaction in UK teachers: the role of workplace social support

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Gail Kinman¹, Siobhan Wray², Calista Strange¹•Institutions (2)

University of Bedfordshire¹, Oxford Brookes University²

30 Sep 2011-Educational Psychology

TL;DR: The authors examined relationships between emotional labour, burnout, and job satisfaction in a sample of UK teachers and found that social support mitigates the negative impact of emotional demands on emotional exhaustion, feelings of personal accomplishment and job satisfactio...

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Abstract: Although teaching has been described as a profoundly emotional activity, little is known about the emotional demands faced by teachers or how this impacts on their well-being. This study examined relationships between ‘emotional labour’, burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment) and job satisfaction in a sample of UK teachers. Also examined was whether workplace social support moderated any relationships found between emotional labour and strain. The relationship between job experience and emotional labour was also investigated. Six hundred and twenty-eight teachers working in secondary schools in the UK completed questionnaires. Significant associations were observed between emotional labour and all outcomes, with a positive relationship found between emotional labour and personal accomplishment. Some evidence was found that social support mitigates the negative impact of emotional demands on emotional exhaustion, feelings of personal accomplishment and job satisfactio...

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273 citations

Journal Article•

On the front line: Organization of work in the information economy

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Wendy Larner¹•Institutions (1)

University of Bristol¹

01 Aug 2000-Journal of Sociology

146 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Teacher Wellbeing in Neoliberal Contexts: A Review of the Literature.

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Renae Acton¹, Patti Glasgow•Institutions (1)

James Cook University¹

18 Aug 2015-Australian Journal of Teacher Education

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the importance of teacher wellbeing as an intentional inclusion in both the professional development of practising teachers and within pre-service teacher education programs, which will empower teachers to better negotiate these imposed systemic constraints.

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Abstract: There is an increasing awareness that the wellbeing of a workforce is an important consideration in any organisation. Within the context of education, possibilities for supporting teacher wellbeing are mediated by neoliberal policy technologies that are incongruent with key aspects of wellness. Reviewing the literature, it appears there is value in prioritising teacher wellbeing as an intentional inclusion in both the professional development of practising teachers and within pre-service teacher education programs. This inclusion will empower teachers to better negotiate these imposed systemic constraints. Education for teachers regarding key facets of wellbeing - including managing emotional labour and the importance of professional social networks - is found to be essential in retaining and sustaining the teaching profession, thus enabling greater possibilities for professional flourishing.

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136 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Emotion work and emotional exhaustion in teachers: The job and individual perspective

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Gérard Näring¹, Peter Vlerick², Bart Van de Ven²•Institutions (2)

Radboud University Nijmegen¹, Ghent University²

01 Feb 2012-Educational Studies

TL;DR: In this article, the authors assessed the relative importance of job demands and emotional labour in predicting emotional exhaustion and found that emotional exhaustion is positively associated with emotional job demands, whereas emotional labour explained only 5% of the variance.

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Abstract: Teaching requires much emotion work which takes its toll on teachers. Emotion work is usually studied from one of two perspectives, a job or an individual perspective. In this study, we assessed the relative importance of these two perspectives in predicting emotional exhaustion. More than 200 teachers completed a questionnaire comprising the DISQ (Demand‐Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire), the Dutch Questionnaire on Emotional Labour (D‐QEL), and the UBOS (Utrechtse Burnout Schaal [Utrecht Burnout Scale]). In line with previous studies, our findings indicated that emotional exhaustion is positively associated with emotional job demands and surface acting. The relative importance of the two operationalisations of emotion work was assessed by comparing the results of two regression analyses. Whereas the model with job demands explained 18% of the variance, the model with emotional labour explained only 5%. In understanding what might contribute to emotional exhaustion in teachers, the emotional job ...

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124 citations

Cites background from "Too emotional to be capable? The ch..."

...The emotion work that teachers are expected to perform increasingly seems to mirror the emotion work that is seen in the service sector because it is also increasingly prescribed (Hebson, Earnshaw, and Marchington 2007 )....
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References

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Book•

The Managed Heart

[...]

Arlie Russell Hochschild

01 Jan 1983

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain how the forest service socializes firefighters to understand risk and evaluate the degree to which firefighters accept this socialization process, demonstrating that they are trained to view firefighting as an activity dangerous only for the incompetent and explores how this position holds up when confronted with the death of a firefighter.

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Abstract: This chapter offers insight into how organizations shape workers' perceptions in such a way as to ensure that they place themselves in harm's way and stand firm when things begin to fall apart. It explains how the forest service socializes firefighters to understand risk and evaluates the degree to which firefighters accept this socialization process, demonstrating that they are trained to view firefighting as an activity dangerous only for the incompetent and explores how this position holds up when confronted with the death of a firefighter. The training booklet features the ten standard fire orders and the eighteen situations that shout "watch out!" or simply the ten and eighteen. Accepting these rules requires accepting unspoken institutionalized principles that influence the way firefighters understand risk. The external eulogy holds firefighters to be innocent victims whose altruistic and sacrificial deaths can be explained simply by the violent and volatile nature of wildfire. By exaggerating individual deviance, the forest service erases risk.

...read moreread less

2,691 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity

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Blake E. Ashforth¹, Ronald H. Humphrey²•Institutions (2)

Concordia University¹, Wayne State University²

01 Jan 1993-Academy of Management Review

TL;DR: The authors argue that emotional labor may facilitate task effectiveness and self-expression, but it also may prime customer expectations that cannot be met and may trigger emotive dissonance and selfalienation.

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Abstract: Emotional labor is the display of expected emotions by service agents during service encounters. It is performed through surface acting, deep acting, or the expression of genuine emotion. Emotional labor may facilitate task effectiveness and self-expression, but it also may prime customer expectations that cannot be met and may trigger emotive dissonance and self-alienation. However, following social identity theory, we argue that some effects of emotional labor are moderated by one's social and personal identities and that emotional labor stimulates pressures for the person to identify with the service role. Research implications for the micro, meso, and macro levels of organizations are discussed.

...read moreread less

2,667 citations

"Too emotional to be capable? The ch..." refers background in this paper

...Fineman ( 1993 ) rightly points out that distinctions between ‘surface acting’ and ‘deep acting’ do not recognise that in teaching the displayed emotions are often consistent with how teachers are feeling and therefore teachers are not merely acting but engaged in ‘sincere emotion giving’ (see also Ashforth & Humphreys, 1993 )....
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Book•

Action research for educational change

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John Elliott

01 Jan 1991

TL;DR: Action research and professional learning: teachers as researchers - an historical and biographical context supporting professional learning through action research - three case studies as mentioned in this paper, and action research in policy contexts: action research and the emergence of teacher appraisal in the UK competency based training and the education of the professions.

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Abstract: Part 1 Action research and professional learning: teachers as researchers - an historical and biographical context supporting professional learning through action research - three case studies. Part 2 Action research - dilemmas and innovation: the theory/practice problem the fundamental characteristics of action research the dilemmas and temptations of the reflective practitioner a practical guide to action research. Part 3 Action research in policy contexts: action research and the emergence of teacher appraisal in the UK competency based training and the education of the professions - is a happy marriage possible ? the national curriculum and models of curriculum development.

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2,315 citations

"Too emotional to be capable? The ch..." refers background in this paper

...He draws upon Elliot’s ( 1991 ) distinction between teaching as technology and teaching as moral practice to show that both are needed in definitions of competence....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The emotional practice of teaching

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Andy Hargreaves¹•Institutions (1)

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education¹

01 Nov 1998-Teaching and Teacher Education

1,455 citations

"Too emotional to be capable? The ch..." refers background in this paper

...In the English context, the demands of the job mean it is becoming increasingly difficult for teachers to carry out the caring and emotional aspects of their work (Hargreaves, 1998)....
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...Hargreaves (1998) shows how educational reforms and the preoccupations with technical competence rarely look at the emotional aspects of teaching and he calls for recognition of this emotional labour in definitions of teaching and learning standards: ‘Teaching cannot be reduced to technical…...
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...In relation specifically to teaching, Hargreaves (1998) argues that Hochschild’s definition does not recognise the more positive aspects of emotional labour....
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...The performance culture and rationalised reform agenda seems to deny the emotional ‘soft’ aspects of teaching, and writers have recently emphasised the need to put emotions at the centre of what it means to be a good teacher (Nias, 1996; Hargreaves, 1998; Day, 2004)....
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...Hargreaves ( 1998 ) shows how educational reforms and the preoccupations with technical competence rarely look at the emotional aspects of teaching and he calls for recognition of this emotional labour in definitions of teaching and learning standards: ‘Teaching cannot be reduced to technical competence or clinical standards....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Thinking about Feeling: the emotions in teaching

[...]

Jennifer Nias¹•Institutions (1)

University of Plymouth¹

01 Nov 1996-Cambridge Journal of Education

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the emotions in teaching and the role of emotion in teaching, focusing on the feeling of the teacher's emotions in the teaching process and the student's emotions.

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Abstract: (1996). Thinking about Feeling: the emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education: Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 293-306.

...read moreread less

738 citations

"Too emotional to be capable? The ch..." refers background in this paper

...The performance culture and rationalised reform agenda seems to deny the emotional ‘soft’ aspects of teaching, and writers have recently emphasised the need to put emotions at the centre of what it means to be a good teacher (Nias, 1996; Hargreaves, 1998; Day, 2004)....
[...]
...The performance culture and rationalised reform agenda seems to deny the emotional ‘soft’ aspects of teaching, and writers have recently emphasised the need to put emotions at the centre of what it means to be a good teacher (Nias, 1996 ; Hargreaves, 1998 ; Day, 2004 )....
[...]