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Language Teacher Emotion in Relationships: A Multiple Case Study

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Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century

Part of the book series: New Frontiers of Educational Research ((NFER))

Abstract

This chapter explores language teachers’ emotions through a multiple case study of three novice EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers working in a secondary school in the People’s Republic of China. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with the teachers, it examines their accounts of emotional experiences in relations with students, colleagues, parents and administrators. Following Hargreaves’ framework of emotional geographies (2001a Emotional geographies of teaching. Teach Coll Rec 103:1056–1080), the chapter discusses the five dimensions of teachers’ emotional geographies with others. It is argued that political distance, as decided by social hierarchy, sets the emotional rules for teachers’ interactions with others; moral distance, usually shared with colleagues but not with parents and students, could be narrowed by care, tolerance and communicative strategies; and that physical closeness could be achieved by means of virtual communication. The findings highlight the recognition of social hierarchy in understanding teacher emotion, the importance of interactive strategies in improving their professional relationships, and the urgent need of care for teachers’ emotions in the workplace.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    TESOL refers to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

  2. 2.

    To protect the real identity of the EFL teachers, all personal names, Jun, Song and Min, and the name of the school are fictitious.

  3. 3.

    San Xia Xiang is a voluntary activity popular on campus of universities, which refers to three ways to contribute to the countryside and one of which is voluntary teaching.

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Acknowledgments

 I acknowledge the support provided in part through Funds of Social Sciences for Young Researchers in Guangzhou (No. 11Q22), Funds of Excellent Young Research Nurturing Program of Guangdong Province (2012WYM-0057), Funds of China National Social Sciences (No. 11BYY042) and Funds of Key Research Centers on Humanity and Social Sciences, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of English and Education, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China

    Yueting Xu

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  1. Yueting Xu
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Correspondence to Yueting Xu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Teacher Education Research, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China

    Xudong Zhu

  2. College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Kenneth Zeichner

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Xu, Y. (2013). Language Teacher Emotion in Relationships: A Multiple Case Study. In: Zhu, X., Zeichner, K. (eds) Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century. New Frontiers of Educational Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36970-4_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36970-4_22

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