“I Can’t Even Look at Her!”: Negotiation of Emotional Labor in Teachers’ Discourse about Parents

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Abstract

This study examines how teachers negotiate emotional labor demands in professional development (PD) discussions about parent-teacher conflict. Drawing on Hochschild’s (1983) critical theory of emotional labor, we analyze discourse from a yearlong PD program in a public elementary school. Teachers debated whether to suppress anger, act indifferent, or develop empathy as they navigated complex relationships with parents. Findings reveal tensions between emotional self-regulation as a marker of professionalism and as a strategy for self-preservation. Teachers both resisted and reinforced emotional labor expectations. We argue that PD can be a site for critical reflection on teachers’ emotional labor and call for developing PD that supports open, humanizing discussions of emotional labor in teaching.

Authors

• Idit Fast, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Dana Vedder-Weiss, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev