Navigating Emotion and Agency in Study Abroad: Identity Journey Mapping as a Tool

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 4:15 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Becoming Teachers: Identity, Narrative, and Pedagogical Journeys

Abstract

This study investigates the emotional experiences of student teachers in a faculty-led, short-term study abroad program, where participants taught English as a foreign language in Korea. Framed through a poststructuralist lens and grounded in Benesch’s (2012) emotion labor, the analysis illustrates how emotion serves as a key dimension of teacher agency. Using identity journey mapping as a reflexive tool, the study reveals how emotion labor is inherently intertwined with sociocultural expectations and institutional discourses. Identity journey mapping facilitated reflection and dialogue, allowing participants to critically engage with identity negotiation across transnational contexts. The findings call for embedding emotional reflection in teacher education, positioning study abroad programs as affective and intentional spaces that foster empathetic, inclusive, and critically conscious educators.

Authors

• Hyesun Cho, University of Kansas

• Josh Hayes, University of Kansas