Navigating Ethical Tensions of Teachers’ Emotional Labor: Confucius with Noddings

• In Event: Engaging an Ethics of Care in Crises and Classrooms

Abstract

This paper examines the ethical tensions of teachers’ emotional labor by contrasting Nel Noddings’ feminist ethic of care with Confucian philosophy. Noddings’ “engrossment” (1988) positions care as relational responsiveness to marginalized students, challenging oppressive norms, while Confucianism (Lunyu, 1995) emphasizes moral exemplarity and communal harmony, prioritizing ethical duty over individualized emotionality (Lai & Lai, 2023). The juxtaposition reveals a paradox: care is both an ethical imperative and a burden, demanding educators balance equity advocacy with performative ideals of upright leadership. This paper interrogates how emotional labor, shaped by systemic inequities yet offering transformative potential, can be re-envisioned within conflicting cultural logics. It argues that unplanned affective encounters expose emotional labor’s duality: purposeful yet spontaneous, elevating pedagogy while exhausting educators. By reframing vulnerabilities as shared ethical reckonings, the study advocates integrating empathetic engagement with self-cultivation to foster sustainable teaching practices, mitigate burnout, and drive policy reform.

Author

• Tingjia Guo, Southern Illinois University