"I've Become What I'm Trying to Fight...": Classroom Language Navigation as Emotional Labor

• In Event: Examining Language Policies to Identify Opportunities for Equity

Abstract

Much recent research examines how teachers navigate language policy in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) classrooms (Cervantes-Soon et al., 2017; Palmer & Martínez, 2013). While previous work has illustrated that teachers' language use is varied and related to identity, little research has considered the role of emotions in this setting (Benesch, 2020). Drawing on data from a year-long ethnography with five, first-year DLBE teachers, this paper tracks emotions produced as teachers made decisions regarding language in their DLBE classrooms. Drawing on multiple interviews and more than 500 hours of classroom observation, I demonstrate that language policy navigation was a form of emotional labor (Benesch, 2012). Furthermore, I link this emotional labor to the teachers’ emergent critical awareness of classroom power dynamics.

Author

• Rachel Snyder Bhansari, Portland State University