Commentary: exploring “the pinch” of emotion labor in language teacher research

Abstract

This brief Commentary examines how the nine articles in the Special Issue on Second Language Teacher Emotion Labor build on sociologist Arlie Hochschild's conceptualization of emotional labor as well as more recent poststructuralist orientations to language teacher emotion labor by scholars in applied linguistics. To that end, it focuses on two common themes that run throughout these articles: the effects of feeling rules on language teachers and the role of power and its beneficiaries. It discusses how the articles in this Special Issue expand and develop our understanding of language teacher emotion labor through applying it to new contexts by drawing on additional, complementary theoretical perspectives, and through using a broader range of research methods. Recommendations for future research are offered in the conclusion.