Chinas far west program: An ecological exploration into student teachers' emotion labor in voluntary rural teaching practices

Abstract

This study examines the emotional landscapes experienced by student teachers participating in voluntary teaching practices within rural settings, specifically focusing on China's Far West Program (CFWP, Xibujihua). Grounded in an ecological perspective, this study unravels complex emotional incidents through semi-structured interviews with ten student teachers, which happened at micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono levels, and get intertwined with individual agency and ecological contexts. The findings highlight both static expressions and dynamic processes of voluntary educators' emotional experiences. “Proactively regulating emotions” and “passively being regulated” emerged as two predominant themes, calling for greater support for within rural voluntary teaching communities.