Feeling paradoxes and teaching in struggles: A socio-political analysis of language teachers’ motivation and emotion labor

Teacher motivation is pivotal in creating engaging teaching and learning environments, enhancing students' learning outcomes, and is fundamental to teachers' professional commitment, psychological well-being, and resilience. Despite the increasing interest in EFL teacher motivation, there remains a considerable lack of in-depth exploration into the socio-political environments that shape and influence it. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring the link between language teacher motivation and emotion from a socio-political perspective. Focusing on three Chinese EFL teachers, the research utilized data from three rounds of semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and documents. Using a data-driven inductive approach, the analysis revealed three types of motivation: relational, bumpy, and adaptive, influenced by two feeling rules, namely, “Don't show negative emotions” and “Do show positive emotions.” The study discusses the potential and limitations of emotion labor as a motivator in language education and a richer understanding of feeling rules. Pedagogical implications are also discussed.