Be passionate, but be rational as well: Emotional rules for Chinese teachers’ work

Hong Biao YIN, Chi Kin John LEE

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

126 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Employing the concepts of emotional labour and emotional rules, the present study explored the emotional rules governing teachers’ work in the context of Mainland China. This showed that teachers can be seen as emotional workers in teaching and there are four emotional rules for Chinese teachers’ feelings and emotional expressions. For Chinese teachers, teaching contains a salient component of “heart-consuming” labour (caoxin). They rationally instrumentalise their emotional experience and expression to follow the professional and ethical norms in teaching. Because of this, the nature of teachers’ emotional labour and emotional rules in the context of Chinese culture is discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)56-65
JournalTeaching and Teacher Education
Volume28
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2012

Citation

Yin, H.-b., & Lee, J. C.-K. (2012). Be passionate, but be rational as well: Emotional rules for Chinese teachers’ work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(1), 56-65.

Keywords

  • Emotion
  • Emotional labour
  • Emotional rules
  • Teacher
  • Mainland China

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