School principals' emotional labor strategies: A narrative perspective

This chapter concerns the emotional labor strategies adopted by school principals in their work life. The study investigated a sample of eight school principals in China using individual semi-structured interviews in which they talked about their narrative life stories for about 2 hours. Comparative analysis was utilized to deal with interview data. A rich picture of the emotional labor strategies adopted by these principals in handling their relationships with different main stakeholders, such as colleagues, students, parents and educational officers, was obtained. The results revealed that the principals showed empathy resonation but took the interests of the whole into account when interacting with colleagues, enlightenment which went beyond care when interacting with students, expressed empathy but remained firm when interacting with parents and hid negative emotions and faked positive ones when interacting with educational officers. Possible implications for principals' emotional capacity building are discussed. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Junjun Chen and Ronnel B. King; individual chapters, the contributors.