“It’s Frustrating”: EFL Novice Teachers’ Emotional Experiences in Online Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Abstract
Abrupt changes in the mode of instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused teachers to experience different demands and situations in their jobs. These changes have brought about emotional experiences that teachers have to tackle. This study aimed to explore how teachers have been emotionally affected and have regulated their emotions during online teaching. Two EFL novice teachers participated in this study and were requested to elaborate their emotional experiences and emotional labor strategies through reflective journals and in-depth interviews. Findings reveal students’ misbehaviors, unequal distribution of resources, and time management, largely attributed to the teachers’ emotional labor. These experiences made teachers feel frustrated, angry, and sometimes anxious that they needed to control their emotions in the best interests of their students, classes, and well-being. To cope with these emotions, the teachers employed such emotional labor strategies as surface acting, deep acting, and genuine expressing to better manage their emotional labor. The findings imply the needs to build up awareness in the teacher education program to address issues related to teachers’ emotional labor and cater for the inquiry of emotional regulation strategies in the programs.
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