Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Teaching and Teacher Education

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Be passionate, but be rational as well: Emotional rules for Chinese teachers’ work
Hong-biao Yin a, *, John Chi-Kin Lee b
a
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China
b
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education Studies, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Employing the concepts of emotional labour and emotional rules, the present study explored the
Received 21 February 2011 emotional rules governing teachers’ work in the context of Mainland China. This showed that teachers
Received in revised form can be seen as emotional workers in teaching and there are four emotional rules for Chinese teachers’
13 August 2011
feelings and emotional expressions. For Chinese teachers, teaching contains a salient component of
Accepted 16 August 2011
“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
Keywords:
teachers’ emotional labour and emotional rules in the context of Chinese culture is discussed.
Emotion
Emotional labour
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Emotional rules
Teacher
Mainland China

1. Introduction emotions according to the normative beliefs and expectations held

Since the mid-1990s, research into teacher emotion has been
increasingly central to the research into teaching (Day, 2004;
Hargreaves, 1998; Nias, 1996; Zembylas, 2004), teacher identity
(Day & Kington, 2008; Zembylas, 2003), teacher development
(Kelchtermans, 1996; Scott & Sutton, 2009), and teacher education
(Day & Leitch, 2001; Meyer, 2009). One of the results of the
increased research into teacher emotion is the recognition of the
relevance of emotional labour and emotional rules in a teachers’
work. As Day and Gu (2009) pointed out, one truth about teachers’
emotional worlds is that teachers’ observed behaviour, or
emotional expressions, may mask their feelings. In nature, the
effort that teachers pay to fake or “paint on” (Hochschild, 1983,
p. 33) affective displays reflects teachers’ emotional labour which
associates with student learning and school effectiveness as well as
teachers’ job satisfaction, health symptoms and burnout. As such,
research into emotional labour in teaching is becoming more and
more imperative today (Schutz & Zembylas, 2009).
In this study, emotional labour, a term coined by the sociologist
Arlie Hochschild (1983), is primarily defined as the process, applied
in the context of teaching, in which teachers make an effort to
inhibit, generate, and manage their feeling and expression of
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 852 3943 1213.
E-mail addresses: yinhb@cuhk.edu.hk (H.-b. Yin),
jcklee@ied.edu.hk (J. C.-K. Lee).
about the teaching profession (Hochschild, 1983; Wharton, 2009;
Winograd, 2003). These normative beliefs and expectations,
usually constructed collectively and organisationally, define the
emotional rules for teachers’ work, also reflecting “the side of
ideology that deals with emotion and feeling” in teaching
(Hochschild, 1979, p. 551). Schools are complex emotional arenas
where teachers are constantly assailed and regulated by the
emotional demands placed on them by their peers, students,
leaders, and parents (Sachs & Blackmore, 1998). To cope with these
emotional demands, teachers are required to do emotional labour
for both the successful delivery of teaching and smooth interaction
with people around them, following the social expectations of
teachers about the way of feeling and expressing emotions.
Recently, teachers’ emotional labour has attained a remarkable
amount of attention from educational researchers. These studies
show that the performance of emotional labour is related to
teachers’ understanding about the role of caring in teaching and
learning (Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006), the culture of the teaching
profession (Oplatka, 2007), and their perceptions of professional
identity (Lee & Yin, 2011; O’Connor, 2008). Power relations are
inherent in the emotional rules for teachers which permit them to
feel or express some emotions while prohibiting others (Zembylas,
2002, 2005), but the self-accusatory stance of teachers diverts their
attention from structural problems and power relations in their
working conditions (Winograd, 2003). Meanwhile, these emotional
rules have developed and come to partially define the teacher self
in tandem with three overlapping discourses, i.e., the teacher as

0742-051X/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2011.08.005
 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
moral agent, expert and purveyor of social efficiency (Kitching,
2009). Teachers’ emotional labour and emotional rules thus
reflect the socio-structural constraints on teachers’ role as well as
the agency in constructing their professional self and identity.
Failure to understand teachers’ emotional labour and emotional
rules may lead to incomplete understanding of the nature of
teachers’ work and their purpose in, struggles with, and commit-
ment to the teaching profession.
As Yik (2010) mentioned, both those seeking the universal
aspects of emotion and those seeking cultural differences in
emotion often turn to China for evidence because of its cultural
specificities. However, with but few exceptions (e.g., Lee & Yin,
2011; Yin & Lee, 2011; Zhang & Zhu, 2008), most studies on
teacher emotion have been conducted in western countries, and
there is a dearth of research on teachers’ emotional labour in
Chinese societies. Therefore, employing the concepts of emotional
labour and emotional rules as the basis for analysis, the present
study attempts to address this omission by exploring the emotional
rules governing teachers’ work in the context of Mainland China.
Based on this analysis, the nature of teachers’ emotional labour and
emotional rules in a Chinese cultural context is discussed.
2. Literature
2.1. The significance of emotion for teaching and teachers
There are now a considerable number of studies which focus on
the role of emotion in teaching and teachers’ lives. Rather than
taking emotion as a peripheral part of teaching, researchers on
teacher emotion have reached a consensus that emotion is at the
heart of teaching and learning (Day & Leitch, 2001; Hargreaves,
1998; Nias, 1996; Zembylas, 2003). In the special issue of the
Cambridge Journal of Education on teacher emotion e which partly
led to the rise of the recent wave of research on emotion in
education, Nias (1996) summarised three reasons for the funda-
mental importance of emotion for teaching and teachers. First,
teaching is a job which involves interaction among people and
inevitably has an emotional dimension. Second, teachers invest
their energy and emotion in their own work, often merging their
sense of personal and professional identities so that the classrooms
and schools become a main site both for their fulfilment and their
vulnerability. Third, teachers have profound feelings about teaching
because they invest heavily in it with their values, ethics and moral
purposes. These reasons form the three lines of research which are
clearly reflected in the recent studies on teacher emotion.
The first reason suggested by Nias (1996) has been explored in
very great depth in the “emotional geographies of teaching” sug-
gested by Hargreaves (2000, 2001a, b). In order to illustrate the
impact of human relationships and interactions on the emotional
understanding between teachers and others in teaching,
Hargreaves (2001a) defined the term “emotional geographies” as
“the spatial and experiential patterns of closeness and/or distance
in human interactions and relationships that help create, configure
and colour the feelings and emotions we experience about
ourselves, our world and each other” (p. 1061). Using this concep-
tual framework, he conducted a series of studies to analyse the
emotional interactions between teachers and students (Hargreaves,
2000), colleagues (Hargreaves, 2001b) and parents (Hargreaves,
2001a). Recently, Yin and Lee (2011) also used this framework to
explore the emotional interactions between teachers and teacher
trainers in a national curriculum reform in China. They found that
the framework of emotional geographies is helpful to investigate
the social factors impacting teacher emotion, and they highlighted
the interrelations of different emotional geographies and their
comprehensive impact on teachers’ feelings.
57
Following the second research line, recent studies reveal that
there are intimate and intricate relationships among teachers’
emotion, vulnerability and their identities. Teacher identity,
well-being and effectiveness constitute the emotional contexts of
teaching. Instabilities in school settings, whether of a personal,
professional or situational nature or a combination of these, can
create stresses in the emotional fabric of teacher identity (Day & Gu,
2009; Day & Kington, 2008). Zembylas (2003) argued that emotion
and identity transformation are inextricably linked, informing each
other and re-defining interpretations of each other, because
emotions act as the glue of identity by connecting people’s
thoughts, judgements and beliefs and giving meaning to human
experiences. Because of teachers’ emotional investments in
teaching, their professional identity and feelings of vulnerability
can be easily influenced by policy changes, new expectations for
standards, and imposed reform agendas (Kelchtermans, 2005;
Lasky, 2005). Lee and Yin’s (2011) recent study on teacher
emotion and professional identity showed that teachers revealed
complex emotional responses to the coming of a national curric-
ulum reform. Three types of teachers with different emotions and
professional identities were identified during the implementation
process, namely, “the losing heart accommodators”, “the drifting
followers” and “the cynical performers”.
Studies following the third research line usually emphasize the
linkages between emotion and teachers’ moral and ethical
purposes and the caring ethics of the teaching profession. For
example, Kelchtermans (1996) argued that research into teacher
emotion should address the personal identities and moral purposes
of teachers, as well as the cultures and contexts in which they work,
because teacher emotion is unavoidably linked to matters of
interests (political dimension) and values (moral dimension).
Zembylas (2006) explored the meaning of affect and its importance
to educational efforts to create the classroom conditions necessary
for students and teachers to be effective, and drew out some of the
ethical and political possibilities that emerge through such efforts.
Niesche and Haase’ (2010) study showed the active connection
between teacher emotion and personal ethical position by
demonstrating how a teacher and a principal cultivate their ethical
selves through a range of self-reflective practices that are deeply
connected to their emotions. Moreover, O’Connor (2008) reminded
us that although teachers’ work is emotionally engaging because
the caring ethics of teaching may be a source of teacher satisfaction
as well as anxiety and emotional strain, the caring nature of the
teaching profession is largely neglected in educational policy and
definitions of teacher standards. Hence, individual teachers have to
subjectively negotiate the demands created by policy and differ-
ently situated contexts.
All of the studies mentioned above show the emotional signif-
icance of teaching and teachers’ lives. Teaching is by no means
simply a rational world which consists of knowledge, cognition,
skills and reflection, rather, as Day (2004) remarked, it is about
teachers’ emotion, enthusiasm and passion.
2.2. Emotional labour, emotional rules and teachers’ work
In Hochschild’s (1983) definition, emotional labour refers to “the
management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and
bodily display” (p. 7). Though it is initially used to describe the
nature of work conducted by lower level shop-floor employees or
those in the service sector, such as flight attendants, bill collectors,
and clerical workers, it has now been extensively applied to the
examination of some expert service workers or higher-level
professional groups, e.g., lawyers, doctors, and personal trainers
(George, 2008; Wharton, 2009). Generally, emotional labour can be
seen as “the process by which workers are expected to manage
58 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
their feelings in accordance with organizationally defined rules and
guidelines” (Wharton, 2009, p. 147).
In recent years, teachers’ emotional labour has attracted more
and more attention from researchers e both the emotional labour
carried out by primary or secondary teachers (e.g., Oplatka, 2007;
Winograd, 2003; Zembylas, 2004) and university lecturers (e.g.,
Constanti & Gibbs, 2004; Ogbonna & Harris, 2004). There are at least
three reasons for the applicability of emotional labour to teachers’
work. First, as Winograd (2003) pointed out, teaching fulfils all the
three criteria suggested by Hochschild (1983) for work that requires
emotion labour: (a) teaching requires face-to-face contact between
teachers and others, especially their students; (b) teaching requires
teachers to produce some emotional state (e.g., joy or fear, excite-
ment or anxiety) in their students or other people around them; and
(c) there is a degree of external control over teachers’ emotional
labour in classroom or school settings, which usually comes in the
form of cultural expectations or professional norms.
Second, teaching is an emotional practice and entails emotional
understanding between teachers and students (Hargreaves, 1998,
2001a; Meyer, 2009). As an emotional practice, teaching activates
and expresses teachers’ own feelings and the actions in which those
feelings are embedded, at the same time, teaching also affects the
feelings and actions of others with whom teachers work and form
relationships (Hargreaves, 1998, 2001a). More importantly, the
emotional understanding between teachers and their students
requires them to enter into the field of experience of their students
and to empathically experience the same or similar feelings of their
students. Therefore, teachers have to manage their emotions to
create better conditions for emotional understanding.
Third, teachers’ emotional labour is often integrated into the
discussion of the caring ethics of teaching. Partly overlapped with
the third criterion for work that requires emotional labour, the ethic
of care is an important element of the professional norms for
teachers’ work (Noddings, 1996; O’Connor, 2008). A caring teacher
has to invest most of his/her care, love, and other positive emotions
in students and teaching, as well as to continuously improve his/her
professional capability because “in a fundamental, essential way,
caring implies a quest for competence” (Noddings, 1996, p. 163).
Isenbarger and Zembylas’s (2006) study showed that the teacher’s
performance of emotional labour which has an impact on her
commitment, satisfaction and self-esteem is closely related to her
professional and philosophical stance about the role of caring in
teaching and learning.
However, because Hochschild (1983) mainly focuses on the
exploitative aspect of emotional labour, many researchers also note
that the term “emotional labour” may not be completely applicable
to teaching since it ignores the rewarding aspect of teachers’ efforts
for emotional management (e.g., Hargreaves, 1998; Meyer, 2009;
Oplatka, 2007; Winograd, 2003; Zembylas, 2004). For example,
through a 3-year ethnographical study of a primary science
teacher’s classroom experiences, Zembylas (2004) distinguished
two dimensions in teachers’ emotional labour, one positive and one
negative. Although emotional labour is difficult and has painful
repercussions, sometimes it can be rewarding, by which the teacher
enjoyed emotional labour and even sought it out. Based on the
analysis of Israeli teachers, Oplatka (2007) found that although the
ethic of care makes lots of requirement on teachers’ emotional
display in the classroom, teachers’ emotion management is
a discretionary, voluntary-based role element rather than
a prescribed one, and caring is a non-prescribed element of
teachers’ role expectation. Therefore, Oplatka (2007) suggested
that emotional work, “a state in which the individual is autono-
mous in managing his or her emotions in the workplace’ rather
than forced or paid for doing so” (p. 1378), is more suitable for
describing teachers’ emotion management.
Regardless of whether it is autonomous or enforced, exploitative
or rewarding, teachers need to put a lot of effort into management of
their feeling and emotional display in the classroom. Moreover, these
efforts need to conform to the regulation of emotional rules.
Emotional rules, or feeling rules in Hochschild’s (1983) account,
define “what guide emotion work by establishing the sense of enti-
tlement or obligation that governs emotional exchanges” (p. 56). By
nature, emotional rules reflect the cultural expectations, social stan-
dards, or professional norms which lead and direct teachers’
emotional labour either in the form of internalised self-regulation or
external control. In an analysis of emotional rules in teaching,
Zembylas (2002) found that like other rules, emotional rules reflect
power relations and delineated a zone within which certain emotions
are permitted and others are not permitted, inscribing “appropriate”
and “inappropriate” feelings and classifying emotional expressions as
“deviant” or “normal”. These rules, governing the legitimate expres-
sions of negative emotion in school, become implicit and often serve
to reify “teacherhood”, keeping certain “truths” about the teacher
undisturbed (Kitching, 2009). Furthermore, emotional rules in
teaching are historically contingent. That is, changes in emotional
expressions and ideals reflect changes in the power relations wherein
they are rooted (Zembylas, 2005).
Compared with the rich literature on teachers’ emotional labour,
the empirical studies which summarise the emotional rules gov-
erning teachers’ work are surprisingly limited. There are also a few
exceptional cases. For example, Kitching’s (2009) study of Irish
primary teachers’ expression of negative emotions found that
a pervasive emotional rule of teaching is “boredom is not allowed”
(p. 150), and teachers have to be acceptable and accepted. Through
a 1-year self-study, Winograd (2003) summarised five feeling rules
for teacher’s work, including (a) teachers have affection and even
love of their students; (b) teachers have enthusiasm or even
passion for subject matter, and teachers show enthusiasm for
students; (c) teachers avoid overt displays of extreme emotions,
especially anger and other darker emotions; (d) teachers love their
work; and (e) teachers have a sense of humour for their own
mistakes as well as the errors of students.
2.3. Emotion and culture
From a social interactionist perspective, emotion is more like
a socio-cultural construction than a private psychological process,
though it does have some biological and psychological foundations
(Winograd, 2003; Zembylas, 2007), because “the social matrix
determines which emotions are likely to be experienced when and
where, on what grounds and for what reasons, by what modes of
expression, [and] by whom” (Kemper, 1993, pp. 41e42). For this
reason, Hochschild (1990) defined emotion as an awareness of four
elements usually experienced at the same time: appraisal of
a situation, changes in bodily sensations, the free or inhibited
display of expressive gestures, and a cultural label applied to
specific constellations of the first three elements.
Results of empirical studies have provided the evidence of cultural
influences on the perception, recognition and expression of emotion.
For example, Elfenbein and Ambady’s (2002) meta-analysis showed
that the accuracy of emotion recognition is higher when emotions are
both expressed and recognised by members of the same national,
ethnic, or regional group, suggesting an in-group or in-culture
advantage. Markus and Kitayama (1991) observed that people with
independent selves tend to express or reveal inner feelings as the
autonomous expression of internal attributes, whereas those with
interdependent selves view emotional expression as a means to
maintain interpersonal harmony rather than true reflection of
personal feelings. In a comparative study on the perception of facial
emotion, Masuda and his colleagues (Masuda et al., 2008) found that
 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
the emotions of surrounding people influence Japanese but not
Westerners’ perceptions of the central person’s facial emotion, sug-
gesting that Westerners see emotions as individual feelings, whereas
Japanese see them as inseparable from the feelings of the group.
These studies highlight the significance of exploring teacher emotion
in various cultural contexts.
In the area of cross-cultural study, Hofstede (1991) identified
five dimensions to define and differentiate various cultures: power
distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism,
masculinity versus femininity, and Confucian dynamics. It was
suggested that the “Chineseness” of Chinese culture lay in its
relatively high power distance, high collectivism, risk-avoiding,
medium femininity, and high Confucian dynamics (Hofstede,
1991; Hofstede & Bond, 1988). These cultural characteristics influ-
ence the emotional experience and expression of the Chinese. For
example, Matsumoto (1989) found that cultures high in power
distance and low in individualism (e.g., Chinese and Japanese
culture) stress hierarchy and group cohesion. In these cultures, the
communication of negative emotions is seen as a threat to group
solidarity and interpersonal social structure. In Lee and Yin’s (2011)
study on Chinese teachers’ emotions in a national curriculum
reform, they found that the teachers studied considered that
expressing inner feelings is relatively unimportant to the relational
development and reform implementation, and they tended to be
careful in controlling their emotions and behaviours as well as
being obedient to the reform policy. This reflected the hierarchical
relationships and collectivist culture in Chinese organisations and
schools.
Although little is known about Chinese teachers’ emotional
labour, it should be noted that Zhang and Zhu (2008) recently
examined the dimensions of emotional labour and its impact on
Chinese college instructors’ job satisfaction and burnout, using
a quantitative questionnaire survey method. Nonetheless, there is
a dearth of in-depth analysis on the emotional labour and
emotional rules for teachers’ work in Chinese societies.
In short, most studies on teachers’ emotional labour and
emotional rules are conducted in the cultural contexts of the West.
There is a paucity of such research in the Chinese societies reported
in the international literature. The present study attempts to
address this issue by exploring the following key question: What
are the emotional rules governing teachers’ work in the context of
Mainland China? In order to answer this question, two specific
research questions will be investigated: (1) What is the relevance of
emotions in Chinese teachers’ work? (2) What are the normative
beliefs that Chinese teachers have on emotions in their work?
3. Methodology
3.1. Teaching and teachers in China
In Chinese societies like Mainland China and Taiwan, teachers
usually enjoy more favourable social status and occupational
prestige than their international counterparts (Fwu & Wang, 2002;
X. Gao, 2008). Teacher authority, teacher-centred pedagogy, and
student compliance are still prevalent in Chinese classrooms (Ho,
2001). In Aguinis and Roth’s (2003) cross-cultural study, they
suggested that students in China, compared with their counterparts
in the U.S., are more likely to accept teachers’ instructions without
question and less likely to express their opinions, beliefs and feel-
ings. Even in Hong Kong, often seen as a place of Ease-West fusion,
“teacher-centredness” is still a salient characteristic of the class-
room environment (Lee, Yin, & Zhang, 2009).
Teachers in Mainland China usually work in classrooms
featuring an emphasis on academic success and a large class size
(50 students or more), resulting in high competitive pressure.
59
Moreover, influenced by the Confucian tradition, the common
beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning held by Chinese
teachers include ideas such as “no pain, no gain”, “failure is the
result of laziness”, and “children are spoiled if praised”. All of these
seemingly imply a harsh emotional climate and run counter to the
optimal learning environment suggested by the Western theories
(Watkins & Biggs, 2001). However, this impression of the Chinese
classroom environment is sometimes not in line with the results of
empirical studies. For example, Ho (2001) found that the teacher-
student interaction in Chinese classrooms is more frequent and
harmonious. Comparing students’ perceptions of the classroom
discipline strategies in China, Australia and Israel, Lewis and his
colleagues (Lewis, Romi, Qui, & Katz, 2005) also found that Chinese
teachers, in general, appear less punitive and aggressive than do
those in Israel and Australia, and more inclusive and supportive of
students’ voices.
3.2. Site and participants
This study is based on a three-year qualitative project
(2005e2008) on teacher emotion in Guangzhou, the provincial city
of Guangdong province in the southern part of Mainland China. In
this project, we seek to explore teachers’ emotions and perceptions
of their behaviour in professional practices, including their daily
classroom teaching and the implementation of curriculum reform
initiatives in their schools.
The methodology of “embedded case study” was employed, in
which both schools and teachers were considered as units of
analysis (Scholz & Tietje, 2002). In Guangzhou, all senior secondary
schools were classified into five levels according to their students’
academic achievements in the enrolment examination. In order to
detect information about teachers’ emotions in schools with
different academic background, we selected four schools which
were in upper, middle and lower levels. There were two key
secondary schools in Guangzhou in our sample, one of which is, in
parents’ perceptions, the “top” school famous for its results in
annual college entrance examinations. In each school, one school
administrator with responsibility for teaching matters and several
teachers with different gender, subject, and teaching experience
were investigated. As a result, from the four schools a total of four
administrators and 25 teachers with different background partici-
pated in the present study. Table 1 summarises background infor-
mation of the school and teacher participants.
3.3. Data collection and analysis
Semi-structured interview and document collection were
employed to collect the data. Each interview, conducted in a private
space within each school, lasted at least 1 h and concentrated on
eliciting teachers’ conversation about the role that emotion plays in
their teaching and professional practices, the coping strategies they
Table 1
Background information of the informants.
School School background Informants involved
Key School Level School personnel Subject
teachers
S1 Yes Level 1 One teaching affairs director Six
(The top)
S2 No Level 2e3 One grade master teacher Seven
in charge of the whole grade
teaching affairs
S3 Yes Level 1 One teaching affairs director Seven
S4 No Level 4 One teaching affairs director Five
60 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
used, and their opinions on the “appropriate” feelings or expres-
sions of teacher emotion. The main interview questions included:
 Do you think emotion has an important impact on you
classroom teaching? Why or why not?
 What do you do to eliminate (or enhance) the influence of
emotion on your teaching?
 What teacher emotions should (or should not) be expressed or
felt?
Teachers’ self reflection journals, the documents issued by the
school and the researchers’ field notes were the documents
collected for data analysis.
All interviews were transcribed and analysed inductively. The
overall analytic process was an ongoing cyclical process in which
categories and patterns emerged from the data and were later
cross-checked (Miles & Huberman, 1994). During the data analysis
process, NVivo software was used to classify and cluster the data.
The refined coding system about teachers’ emotional rules finalised
in the present study is shown in the appendix.
Methods were adopted to ensure the trustworthiness and reli-
ability of the data analysis. When the transcription of teacher
interviews was finished, all transcriptions were sent back to the
relative informant for cross check. Revisions were made when the
informants had any doubts about the content of the transcription.
The techniques of data triangulation and methodological triangu-
lation were used during the process of data collection (Denzin,
1989). To be specific, for data triangulation, the information about
teachers’ emotional experiences was achieved through multiple
interviews with different teachers; for methodological triangula-
tion, the data drawn from teacher interview and document
collection was compared and examined twice to get reliable
information about teachers’ opinions.
4. Emotional rules governing Chinese teachers’ work
The inductive process of data analysis resulted in the generation
of four emotional rules governing Chinese teachers’ emotions in
their professional practices. These rules will be explored one by one
in the following sections.
4.1. Rule 1: commit to teaching with passion
“Passion” is one of the terms most frequently mentioned by our
informants. In their words, teachers must be passionate about
teaching. What the teachers mean by “passion” is an intense
emotional commitment that teachers invest in their work, which is
also a salient characteristic that distinguishes the teaching profes-
sion from other jobs (Nias, 1996). Specifically, being passionate
requires teachers to strongly commit their emotion to their class-
room teaching, improvement of their competence by doing
teaching inquiry, and the establishment of a caring relationship
between them and their students. Therefore, “commit to teaching
with passion” becomes a paramount emotional rule for teaching. In
the views of our informants, the emotion that teachers commit to
their work can lead to a joyful experience, because “passion gives
birth to inspiration and happiness”.
First, we ought to have passion. As a teacher, we fail without
passion.Having passion includes having passion in the class-
room teaching, having passion to make teaching inquiry, having
passion to treat students. (Interview-School 1-Femal teacher-4)
I often remind myself to carry passion into the classroom
because passion gives birth to inspiration and happiness.
Without passion, it will be easy for us to generate a sentiment
against teaching. My spirit of education is to have passion
towards education, caring about students and have confidence
in ourselves. (Document-School 3-Male teacher-4)
For teachers, commitment to teaching with passion plays a dual
role in their work. One role is related to teachers’ professional
competence. The intense emotional commitment provides teachers
with the drive for the unceasing enhancement of their teaching ability,
and improves the quality of enactment of classroom teaching. The
other is related to teachers’ moral responsibility. The intense
emotional commitment in treating students requires teachers to “put
students first”, reflecting the caring ethic of the teaching profession. In
Mainland China, having both professional ability and moral integrity
(de cai jian bei) is seen as a prerequisite of being a good educator (Gu,
2009). The findings of the current study show that these two aspects
are closely interrelated. Through teachers’ emotional commitment to
their work, it can be seen that teachers’ moral responsibility goes hand
in hand with the improvement of their professional competence.
Having passion has a connection with the personal quality of
a teacher. If a teacher is passionate but without “abilities”, his/
her passion will have limitation. His/her control of the class-
room, his/her management capability and his/her professional
competence are reflected in his/her passion. (Interview-School
4-Female teacher-1)
It is a responsibility for a teacher to put students at the first place.
As a teacher, he/she should pursue the ideal of excelling the
predecessors [students surpassing the teacher]. Student growth
is of paramount importance and should not be subservient to
teachers’ feelings. (Interview-School 2-Female teacher-2)
4.2. Rule 2: hide negative emotions
Paradoxically, the informants of the present study mentioned
that teachers have to be careful about “emotion” in teaching,
though they all agreed that emotion plays an important role in
a teacher’s work. That is because in their daily conversations,
“emotion” is a word with negative connotations rather than
neutral. In many cases, “emotion” refers to negative or unhappy
feelings. The following example with the contrasting meanings of
emotion illustrates this:
Teachers’ emotions have [negative] consequences for classroom
teaching. A teacher should not bring any emotion to the
students in class except having smiles and feeling happy.
(Interview-School 1-Male teacher-4)
Obviously, “having smiles” and “feeling happy” are not the
elements of “being emotional” in this excerpt, which shows the
connotations by the teacher of the word “emotion” e emotion is
dangerous and it may hinder teachers’ work.
In order to avoid the possible disturbing effect that “emotion”
could have on classroom teaching and student learning, teachers have
to keep their emotional expressions under control. To be concrete,
they must hide or suppress their negative emotions in teaching,
which is another rule for Chinese teachers. This is consistent with
Matsumoto’s (1989) observation that the communication of negative
emotions is usually seen as a threat in East Asian cultures.
I feel that this is a professional problem. As a mature teacher,
however much you feel disturbed, you have to minimise its
[negative] impact. You won’t bring your worries to the class-
room.because it is your profession. (Interview-School 4-Male
teacher-2)
There must be some unhappy things but I normally won’t bring
this kind of emotion to the students. (Notes-School 4-Female
teacher-1)
 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
Moreover, hiding the “emotion” (i.e., negative emotion) to
control it and its impact, is also one of the professional require-
ments of teachers’ work. Here, the emotional rules in teaching are
partly interwoven with the professional discourse dominating
teachers’ work.
I am sure I will not bring my own [negative] emotions to the
classroom. This is a professional requirement. (Interview-School
3-Male teacher-2)
4.3. Rule 3: maintain positive emotions
The third emotional rule is a complement of the second.
Excluding the impact of negative emotions is one side of the coin.
On the other side, teachers have to maintain positive emotions to
motivate students. They must do so even if they do not feel
such positive emotions, because “making students happy in
learning” is not only a consensus among teachers, but also the
principal’s known requirement regarding teachers’ emotional
expressions.
Our principal often talks to us, “When a teacher has a class, even
if you are in pain, you have to smile to the students, give
students a smile when you stand up on the speaker’s platform”.
No matter how complicated you feel at heart and no matter
what [has happened], you have to show a smiling face to the
students so that they have a good mood and can learn with
happiness. (Interview-School 1-Male teacher-3)
This principal’s advice echoes the third criterion for work that
requires emotional labour. That is, employees’ emotional activities
are under the regulation of some external control (Hochschild,
1983). To make students happy and relaxed in learning, teachers
must maintain positive emotions as well as suppress these
negative ones. As a teacher said, teachers when teaching on the
platform may be very different people from the person they are
out of the class, because they have to give students a positive
impression.
Even if you are under pressure, you cannot talk to the students:
“Ah, I am under a lot of pressure! I feel exhausted!” It is not
permitted. You have to give students an impression of being
positive and aspirational. In my classes, I tend to make students
learn in a relaxed manner.It is what we teachers should do.
(Interview-School 1-Male teacher-4)
Teachers in the present study recognised that students’
emotional status could also have an impact on their own emotions
when teaching, just as a teacher’s emotions influence students.
They emphasised that as teachers, they need to keep some
distance from their students in case they are overly impacted by
students’ negative emotions. They can only share the positive
emotions with students.
If we say we are affected by students and we feel happy when
students are happy, that’s fine. If they are not happy, you should
not feel the same way. So a teacher has to be independent. You
should understand that you should try to give them happiness,
regardless of your emotions and their performance.and should
not make each other unhappy because of small things. (Inter-
view-School 2-Female teacher-2)
4.4. Rule 4: instrumentalise emotions to achieve teaching goals
For the informants of this study, emotion has the functions of
motivating students and enhancing the effectiveness of teaching.
In their teaching, they often used some skills or strategies
related to emotional expressions, such as the rhythm of speech,
61
humour or jokes, exaggerated face or gesture, to attract students’
attention. The emotional labour done by these teachers
usually helped the teaching process go more smoothly and
effectively. Therefore, instrumentalising emotions to achieve
teaching goals is another rule for teachers’ emotional expressions
in their work.
When you teach this lesson, you ought to be sentient or show
your heart.Why do some teachers teach better for the same
lesson? An important mediating factor is his/her emotion in
class. His/her voice sometimes is high and sometimes is low
with some emotions inside. Sometimes, when students are
happy, he/she feels happy; sometimes when students laugh, he/
she doesn’t laugh. He/she will move students. The voice, tone
and emotion of a teacher in a lesson [have such influence]. If you
don’t have such attributes and speak drily straightforward,
students will feel bored and will not follow you to learn.
(Interview-School 1-Female teacher-2)
Furthermore, instrumentalising emotions is far more important
than these presentation skills or tricks. A “professional” teacher
knows how to match their emotional expressions with the content
of teaching and the structure of teaching process. For example, they
not only know when to display their emotions when teaching and
how to create an emotional climate suitable for the text, but also
when to withdraw from the emotional climate created by
themselves.
Your emotion better matches with the composition so as to
bring students to that mood. For example if the composition
carries gentle sadness, you should lower and slow down the
voice so that students could have that mood of grief.We can
devote ourselves to it but detach or jump out at the right
moment. (Interview-School 4-Female teacher-3)
In some teachers’ eyes, the ability to instrumentalise emotions
reflects the “level” of teachers’ professional competence, and this
ability also develops with increased teaching experience. The
novice, “low-level” teachers might be often driven by their
emotions, but in contrast, the experienced, “high-level” teachers
can make full use of both the positive emotions and the seemingly
radical, dark emotions, such as anxiety and anger. A teacher
mentioned an example of using anger to teach students in class-
rooms. In this example, the ability to make use of anger, a kind of
dark emotion, distinguished the high-level teachers from those
low-level ones. However, considering the limited number of
participants, it is difficult to make this assertion in the present
study. However, this finding opens a new possibility worthy of
research in future.
A low-level teacher often does not manage emotions well
while a high-level teacher has good self-control. For being
angry, a high-level teacher makes good use of anger.Using an
example, if a student does not submit his/her assignment,
a low-level teacher will have his/her blood boiling and burning
with righteous indignation immediately and start scolding the
student. For a high-level teacher, he/she will think: “Ah, when
a student does not submit assignment, I will take this chance to
scold the student!”.While a high-level teacher superficially
scolds the student with great eloquence, he/she does not feel
angry at heart. Why? He/she is not angry because of students.
Why does he appear to be angry in class? He makes use of
anger to tell students: He cares about the situation and he
wants students to do things properly.This is a kind of culti-
vation and a level. So a teacher has to make use of emotion and
should not be manipulated by emotion. (Interview-School 3-
Male teacher-4)
62 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
5. Chinese teachers’ understanding of emotional labour and
emotional rules
5.1. Teaching as a “heart-consuming” labour (caoxin) and teacher
as “mother”
The findings of the present study highlight the relevance of
emotion in teachers’ work and suggest that emotion is a core rather
than peripheral part of teaching. As Hargreaves (1998) suggested,
good teachers are emotional, passionate beings rather than
well-oiled machines. Teachers have to fill their professional practice
with various emotions, regardless of authenticity, to follow the rules
for teacher emotion and fulfil some particular functions. Therefore,
mobilising, maintaining and controlling the experience and
expression of emotion is an integral part of teachers’ work,
demanding teachers put a lot of effort into managing their emotions.
Due to the close relationship between emotion and teachers’
work, our informants often use “communication between hearts”
or “a job about people” to describe their work. In a teacher’s words,
“the most important thing for a teacher is to teach with his/her
heart at all times” (Interview-School 3-Female administrator). They
note that teachers’ work is very laborious because besides physical
and mental labour, teaching also contains a kind of labour which
requires teachers to “consume their hearts”. That is, teachers need
to devote themselves to their work body and soul, combining both
the feelings and emotions required by the teaching profession. The
component of “heart-consuming” labour (caoxin) reflects these
Chinese teachers’ definition of emotional labour in teaching.
Teaching is a tragic job! Many people think teaching is light
work e all teachers need to do is only to give two or three lessons
a day. But in reality, the time that teachers spend on their work is
far more than 8 hs. Even if you are off duty, you have to worry
about the students if their parents call you with some troubles. It is
a job about people! . Teachers’ work is very labourious. You do
both physical and mental labour everyday. In addition, you have to
consume your heart! (Interview-School 2-Male teacher-2)
Always being emotional and passionate is not easy for teachers.
This “heart-consuming” labour indicates the heavy burden imposed
on teacher emotion too. In their views, this “heart-consuming”
labour is what the parents should do for their children. Therefore,
many teachers, especially the female teachers, like to compare
themselves to another “mother” of the students:
I really worry about the students for their parents. Why cannot the
students learn well? But you cannot resolve all the problems of the
students. The heart you consume for the students may lead to
nothing! So, the only thing you can do is to share pains with their
parents together. Maybe I am too emotional e sometimes I think:
“Ah, I am the mother of the students as well as my own son! I have
to share the unhappiness of my students.” (Interview-School
4-Female teacher-2)
The “heart-consuming” labour causes the teacher to consider
herself as the mother of her students. This comparison also reflects
the caring ethics of the teaching profession. Similarly with the parents
of the students, teachers care about the learning performance and
emotional status of the students from the bottom of their hearts,
which increase the vulnerability of teachers’ work. Just as the male
teacher mentioned above, therefore, teaching may become “a tragic
job” when teachers consume their heart more than they can afford to.
5.2. Rationality embedded in the emotional rules
Interestingly, the four emotional rules summarised in this study,
though all about teachers’ emotions, also illustrate that in teachers’
professional practice, the experience and expression of emotion are
not only emotional matters but also results of rational operation. This
means when teachers feel or express their emotions in some specific
ways, they always calculate the cost and benefit of these emotions
according to the situations, the norms for teaching, and the potential
consequences of their emotional expressions. Committing to teaching
with passion, controlling emotions by concealment or maintenance,
and purposefully instrumentalising emotions, all imply teachers’
rational operation of their own emotions. In the interviews, a teacher
mentioned an example of deciding how to admonish students in the
staff room which obviously presents the linkage between rational
operation and teacher emotion:
I have to pay attention to my criticism of a student in the office.
Others have to listen to [and judge] my level of scolding others!
If I am a young, novice teacher and I am not sure, I will not scold
him/her there e I have to be mindful of consequence. If I lose my
self-control in scolding him/her, I will be very angry and anxious
afterwards.When a student talks back to his/her teacher [a
young teacher], the teacher stamps with fury. Why? He/she feels
that the student does not give face to [show due respect to] him/
her, right? He/she feels that he/she cannot sort it out with the
student and starts to become anxious. Then he/she is not sure
how other teachers and students view him/her. So, becoming
angry should be rational and if I feel that I am not certain, I will
avoid it [confrontation]. (Interview-School 1-Female-4)
Just like this teacher said, criticising a student in the staff room
could be a deliberate “show” in that she had to weigh the conse-
quence of the expressions of her dark emotions. When problems
occurred, she had to quickly complete the rational calculation
according to the features of a situation and then determine the
“degree” of emotional expression. Successful criticising of a student
only happens when teachers are sure that they can properly
express their anger as well as control the situation very well.
Without the support of rational operation, criticising a student in
the staff room would be a terrible gaffe.
Rather than separating emotion from rationality which is
prevalent in some Western philosophies (Nias, 1996; Zembylas,
2003), Chinese teachers tend to connect their emotional expres-
sions to rationality or cognitive appraisal, and stress to regulate
their emotions according to the professional and ethical norms for
teaching. An informant told a story about a young teacher who is
considered as problematic in her emotional expressions:
She is enthusiastic about teaching. The relationship between her
and her students is extremely good. Every student of her class
wants to be her friend and they follow whatever she tells.
However, there is a problem with her e sometimes she forgets
the connection between emotion and rationality. For example,
she likes to chat with students, but she even chats with them in
classes for self-study. It is improper for a teacher to do this!
(Interview-School 3-Female teacher-2)
In this case, although emotion helped the establishment of
a good relationship between the teacher and students, she had to
be careful about the possible negative impact of her emotional
expressions. In teachers’ views, emotional expressions should
always accept the regulation of rationality and follow the profes-
sional and ethical norms for teaching, otherwise, it would draw
unfavourable comments on their conduct from their colleagues.
6. Discussion
The present study explored the role and highlighted the
meaning of emotion in Chinese teachers’ work and the emotional
rules governing teachers’ emotions. In short, Chinese teachers think
 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65
emotion is a core part of a teacher’s work and teaching contains
a significant component of “heart-consuming” labour, or in
teachers’ terms, caoxin, by which teachers consider themselves as
the “mother” of their students. Teachers’ emotions are socially
constructed and regulated by a set of rules intimately related to the
professional and ethical discourses about the teaching profession,
including (1) committing to teaching with passion; (2) hiding
negative emotions; (3) maintaining positive emotions; and
(4) instrumentalising emotions to achieve teaching goals.
The results of this study suggested that teachers can be seen as
emotional workers whose emotions are under the control of a set of
emotional rules. The rules governing teachers’ emotions may
sometimes be direct outside control in the form of principals’
advice or colleagues’ criticism but in most cases, these rules exert
their impact under the cover of professional competence of
teachers and ethical norms for teaching. For example, in these
teachers’ opinions, the ability to control and utilise emotions,
especially in coping with conflict situations in teaching, is a sign of
their teaching competence. Whether they can suppress negative
emotions and maintain positive ones also reflects teachers’ adher-
ence to professional requirements. This implicit influence makes
teachers’ emotional labour “not easily identified or recognised,
mainly because emotional rules are disguised as ethical codes,
professional techniques, and specialised pedagogical knowledge”
(Zembylas, 2002, p. 201).
The findings of this study uncovered three interrelated issues
about the nature of teachers’ emotional labour and emotional rules
worthy of future discussion, especially in the context of Chinese
culture. Considering that the data were only collected from four
case schools, these comments and cultural reflections may be
somewhat overstated and broad, but they do provide some insight
into teachers’ emotional labour in China which helps the present
level of understanding and provides interesting pointers to future
research.
6.1. The role of teachers in Chinese culture
Research into the “Chinese learner” repeatedly shows that
although there are many less than positive characteristics of the
classroom environment in Chinese societies, such as lack of praise
of students, high pressure for academic performance, authoritarian
approaches to teaching, and hierarchical rather than democratic
teacherestudent relationships, the interaction between teacher
and students is not as disadvantageous as is frequently hypoth-
esised by some Western theories, but is frequently harmonious, and
the teacherestudent relationship is typically marked by a sense of
responsibility and mutual respect (Ho, 2001; Lee et al., 2009;
Watkins & Biggs, 2001). The reasons for this paradoxical phenom-
enon are closely related to the Chinese beliefs concerning the role
of teachers.
As shown in the present study, the heavy “heart-consuming”
labour in teaching makes the Chinese teachers think of themselves
as “mothers” or parents of their students. This finding echoes the
Chinese tradition that the relationship between a teacher and his/
her students is akin to a parent and his/her sons (Watkins, 2000),
and is consistent with the Chinese saying that “He who teaches me
for one day is my father for life” (yiri wei shi, zhongshen wei fu).
Wang (2006) suggested that in Chinese cultures, there is a familial
relationship between teachers and students in which they think of
each other as members of an extended family. In Zhu, Valcke, and
Schellens’ (2010) recent comparison between Chinese and
Flemish college teachers’ perspective on teacher roles, they found
that though a hierarchical relationship exists between Chinese
teachers and their students, the role of teachers in China are
multi-faceted in which teachers combine an authority relationship
63
with friendship to the students. Authority, responsibility, and
morality are all part of this relationship. As Gao (1998) observed,
many teachers in China prefer a “parental directing” style in their
practice; that is, teachers “are highly responsible and think that
they should play a shaping and directing role in student learning”
(p. 4). Therefore, Chinese teachers are expected to act as parents
and care about their students’ emotional well-being as well as
learning performance, even sometimes enforcing strict rules and
discipline. It was seen in the present study that a teacher
mentioned the example of using anger to teach students in class-
rooms. In his opinion, he showed anger to the students because “he
cares about the situation and he wants students to do things
properly”.
6.2. The Chinese way of emotional communication and expression
The Chinese way of emotional communication and expression
affects the teacher-student interaction in classrooms, too. The
findings of this study indicated that teachers pay particular atten-
tion to the potential consequence of emotional expressions on
students. They passionately commit to teaching, hide negative
emotions, maintain positive emotions, and use vocal or gesture
strategies to regulate emotional expressions in order to facilitate
student learning. Even when criticising students in the staff room,
they also remind themselves that they need to keep the situation
under control and avoid direct confrontation with students. All of
these are related to the Chinese way of emotional communication
and expression.
In the case of the Chinese who live in collectivist cultures
emphasizing interdependence of self and social harmony, they may
feel and express more other-focused emotions (Qu & Zhang, 2005),
and emotional expression may be a means to maintain interpersonal
harmony (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). In fact, what these Chinese
teachers did to manage their emotional expression in the present
study reflects their effort to establish a good teacherestudent
relationship in their classrooms. This argument is also supported by
the findings of some studies on Chinese people’s emotions. For
example, Bond (1993) found that what differs in emotion in Chinese
culture is the lower frequency, intensity, and duration with which
emotions are typically experienced, and expression of emotion is
carefully regulated in order to maintain interpersonal harmony and
status hierarchies. Anolli, Wang, Mantovani, and De Toni’s (2008)
cross-cultural comparison also found that the vocal expression of
emotions by the Chinese is characterized by a more restrained style
than that of their Italian counterparts, which is because the Chinese
culture emphasises relational harmony and concerns about the
impact that emotional practices may have on others. In terms of
communication and expression of emotions, the Chinese tend to
favour a high-context form of communication in a collectivistic
culture which encompasses indirectness, implicitness (the concept
of hanxu in Chinese) as well as nonverbal expression (Aguinis &
Roth, 2003). Saving face (mianzi) is also an important issue in
Chinese culture where maintaining “harmonious” relationship is
important and under most circumstances, it will be unusual for
teachers to have direct confrontation with or questioning of
students for protection of face.
Therefore, though Chinese classrooms usually feature teacher
authority, student compliance, and hierarchical teacherestudent
relationship, that does not necessarily lead to a harsh and cool
classroom environment, but may generate a “hierarchical but
friendly” climate (Zhu, Valcke, & Schellens, 2010). All the
aforementioned cultural traditions, e.g., respect for interpersonal
harmony, the high-context form of communication, saving face
for others and avoiding direct confrontation, facilitate the
teacher-student interaction in Chinese classrooms, and encourage
64 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65

a strong emphasis on an affective and personal relationship professional and ethical norms for teaching in mind when they
between teachers and students (Ho, 2001). manage their feelings and emotions in classrooms.

6.3. Chinese teachers’ conformity to professional and ethical norms

Acknowledgements
in managing emotions

We are grateful to the editors and anonymous reviewers for

The present study revealed the rational instrumentalisation of
their invaluable comments on the previous versions of this paper.
Chinese teachers’ emotions according to their professional and
ethical norms. The common thread among the four emotional rules
is teachers’ conformity to the professional and ethical norms in the Appendix. The refined coding system of emotional rules for
teaching profession. In most cases, the emotional rules exert their Chinese teachers
impact under the cover of these norms, and teachers’ performance
in managing their emotions is seen as an indicator of their
professional competence or a conduct following the caring ethic of
teaching. In general, all these Chinese teachers strongly emphasise Theme Category Subcategory
the importance of managing emotions in accordance with their Commit to teaching
professional and ethical norms, even though these emotional with passion
Emotional investment
expressions may conflict with their authentic feelings. This
in teaching
consensus is deeply rooted in the conception of Chinese cultures. Teaching as communication
In Chinese cultures, teachers traditionally enjoy a relatively high between hearts
social status. As defined by Han Yu, one of the most outstanding Being a passionate teacher
scholars and educators in the Tang Dynasty, “a teacher is the one The dual role of
emotion
who shows you the way of being human, teaches you knowledge
The link between passion
and enlightens you while you are confused” (On Teachers, Shi Shuo). and professional ability
Teachers are expected to play the roles of being models of good The ethical meaning of
conduct as well as transmitters of knowledge (L. Gao, 1998; Zhang & passion for students
Hide negative
Zhu, 2008), and they are placed on the same level as other key
emotions
cultural figures in the temple of worship, i.e., heaven, earth, the The assumption
emperor and parents (Fwu & Wang, 2002; X. Gao, 2008). about “emotion”
High social status implies high social expectation, too. Teachers Positive emotions are
in China are also expected to assume the heavy responsibilities not “emotions”
The negative connotation
imposed by society. For a long time, they were described as “silk-
of “emotion” in daily talk
worms”, who tirelessly spin silk thread till death, “candles”, who Removing the impact
selflessly burn themselves to light others, and “soul engineers”, of negative emotions
who carefully cultivate the mental as well as physical well-being of Do not hinder student
students (X. Gao, 2008). Due to the influence of the Confucian learning
The professional ethics
traditions and collectivist cultures, Chinese usually underline the Maintain positive
need to meet social obligations and responsibilities (Qu & Zhang, emotions
2005). Different from people with independent selves in the indi- Showing positive
vidualistic cultures who tend to express inner feelings as the emotions as a must
Teachers’ implicit
autonomous expression of internal attributes (Markus & Kitayama,
consensus
1991), the authentic, personal feelings of the Chinese are subordi- Principal’s explicit
nate to social order and expectation, and thus it is more important requirement
to reveal the public self (as a teacher) and do the “right” thing than Motivating students
to show the feelings experienced by the private self (as an indi- with positive emotions
Teachers’ different
vidual). This concern about displaying “appropriate” emotions to self-presentation in
meet social obligations may serve as a motive for inhibiting and out of classroom
expressive behaviour, resulting in conflict with the inner feelings or Make students happy
the initial desire to express (Leung, 1998). in learning
Instrumentalising
In addition, the “Chinese paradox of power” suggested by Gao
emotions
Xuesong (2008) is also helpful for understanding Chinese Using emotion to
teachers’ stress having to conform to professional and ethical facilitate teaching
norms in managing their emotions. This “paradox of power” can be Emotions as helpful
described as a situation that places teachers, who enjoy high social presentation skills
Matching emotion
status in China, under a great burden to follow society’s moral with the content
norms, and makes them more vulnerable to being shamed, and of teaching
feeling shame, if they fail (X. Gao, 2008). On the one hand, the high Utilising emotions as
social status enjoyed by Chinese teachers may bring some benefits a signal of teachers’
professional competence
for teachers, e.g., respect from other social members or satisfaction
Make use of negative
with their jobs (Fwu & Wang, 2002). On the other hand, teachers in as well as positive
China also need to be amenable to public scrutiny of their morality emotions
and conduct. This high risk of professional vulnerability intensifies The differences between
Chinese teachers’ emotional labour and partly makes teaching high- and low-level
teachers in using dark
become “a tragic job”. In order to avoid the possible failure in ful- emotions
filling social obligations, Chinese teachers must always keep these
 H.-b. Yin, J.C.-K. Lee / Teaching and Teacher Education 28 (2012) 56e65 65

References Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition,
emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224e253.
Masuda, T., Ellsworth, P. C., Mesquita, B., Leu, J., Tanida, S., & van de Veerdonk, E.
Aguinis, H., & Roth, H. A. (2003, November). Teaching in China: Culture-based chal-
(2008). Placing the face in context: cultural differences in the perception of
lenges. Paper presented at the "Business Education and Emerging Market
facial emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 365e381.
Economies: Trends and Prospects" Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Matsumoto, D. (1989). Cultural influences on the perception of emotion. Journal of
Anolli, L., Wang, L., Mantovani, F., & De Toni, A. (2008). The voice of emotion in Chinese
Cross-Cultural Psychology, 20, 92e105.
and Italian young adults. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 39, 565e598.
Meyer, D. K. (2009). Entering the emotional practices of teaching. In P. A. Schutz, &
Bond, M. H. (1993). Emotions and their expression in Chinese culture. Journal of
M. Zembylas (Eds.), Advances in teacher emotion research: The impact on teachers’
Nonverbal Behavior, 17, 245e262.
lives (pp. 73e91). Dordrecht: Springer.
Constanti, P., & Gibbs, P. (2004). Higher education teachers and emotional labour.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: an expanded
International Journal of Educational Management, 18, 243e249.
sourcebook (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Day, C. (2004). A passion for teaching. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Nias, J. (1996). Thinking about feeling: the emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal
Day, C., & Gu, Q. (2009). Teacher emotions: well being and effectiveness. In
of Education, 26, 293e306.
P. A. Schutz, & M. Zembylas (Eds.), Advances in teacher emotion research: the
Niesche, R., & Haase, M. (2010). Emotions and ethics: a Foucauldian framework for
impact on teachers’ lives (pp. 15e31). Dordrecht: Springer.
becoming an ethical educator. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi:10.1111/
Day, C., & Kington, A. (2008). Identity, well-being and effectiveness: the emotional
j.1469e5812.2010.00655.x, Article first published online on 21 June 2010.
contexts of teaching. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 16, 7e23.
Noddings, N. (1996). The caring professional. In S. Gordon, P. Benner, & N. Noddings
Day, C., & Leitch, R. (2001). Teachers’ and teacher educators’ lives: The role of
(Eds.), Caregiving: Readings in knowledge, practice, ethics and politics (pp.
emotion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 403e415.
160e172). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Denzin, N. K. (1989). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological
O’Connor, K. E. (2008). “You choose to care”: teachers, emotions and professional
methods (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 117e126.
Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of
Ogbonna, E., & Harris, L. C. (2004). Work intensification and emotional labour
emotion recognition: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 203e235.
among UK university lectures: an exploratory study. Organizational Studies, 25,
Fwu, B. J., & Wang, H. H. (2002). The social status of teachers in Taiwan. Comparative
1185e1203.
Education, 38, 211e224.
Oplatka, I. (2007). Managing emotions in teaching: toward an understanding of
Gao, L. (1998). Cultural context of school science teaching and learning in the
emotion displays and caring as nonprescribed role elements. Teachers College
Peoples’ Republic of China. Science Education, 82, 1e13.
Record, 109, 1374e1400.
Gao, X. (2008). Teachers’ professional vulnerability and cultural tradition: a Chinese
Qu, R., & Zhang, Z. (2005). Work group emotions in Chinese culture settings.
paradox. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 154e165.
Singapore Management Review, 27, 69e86.
George, M. (2008). Interactions in expert service work: demonstrating profession-
Sachs, J., & Blackmore, J. (1998). You never show you can’t cope: Women in school
alism in personal training. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 37, 108e131.
leadership roles managing their emotions. Gender and Education, 10, 265e279.
Gu, M. (2009). In pursuit of being a good educator. Journal of Chinese Society of
Scholz, R. W., & Tietje, O. (2002). Embedded case study methods: Integrating quan-
Education, 3(1), in Chinese.
titative and qualitative knowledge. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher
Schutz, P. A., & Zembylas, M. (2009). Introduction to advances in teacher emotion
Education, 14, 835e854.
research: the impact on teachers’ lives. In P. A. Schutz, & M. Zembylas (Eds.),
Hargreaves, A. (2000). Mixed emotions: teachers’ perceptions of their interactions
Advances in teacher emotion research: The impact on teachers’ lives (pp. 3e11).
with students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 811e826.
Dordrecht: Springer.
Hargreaves, A. (2001a). Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record,
Scott, C., & Sutton, R. E. (2009). Emotions and change during professional devel-
103, 1056e1080.
opment for teachers: a mixed methods study. Journal of Mixed Methods
Hargreaves, A. (2001b). The emotional geographies of teachers’ relations with
Research, 3, 151e171.
colleagues. International Journal of Educational Research, 35, 503e527.
Wang, T. (2006). Understanding Chinese culture and learning. In P. L. Jeffrey (Ed.),
Ho, I. T. (2001). Are Chinese teachers authoritarian? In D. A. Watkins, & J. B. Biggs
Proceedings of the international research conference of the Australian Association
(Eds.), Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and pedagogical perspectives
for Research in Education. Adelaide, SA: Australian Association for Research
(pp. 99e114) Hong Kong and Melbourne: Comparative Education Research
in Education, Retrieved 12 April 2011 from http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/
Centre and the Australian Council for Educational Research.
wan06122.pdf.
Hochschild, A. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American
Watkins, D. A. (2000). Learning and teaching. School Leadership and Management,
Journal of Sociology, 85, 551e575.
20, 161e173.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling.
Watkins, D. A., & Biggs, J. B. (2001). The paradox of the Chinese learner and beyond.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
In D. A. Watkins, & J. B. Biggs (Eds.), Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological
Hochschild, A. R. (1990). Ideology and emotion management: a perspective and
and pedagogical perspectives (pp. 3e23). Hong Kong and Melbourne: Compar-
path for future research. In T. Kemper (Ed.), Research agendas in the sociology of
ative Education Research Centre and the Australian Council for Educational
emotions (pp. 117e142). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Research.
Hofstede, G. (1991). Culture and organizations: Software of the mind. London:
Wharton, A. S. (2009). The sociology of emotional labor. Annual Review of Sociology,
McGraw-Hill.
35, 147e165.
Hofstede, G., & Bond, M. H. (1988). The Confucian connections: from cultural roots
Winograd, K. (2003). The functions of teacher emotions: The good, the bad, and the
to economic growth. Organizational Dynamics, 16, 5e21.
ugly. Teachers College Record, 105, 1641e1673.
Isenbarger, L., & Zembylas, M. (2006). The emotional labour of caring in teaching.
Yik, M. (2010). How unique is Chinese emotion? In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The Oxford
Teaching and Teacher education, 22, 120e134.
handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 205e220) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kelchtermans, G. (1996). Teacher vulnerability: understanding its moral and
Yin, H. B., & Lee, J. C. K. (2011). Emotions matter: teachers’ feelings of their inter-
political roots. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26, 307e324.
action with teacher trainers in curriculum reform. Chinese Education and Society,
Kelchtermans, G. (2005). Teachers’ emotions in educational reforms: Self-
44(4), 82e97.
understanding, vulnerable commitment and micropolitical literacy. Teaching
Zembylas, M. (2002). Structures of feeling" in curriculum and teaching: theorizing
and Teacher Education, 21, 995e1006.
the emotional rules. Educational Theory, 52, 187e208.
Kemper, T. D. (1993). Sociological models in the explanation of emotions. In
Zembylas, M. (2003). Emotions and teacher identity. Teachers and Teaching: Theory
M. Lewis, & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 41e51). New York:
and Practice, 9, 213e238.
The Guilford Press.
Zembylas, M. (2004). Emotion metaphors and emotional labor in science teaching.
Kitching, K. (2009). Teachers’ negative experiences and expressions of emotion: Being
Science Education, 88, 301e324.
true to yourself or keeping you in your place? Irish Educational Studies, 28, 141e154.
Zembylas, M. (2005). Discursive practices, genealogies, and emotional rules:
Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency
a poststructuralist view on emotion and identity in teaching. Teaching and
and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching
Teacher Education, 21, 935e948.
and Teacher Education, 21, 899e916.
Zembylas, M. (2006). Witnessing in the classroom: the ethics and politics of affect.
Lee, J. C. K., & Yin, H. B. (2011). Teachers’ emotions and professional identity in curric-
Educational Theory, 56, 305e324.
ulum reform: A Chinese perspective. Journal of Educational Change, 12, 25e46.
Zembylas, M. (2007). Theory and methodology in researching emotions in educa-
Lee, J. C. K., Yin, H. B., & Zhang, Z. H. (2009). Exploring the influence of the classroom
tion. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 30, 57e72.
environment on students’ motivation and self-regulated learning in Hong Kong.
Zhang, Q., & Zhu, W. (2008). Exploring emotion in teaching: emotional labor,
The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 18, 219e232.
burnout, and satisfaction in Chinese higher education. Communication Educa-
Leung, J. P. (1998). Emotions and mental health in Chinese people. Journal of Child
tion, 57, 105e122.
and Family Studies, 7, 115e128.
Zhu, C., Valcke, M., & Schellens, T. (2010). A cross-cultural study of teacher perspectives
Lewis, R., Romi, S., Qui, X., & Katz, Y. J. (2005). Teachers’ classroom discipline and
on teacher roles and adoption of online collaborative learning in higher education.
student misbehavior in Australia, China and Israel. Teacher and Teacher Educa-
European Journal of Teacher Education, 33, 147e165.
tion, 21, 729e741.