“Sailing Together in the Storm”: Chinese EFL Teachers’ Trajectory of Interpersonal Emotion Regulation towards Well-Being

Abstract

Teaching is an emotion-laden process during which teachers are inevitably confronted with emotional disturbance. This study examines how Chinese EFL teachers transform emotional disturbance into well-being through interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). Previous research has examined teacher emotion regulation at an individual level, yet the interpersonal perspective has not been sufficiently adopted. In order to have an in-depth investigation of teachers’ IER, three Chinese EFL teachers were selected; qualitative data were collected from narrative reflections, interviews, class observation, and field notes. The findings reveal that (1) EFL teachers’ trajectory of IER moves from deconstruction of emotional blocks in companionship and re-construction of emotional strength through trust to co-construction of emotional pedagogy with dialogues; (2) Intrinsic IER of teachers’ own emotion and extrinsic IER of students’ emotion were not separate but dynamically interacted; (3) Effective IER entails the interplay between teachers’ readiness for reflective inquiry and learning peers’ capacity for emotional support; (4) Teachers’ IER is interwoven with ethical development. The study also suggests that effective teacher IER contributes to their professional learning in terms of triggering the revisitation of teaching conceptions and educational beliefs to better serve students’ learning. This study sheds light on the construction of a social support system for the sustainability of teachers’ emotional well-being as well as their professional development.