Feeling and acting in classroom teaching: The relationships between teachers’ emotional labor, commitment, and well-being

The teaching profession is considered highly emotionally demanding. While teachers’ emotional labor has been found to be related to their commitment and well-being, little is known about the nuanced interrelationships between these constructs within classroom contexts, and inquiry in this area has been dominated by quantitative methods without contextual support from qualitative data. This paper reports on a survey study conducted among 803 junior high school teachers teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in China. Quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and complemented by qualitative data elicited through open-ended questions in the survey. It was found that, of the three dimensions of emotional labor (i.e., the expression of naturally felt emotions, surface acting, and deep acting) performed in classroom teaching, only deep acting significantly predicted teacher well-being both directly and indirectly through commitment. The implications of these findings for teachers and institutions are finally presented. •Teachers' emotional labor, commitment, and well-being are interrelated.•Data were collected from 803 junior high school EFL teachers in China.•Quantitative data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.•Quantitative results were complemented by qualitative data obtained in the survey.•Deep acting predicted well-being both directly and indirectly through commitment.