(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
The concept of emotional labor is applicable to college-level writing instruction because of the
need for instructors to suppress or modify their emotions when addressing student writing issues
while also attempting to meet administrative directives or institutional behavioral expectations.
Emotional labor by teachers also plays a key role in helping students to learn appropriate
emotional responses and displays as part of their professional training for their respective
industry. Bellas (1999) suggests that while teaching and service clearly involve substantial
amounts of emotional labor, this labor is generally not seen as involving valued skills and, as a
result, is poorly rewarded. This often increases teacher frustration.
Brennan (2006) states that while Hochschild’s (1983) work on the institutionalization of emotion
does not focus specifically on the teaching profession, teachers, as a consequence of their
professional duties, perform significant emotional labor. “Not only is emotional labour [sic]
expected of teachers, but teachers are a significant force in the reproduction of emotional
institutionalization” (p. 55). Brennan (2006) feels that as a consequence of their professional
duties, teachers perform significant emotional labor and that the teaching profession requires
strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of emotional labor.
Hochschild (1983) proposes that jobs involving emotional labor can be defined by three preconditions
which (1) require face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact between the employee and the
public; (2) require the employee to produce an emotional state in another person; and, (3) allow
the employee to exercise a degree of control over emotional activities. Brennan (2006) suggests
that teaching is a good example of a profession that requires emotional labor because it satisfies
each of Hochschild’s (1983) three pre-conditions.
According to Brennan (2006), the first pre-condition of direct contact with the public is satisfied
by the ongoing contact that occurs between the teacher and student. The second pre-condition of
maintaining or modifying emotions is met based on the teacher’s responsibility for the emotional
well being of the student as well as socializing students into a context-appropriate feeling rules
system. The third pre-condition is affected by the teacher’s employer and is based on the
expectations of school administrators, professional bodies, and the general public.
One very tangible example to illustrate these three pre-conditions is the controversy among high
school teachers in Japan regarding Kimigayo and the Hinomaru (Hongo, 2008). In 1989, Japan’s
national curricula guidelines for schools were revised to require teachers to sing Kimigayo—
Japan’s national anthem—while facing the Hinomaru, Japan’s national flag—during official
school ceremonies. Opponents of this requirement say the two symbols have been perpetual
sources of controversy because of their connection to Japan’s contentious military history.
What opponents say they resent is being forced to value such icons, an act that they feel breaches
their constitutional rights. The controversy involving Japan’s teachers is similar to the emotional
labor that is created by individuals in the United States, for example, who feel their constitutional
rights are being infringed upon by being required to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance” to the
American flag.
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