Emotional labor and burnout among Turkish primary school teachers

• Published in: Australian educational researcher 2014-04, Vol.41 (2), p.155-169
• Main Authors: Ugur Akin, Inayet Aydin, Çetin Erdogan, Nihan Demirkasimoglu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Education; Educational Policy and Politics; Educational Psychology; Elementary School Teachers; Emotional experience; Emotional labour; Emotional response; Emotions; Employees; Gender differences; Grade 4; Individualized Instruction; Labor; Middle School Teachers; Primary education; Primary school teachers; Science Teachers; Students; Surveys; Teacher attitudes; Teacher Burnout; Teacher response; Teaching; Teaching and Teacher Education
• ISSN: 0311-6999; 2210-5328
• DOI: 10.1007/s13384-013-0138-4

Emotions play a critical role in teaching, especially in primary schools. Teachers have to manage their feelings in order to sustain a positive classroom climate. Managing feelings as a requirement of work is called emotional labour, which is a relatively new area of research in teaching. The main aim of this research was to investigate the type of emotional labour strategies Turkish primary school teachers often use and whether emotional labour is a predictor of burnout for primary teachers in a Turkish context. Also, the authors explore if there is a significant variation in emotional labour in terms of gender and school type (public/private). A survey was conducted with the participation of 370 primary school teachers from Ankara, Turkey. Results indicated that Turkish primary school teachers mostly engage in genuine emotions in their relationships with students. Female teachers use deep and surface acting strategies more often than males. Also, private school teachers were found to use deep acting strategies and display genuine emotions more often than public school teachers. Finally, it was found that emotional labour is a significant predictor of burnout among Turkish primary school teachers. [Author abstract]