From Institutional Enforcement to CulturalRecognition: A Soft Support Model forEmotional Labor in China's University TeacherEthics Development
Journal: Region - Educational Research and Reviews DOI: 10.32629/rerr.v7i8.4505
Abstract
Under the national strategy of "cultivating virtue through education", university teachers are expected to embody the "four-have" standard. A survey of 336 faculty suggests that certain teacher professional-ethics initiatives are, on occasion, interpreted as emphasizing formality or symbolic engagement; Cross-tabulation (Q-2 × Q-26) shows 90.9 % of the "very dissatisfied" respondents are female lecturers aged 31-50, who simultaneously report the highest emotional-dissonance score (M = 4.3, SD = 0.7) on the five-point Likert scale. 62 % of respondents report adjusting personal reservations to better match shared institutional expectations, with women and mid-career lecturers expressing the greatest need for support. Qualitative accounts show that staff meet moral expectations through self-cultivation, reflective practice or, when guidance is lacking, ritual compliance. To strengthen the effectiveness of virtue-building constructions, we recommend: (1) recognizing counselling and peer-support hours in workload tables, (2) supplementing checklist evaluations with narrative portfolios that document real ethical dilemmas and solutions, and (3) providing short-term teaching relief and mentoring for high-dissonance groups.
Keywords
teacher ethics, emotional labor, identity negotiation, higher education, invisible labor
Funding
This research is supported by the Scientific Research Project of the Key Research Base of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Sichuan Universities — Sichuan Research Center for Ethnic Education Development, titled "Research on the Training Mechanism of Prof
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[2] Ni, S., & Peng, W. (2024). Dilemma and solutions for the construction of teachers' ethics in colleges and universities in the new era [In Chinese]. Journal of South-Central Minzu University (Humanities and Social Sciences), 44(10), 164-172.
[3] Guo, Y. (2022). Research on the path of improving teachers' professional ethics in the context of the new era. International Journal of Education and Humanities, 4(2), 33-36.
[4] Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
[5] Zembylas, M. (2007). Emotional ecology: The intersection of emotional knowledge and pedagogical discourse. Teachers College Press.
[6] Isenbarger, L., & Zembylas, M. (2006). The emotional labour of caring in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(1), 120-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.04.002
[7] Nie, W. (2025). Building a teacher development ecology under the guidance of educator spirit [In Chinese]. Journal of News Research, 16(14), 162-165.
[8] Yin, H., & Lee, J. C. K. (2021). Surface acting and deep acting among university teachers in China: The relationships with work engagement and job satisfaction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 100, Article 103285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103285
[9] Ting-Toomey, S. (2005). The matrix of face: An updated face-negotiation theory. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 71-92). Sage.
[10] Acker, S. (2012). Gendered regimes in British academe: The impact of ethics and accountability. In S. Acker & M. Webber (Eds.), Making the grade: Women faculty in academe (pp. 45-62). University of Toronto Press.
[11] Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228.https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093022000043065
[12] Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Pantheon. (Original work published 1975)
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