Onderwys as emosionele arbeid: 'n Verkennende studie
Date
2009-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
Schools, parents and learners have certain expectations of teachers, including their
expectations regarding the emotional behaviour of teachers in the classroom. This
implies that teachers are occasionally required to project emotions that they are not
really experiencing, thereby affecting and influencing their own identity and integrity
as teachers. It is with this phenomenon in mind that the influence of feeling rules that
form part of emotional labour was researched: the experiences of teachers, and the
support that schools provide in this regard, as well as the impact of emotional labour
on different teachers. The problem studied is the role that emotional labour plays in
the high school educator’s classroom. This problem was researched specifically in
the context of the teachers’ personal experiences and opinions. The study focused on
how teachers experience emotional labour in their classrooms and working
environment, and the influence that it has on them. The primary objective of this
research was to analyse and describe the teachers’ perceptions and experiences of
emotional labour in the teaching environment. On the one hand, teachers must be
aware of the role that emotional labour plays in the classroom. On the other hand, it
is particularly important that the management of schools should provide teachers
with the required recognition, support and development relevant to this important
concept. The purpose of this study is therefore, to sensitise awareness of this concept
and to contribute to improved insight into it, so that the feelings and perceptions of
teachers regarding the effort that emotional labour demands from them can be better
understood. This study has a generic qualitative perspective in the use of the research
approach and methods that embrace a phenomenological point of view, where reality
is based upon the perceptions of teachers –in the field – that participated in the study.
The result is of a descriptive nature. A non-probability sampling technique was
adopted, specifically the convenience sample, on the basis of which ten participants
were selected according to their availability and willingness to participate in this
study. Data was generated by means of semi-structured interviews with two focus
groups and four individual interviews recorded on tape and transcribed verbatim.
Data processing was done by means of the constant comparative method of analysis.
The coding of data according to certain selection criteria led to the identification of
themes, categories and sub-categories. The relationships between the themes were
integrated into a conceptual model. These themes describe the possible elements that
influence the role of emotional labour in the classroom of the educator. The results
illustrate that teachers identify the elements that play a role in how the teachers in
this group experience emotional labour in the classroom: their identity as teachers,
their work context, the feeling rules, the support they receive or the lack thereof, the
extent of their practical experience in education, the strategies they use in handling
emotional labour, and lastly, the consequences of emotional labour. This implies that
the ability of teachers to experience emotional labour positively in the education
environment is largely dependent on the support, guidance and leadership that they
receive from their schools.
Description
Thesis (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
Keywords
Theses -- Educational psychology, Dissertations -- Educational psychology