Unveiling emotional experiences: a phenomenological study of emotional labor in expatriate EFL teachers

This phenomenological study aimed to investigate the most common emotions experienced by expatriate EFL instructors and identify the factors that affect their emotional labor in the Turkish educational context. Emotional labor refers to the effort, expression, and management of emotions as part of one’s job responsibilities. In the context of this study, it specifically pertains to the emotional demands and challenges faced by expatriate EFL instructors during their teaching experiences. The study involved eight participants, consisting of five males and three females, working in different state and foundation universities across Türkiye. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data, which were then analyzed using MAXQDA software. The findings of the study revealed a range of both positive and negative emotions experienced by the participants. Negative emotions included stress, boredom, feeling ignored, job dislike, low motivation, and insecurity, while positive emotions entailed happiness, job satisfaction, love of one’s job, feeling appreciated, contentment, and motivation. The obtained results also indicated that the emotional labor of expatriate EFL instructors was influenced by two broad groups of positive and negative factors. The former group consisted of personal, interpersonal work-related relations, as well as institutional, and professional factors, while the latter was composed of personal, interpersonal work-related relations, as well as national, economic, institutional, and pedagogical categories. The findings were further discussed and several pedagogical implications were presented.