Understanding teachers’ emotional trajectory: the voice of a volunteer teacher in an educationally and economically underdeveloped context

ABSTRACT

This qualitative case study explores one college teacher’s emotional trajectory during volunteer teaching in a constrained (i.e., educationally and economically underdeveloped) context. The study shows that the teacher’s emotions were continually shaped by external and internal factors over an academic year. The volunteer teacher’s self-agency gradually emerged as a vital internal factor in regulating his fluctuating emotions and demonstrating his positive emotions for teaching. Additionally, while the teacher’s emotions were generally expressed in a positive manner, in-the-moment emotions were also expressed negatively to galvanise students’ learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional trajectory
• constrained contexts
• transition
• volunteer teaching

Ethics statement

The researcher of this study complied with university ethics standards. Participants were given informed consent forms before data collection.

Additional information

Funding

The author would like to thank the support of National Social Science Foundation of China [17CYY019].

Notes on contributors

Xiaodong Zhang

Xiaodong Zhang is an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. His research interests include teacher education and educational technology.