The Caring Performance and the ‘blooming student’: exploring the emotional labour of further education lecturers in Scotland

Abstract

The British further education (FE) sector has experienced almost continual restructuring as it adapts to simultaneously meet the evolving needs of industry and to tackle social injustice. Studies examining the work of FE lecturers suggest that they have become alienated and stressed by loss of autonomy and work intensification. This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative case study utilising the concept of emotional labour to explore how female care lecturers within a Scottish FE college experience the demands of their work. The findings suggest that the influence of the broader FE sector, along with professional and gender identities, is evident in the lecturer’s teaching and care ethics and is directly related to the emotional demands faced by the lecturers. Furthermore, it is suggested that as current austerity measures affect the sector, lecturers may find it difficult to recognise and challenge excessive levels of emotional labour that are associated with their work.

Keywords:

• further education
• emotional labour
• female lecturers
• caring
• education policy
• work intensification

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the following people for their valuable contributions: Dr Irene Malcolm for her guidance at the early stages of the research and the anonymous reviewers who helped to strengthen the article.