26 - Artistry - Emotional Labour - Fossey

Emotional Labour and the Artistry of Teaching
Peter Fossey: University of Warwick

The rise of emotion work in UK higher education has not gone unnoticed (e.g., Ogbonna and Harris 2004; Koster 2011; Berry and Kassidy 2013; Tunguz 2016; Heffernan and Bosetti 2020). The pedagogical role of emotions has been explored, usually as a sub-field of the study of political emotions (e.g., Boler 1998; Zembylas 2015; Plumb 2016). The conceptual framework of emotional labour has been used to shed light on the well-being and job satisfaction of academics, and facilitate understanding of trends in the type of work that academics are doing. These concepts and resources have as yet been little put to use understanding and supporting academic practice. Roughly, the focus has been on how much time and energy staff expend on emotional labour, why they need to, and how it affects them. Emotional labour as an aspect of the artistry of teaching practice is still under-explored.

It will be argued that the creation of fruitful emotional contexts is an aspect of the artistry of teaching in HE. Success in this area depends on the practitioner's ability to work with a high degree of uncertainty, and confront framing problems where something valuable is at stake. It will be argued that this kind of work is not separable from HE teaching practice; it is central to the lecturer's role, and cannot easily or felicitously be deferred or ignored. The presentation focuses on emotional responses closely intertwined with "transformational learning", and how transformational learning experiences present framing problems for the lecturer and learners. Exploration of this example raises other potential areas for investigation.

References

Berry, S.E and Kassidy, S.F (2013) Emotional labour in university lecturers : considerations for higher education institutions in Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 2:2. 22-36

Boler, M. (1999) Feeling Power: Emotions and Education. (New York:Routledge)

Koster, S. (2011) The self-managed heart: Teaching gender and doing emotional labour in a higher education institution in Pedagogy. Culture & Society 1:1, 61-77.

Troy A. Heffernan & Lynn Bosetti (2020): The emotional labour and toll of managerial academia on higher education leaders, in Journal of Educational Administration and History

Tunguz, S. (2016) In the eye of the beholder: emotional labor in academia varies with tenure and gender in Studies in Higher Education 41:1, 3-20.

Ogbonna, E., & Harris, L. C. (2004). Work Intensification and Emotional Labour among UK University Lecturers: An Exploratory Study. Organization Studies 25:7, 1185-1203.

Donovan Plumb (2014) Emotions and human concern: Adult education and the
philosophical thought of Martha Nussbaum, Studies in the Education of Adults 46:2, 145-162

Zembylas, M. (2015) "Pedagogy of discomfort"and its ethical implications: the tensions of ethical violence in social justice education in Ethics and Education 10:2, 163-174