Coping with emotionally challenging expectations: Japanese beginning teachers and their relationships with students’ parents'

This article examines emotionally challenging expectations in the relationships beginning teachers have with students’ parents. The data consist of narrative interviews with 17 Japanese beginning teachers. Due to strong cultural and social norms prescribing appropriate social interactions, Japanese teachers have little leeway in negotiating parents’ expectations. We found that beginning teachers described facing three emotionally challenging expectations in their relationships with students’ parents: 1) they do not fully understand what is expected of them; 2) they are expected to turn to colleagues for help with difficult issues involving parents; and 3) they are expected to endure and learn from criticism. To cope with these emotionally challenging expectations, beginning teachers perform emotional labour. The article presents a wider understanding of teachers’ work as a relational practice and offers insights that can be used to move beyond the discourse that frames beginning teachers from a ‘deficit’ perspective.

Jaar van publicatie:2021

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:1

CSS-citation score:2

Auteurs:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Open