Chinese novice English teachers’ emotional experiences and emotion labor under the Double Reduction policy reform: a qualitative case study

Despite ongoing education reforms in China aimed at improving teaching quality, the emotional experiences of novice English teachers have received limited scholarly attention. To support teacher well-being during periods of change, this case study investigates the emotional experiences and emotion labor of six novice English teachers in Chinese primary and middle schools as they adapt to the Double Reduction policy reform, drawing on interview data. In addition to taking a bottom-up perspective from teachers, the study also analyzes policy documents to examine the embedded feeling rules within the Double Reduction policy, with the aim of better understanding how teachers navigate these feeling rules through their emotion labor. The results indicate that while some novice English teachers reported positive emotions, many experienced stress, confusion, and anxiety during the initial stages of implementing the reform. In response, these teachers engaged in emotion labor at the intra-psychological, pedagogical, and relational levels to navigate the policy-imposed feeling rules, including empathy, patience, and responsibility; moral anger toward rule-breaking; commitment to educational equity; and enthusiasm for innovative teaching. Their emotion labor reflected both professional activism and strategic resistance, as teachers actively aligned reform expectations with their existing teaching beliefs and selectively preserved effective pre-reform practices.