Moving the Debate Forward: A Cross-Sectional Study Examining Marxist and Interactionalist Perspectives of Emotional Labor in Teaching

The Marxist perspective asserts that teachers' emotional labor is alienating because it is prescribed by institutional forces such as external accountability, leading to burnout. However, the interactionist perspective disagrees with this perspective; it posits that teachers possess subjectivity, such as a sense of calling, which enables them to intentionally manage their emotions to achieve self-actualization. Thus, this study aims to contribute to the debate by examining the relationships amongst teachers' emotional labor, external accountability, sense of calling, and burnout in China. The findings reveal (1) a negative relationship between external accountability and burnout that is mediated by various forms of emotional labor and (2) a significant moderation effect of a sense of calling on the relationship between external accountability and emotional labor. The findings generally support the internationalist perspective but show that the Marxist perspective may be applicable in explaining emotional labor amongst teachers with a weak sense of calling.