“ The emotional roller coaster of learning to teach” : a narrative case study on a Chinese foreign language teacher’s emotional labour and regulation strategies in teacher professional learning community

The teaching profession involves significant emotional dimensions, particularly in contexts demanding substantial professional development. This narrative case study examines one Chinese foreign language teacher’s emotional experience and development within a professional learning community over 2 years. Through analysis of 20 reflective journals, the study traced how this teacher navigated four main challenges: professional capability-aspiration discrepancies, identity transitions, pedagogical innovation implementation, and performance anxiety. In this teacher’s case, emotional labour appeared to progress from reactive coping mechanisms to more sophisticated regulatory approaches across three identifiable phases: early phase surface-level strategies (environmental control, preparation), middle phase deeper approaches (cognitive restructuring, social identification), and advanced phase proactive strategies (meta-cognitive awareness, identity reconstruction). Analysis suggests that emotional labour may be better understood as an evolving process wherein regulatory strategies become increasingly sophisticated as a teacher’s integration into professional communities deepens, rather than as static skills. The study demonstrates how this teacher employed diverse regulation strategies – cognitive reappraisal, social identification, problem-focused coping, and reflective practice – as constitutive mechanisms of emotional labour. Findings suggest that professional learning communities may benefit from scaffolding teachers’ emotional labour development through structured reflection and differentiated support, potentially enhancing both teacher well-being and professional effectiveness.