Teaching English on a desert island: Primary school teachers' emotional experiences and professional identities

Abstract

Teachers’ emotional lives and their identities are key determinants of how likely they are to stay in the profession and flourish in their professional careers; all of these processes affect how they teach and how learners learn. However, there is a lack of research to understand how these processes specifically affect primary school English teachers. This study examined the emotional experiences and identities of ten English language teachers working in primary schools in South Korea. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic reflexive analysis. The analysis revealed three main themes: Becoming an island in primary schools, coping with emotional challenges, and distancing oneself from English language teaching. The data show that these primary school teachers, who teach English in Korea, experience marginalisation in sociocultural environments shaped by native-speakerist ideologies. This leads to challenging emotional experiences which affect their identities as English teachers as well as their overall job satisfaction. The findings highlight the importance of teachers feeling valued in their professional roles and suggest that ensuring teachers are esteemed for their work and supported both emotionally and practically is essential for teacher retention.