1 Introduction

It introduces the importance of teachers' emotional labor, pointing out the positive impact of good teacher-student emotional relationships on teaching. It also elaborates on the significance of online teaching in International Chinese Education and the challenges it faces, emphasizes the particularity of emotional labor for International Chinese teachers, and explains the research methods and objectives.

2 Previous Research

It reviews the definitions and strategies of teacher emotional labor. Starting from Goffman's impression management theory, Hochschild proposed the concept of emotional labor, emphasizing that employees adjust their emotional expressions according to rules. Teaching work meets the conditions for emotional labor, requiring the establishment of good relationships with students and others, and demonstrating professionalism. Emotional labor strategies are divided into surface acting, deep acting, and genuine expression, among others. Different scholars have further subdivided and expanded these strategies, but there is currently little specialized research on the emotional labor strategies of International Chinese teachers.

3 Research Design

It details the research design of the study on the emotional labor strategies of International Chinese teachers in online teaching. The study subjects were 12 experienced teachers with more than five years of teaching experience. Semi-structured telephone interviews were used to collect data, with interview durations ranging from 30 to 50 minutes, focusing on emotional experiences and regulation methods. Data analysis was based on interview transcripts, referencing emotional labor strategy research and scales. Through micro-analysis, classification coding, and theme extraction, new core codes were constructed, expanding the scope of the strategy framework. To ensure the objectivity of the research results, validity testing was conducted using multi-researcher reviews and majority decision-making, ultimately resulting in a data analysis results table.

4 Research Results

Through in-depth research on the emotional labor strategies of International Chinese teachers in online teaching, it reveals the various emotional labor strategies teachers employ during teaching and their usage. The study found that experienced teachers use surface strategies less frequently, with the "compromise" strategy being the most frequently used and the "pretending" strategy the least frequently used. The compromise strategy involves teachers choosing emotional concessions when facing difficulties and challenges in teaching to maintain classroom order and the normal progress of teaching work. For example, when network delays hinder teaching, teachers may choose to compromise and alleviate emotional stress through self-comfort. The pretending strategy involves teachers feigning unreal emotions to meet the emotional demands of teaching, but due to its high cost and potential to cause emotional dissonance, its frequency of use is relatively low.

The study also found that teachers adopt various strategies in deep acting to adjust and transform their emotions, aligning internal emotions with external experiences. Among these, the restructuring strategy involves changing the understanding of a situation to generate emotional expressions, helping teachers alleviate teaching pressure and enhance teaching abilities. The detachment strategy separates work emotions from personal emotions to avoid adverse interference between the two, helping teachers maintain good professional conduct and personal quality of life. The refocusing strategy involves teachers adjusting their attention to focus on teaching while ignoring distractions. Although not used frequently, it helps teachers alleviate emotional distress to some extent. The structural dependency strategy involves teachers relying on external factors such as parents, students, and schools for support and stress relief, and it is used relatively frequently.

Additionally, genuine expression strategies include venting and release. Venting involves teachers directly expressing negative emotions to achieve teaching objectives, such as managing classroom discipline through muting or threatening penalties. Release involves teachers sincerely expressing positive emotions, such as expressing gratitude and happiness when students show concern. These findings provide valuable insights into how International Chinese teachers manage emotions in the complex and ever-changing online teaching environment and offer useful references for teacher training and teaching practices.

5 Conclusion

It summarizes the findings of the study on the emotional labor strategies of International Chinese teachers in online teaching, highlighting the characteristics of experienced teachers' use of emotional labor strategies, emphasizing the significant impact of teacher emotions on teaching work, and proposing implications for research and development in teacher emotional labor. These include valuing teachers' subjective emotions, encouraging good connections between teachers and the external environment, and enriching teachers' positive emotional resources. It also points out the limitations of the study and future research directions.