Emotional expectations of educators : the social imaginary and emotional labor of teachers in American news media

Sammanfattning: Drawing on Charles Taylor’s modern social imaginary, this study offers a perspective for understanding how teachers are represented and characterized in American news media. Specifically, I study the way the social imaginary of teachers contributes to the performance of Arlie Russell Hochschild’s notion of emotional labor. I use this approach to analyze a case study of teacher representations in American mainstream news using the national news provider, NBC, and its local affiliate WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina. The data for this study spanned the time period from March 2020 to February 2021. Using a political economic approach, this inquiry examined the dynamic between media, power, the social imaginary of teachers, and related emotional labor in the American news media. Findings indicate that media, in the news narratives, perpetuates strong expectations of teachers’ emotional connection with students. In addition, analysis showed that teachers tend to represent themselves as having an inherent quality or ‘nature’ for teaching, and participate heavily in disseminating the social imaginary of teachers. Thirdly, the analysis revealed teachers are portrayed as resilient in news media, perpetuating what Taylor called a ‘false social imaginary.’ This thesis contributes to the understanding how media plays a role the shaping of the modern social imaginary of teachers. It also highlighted the way that teachers are perceived by others and themselves, and the importance of these perceptions in the shaping of teachers’ experiences. Taken together, these finding contribute to the body of knowledge of the social imaginary, showing how the media constructs narratives about teachers and how these narratives shape teachers’ everyday experiences in American society.