“I have to split myself”: emotional labour and cleft habitus among dental academics in Malaysia

This descriptive qualitative study explores how dental academics in a single resource-constrained Malaysian private university experience and negotiate emotional labour (EL), using Bourdieu’s relational concepts—habitus, cleft habitus, emotional capital, symbolic violence, and field—as analytic tools. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews of eleven faculty across academic ranks, we employed abductive thematic analysis to interpret how EL is performed, silenced, and resisted within institutional logics that prioritise visibility, compliance, and performative professionalism. Our findings illuminate three interrelated tensions: the moral pull of teaching amid institutional constraint; the symbolic misrecognition of care and affective investment; and the identity fragmentation that emerges when emotional authenticity collides with managerial norms. Participants frequently described the experience of “splitting” themselves—managing emotional expectations while preserving their sense of vocational integrity. We argue that EL in this setting cannot be reduced to individual psychological strain; rather, it is a sociologically embedded and symbolically governed practice shaped by institutional hierarchies and cultural expectations. By advancing the concept of cleft habitus in relation to EL, the study offers a theoretically grounded contribution to health professions education from a unique sociological vantage point. We conclude with implications for faculty development, well-being policy, and equity-informed institutional reform. Recognising and redistributing EL, particularly in private and low-resource settings, is essential to cultivate sustainable academic environments that affirm the emotional, pedagogical, and relational dimensions of educational work.