Emotional breakdown and inability to “lighten the burden”: a qualitative study of the emotional burden of contemporary rural teachers in China

The emotional state and burden of rural teachers is a prominent issue in the current development of rural education in China. This paper has introduced relevant concepts from emotional geographies to its qualitative study that explores the emotional performance, the causes of emotional burden of 42 rural teachers of 10 primary and secondary schools in the less developed areas of Guangdong province in China, and focuses on analyzing why it is so difficult for rural teachers to “lighten the burden” at present. Research has found that the five different emotional geographies in the field of emotional geographies intertwine and interact to influence rural teachers. The interactions between students and parents, school administrators, administrative authorities, and teachers play a significant role in generating negative emotions among rural teachers in different emotional geographies. Especially, the administrative tasks assigned by administrative authorities, as mentioned in the concept of political geographies, and the lack of effective support for rural teachers’ emotional intelligence from schools lead emotional burden, even emotional breakdown. Among the five emotional geographies, political geographies has the greatest impact on teacher emotions, which is closely related to the power structure in Chinese schools, combined with the unique characteristics of rural school environments, creates a particularly challenging situation for “lighten the burden” of rural teachers in China.