Language Teacher Candidates' Emotion Labor Transcending Circulating Language Ideologies

In this comparative study, we examine one English as a foreign language and one bilingual education teacher candidate’s (TC) insecurities and anxieties, arising from their positioning as non-native speakers of English and heritage speakers of Spanish across spaces (e.g., home, school, work). We draw on notions of teacher emotion and agency (Benesh, 2012; Song, 2016; Zembylas, 2002) to examine ethnographic data (i.e., classroom observation, interview, and artifacts) coming from two yearlong studies. Specifically, we look at how these two TCs negotiate circulating native speaker ideologies in ways that enable them to mitigate their insecurities/anxieties and therefore reduce the emotional work that entails teaching a/in a language in which they do not feel entirely confident. Despite the different geographical locations of these two TCs, data demonstrate that they grappled with and transcended several emotions in connection to their linguistic identities within their corresponding sociopolitical and cultural contexts. Our findings have implications for teacher education, with special regard to the adoption of teacher education policies and practices that may cultivate well-being among English as a foreign language and bilingual education TCs.