Introduction
Following its outbreak in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a considerable shift in work patterns across multiple industries. Taiwan continued education through online platforms, maintaining a “no suspension of classes” approach to ensure uninterrupted teaching and student learning. However, this transition imposed challenges on teachers, many of whom faced substantial stress and anxiety due to the demands of online teaching. Accordingly, this study focused on emotional labor, specifically surface acting and deep acting, as antecedent variables. During online teaching, teachers must maintain a strong belief in and enthusiasm for teaching to effectively foster student engagement and learning outcomes. The present study selected teacher self-efficacy as its outcome variable and explored the effects of surface acting and deep acting on teacher self-efficacy in the context of online teaching. The relevant literature suggests that mindfulness in teaching can enhance the effectiveness of teaching strategies and mitigate emotional exhaustion in teachers, thereby warranting its inclusion as a moderating variable in this study.
Relevant studies have indicated that surface acting in emotional labor diminishes individual well-being and lowers self-efficacy, whereas deep acting enhances individual well-being and increases self-efficacy. Furthermore, deep acting positively predicts classroom management self-efficacy, whereas surface acting negatively affects such self-efficacy. However, these findings are based on traditional face-to-face teaching methods and lack support from empirical research regarding the relationships among teachers’ surface acting, deep acting, and self-efficacy during the online teaching period prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Additionally, understanding of the moderating role of teaching mindfulness in the relationships among surface acting, deep acting, and teacher self-efficacy remains limited. Accordingly, this study aimed to determine (1) how teacher surface acting and deep acting influence teacher self-efficacy in the context of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) the moderating role of teaching mindfulness in the relationships among teacher surface acting, deep acting, and self-efficacy.
Research Purpose
This study examined how teacher emotional labor affected teacher self-efficacy during the online teaching period prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan and investigated the moderating role of teaching mindfulness in the relationship between teacher emotional labor and self-efficacy. The aim of this study was to clarify the differential effects of surface acting and deep acting on teacher self-efficacy in the context of online teaching. The results of this study are expected to contribute to practical implications for teaching and to suggest timely support and assistance for teachers engaged in online teaching in order to enhance overall teaching effectiveness within school organizations.
Data Collection
The present research methodology conducted a questionnaire survey targeting primary school teachers in Taiwan with experience of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic period. A total of 644 valid responses were collected. The study utilized an English scale from an internationally published journal. To ensure conceptual validity and to avoid any loss of meaning due to translation, a back-translation process was employed. In addition, adjustments were made to some wordings to suit the context of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, and relevant explanations were added accordingly.
This study employed the emotional labor scale developed by Diefendorff et al. (2005) to assess teacher surface acting and deep acting during online teaching in the pandemic period. The measurement tool for surface acting consisted of seven items, whereas the measurement tool for deep acting consisted of four items.
The Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001) was employed to assess self-efficacy among teachers engaged in online teaching. This scale contains three dimensions— namely “Teaching Strategies” (four items), “Classroom Management” (four items), and “Student Engagement” (four items)— yielding a total of 12 items.
The Mindfulness in Teaching Scale developed by Frank et al. (2016) was employed to assess teacher mindfulness. This scale comprises eight items across two dimensions: “Intrapersonal Mindfulness” (six items) and “Interpersonal Mindfulness” (two items).
Data Analysis
IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0 was used to perform quantitative statistical analysis of the survey data. The data analysis methods utilized in this study included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis. Multiple regression analysis was employed to examine how surface acting and deep acting influenced teacher self-efficacy and to investigate the moderating effects of teaching mindfulness.
Results
The study results revealed that during the period of online teaching prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, higher levels of surface acting among teachers were associated with lower self-efficacy, whereas higher levels of deep acting were associated with higher self-efficacy. Furthermore, the moderating effect of teaching mindfulness on the relationship between deep acting and self-efficacy was not significant. Finally, no significant difference was found in the reduction of self-efficacy between teachers with high levels of mindfulness who engaged in surface acting and those with low levels of mindfulness.
Recommendations
At the school level, organizational culture can substantially affect teachers’ emotional labor. Organizations can enhance the substance of a teacher’s job structure while fostering a school culture based on mutual trust and support. These actions are particularly crucial in the context of online teaching, where support for teachers’ instructional efforts is even more essential. Hiring experts to conduct training or relevant workshops related to emotional regulation for teachers can empower educators to apply their professional knowledge to develop personalized emotional expression skills. Such skill development can, in turn, improve teachers’ foundational ability to control their emotions and thus align with external expectations regarding their educational goals. In the context of online teaching, supporting teachers in managing their emotions appropriately and effectively by using emotional labor strategies is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness of online teaching.
Suggestions for Future Research
Future research should incorporate genuine emotional expression into strategies for emotional labor. Although this study analyzed only teachers from primary schools in Taiwan, it did not specifically analyze numbers of teachers in different regions. Accordingly, future research could investigate the distribution of teachers on the basis of the geographical locations of the primary schools where they teach. Because teachers are embedded within schools and because each school may have unique resources and methods of supporting online teaching, teachers from a single school often share certain common traits. Future research could utilize hierarchical linear modeling to explore relationships among variables at different levels. Finally, this study employed a quantitative research approach, and the self-reported data obtained limited the in-depth understanding of the participants’ performance in emotional labor and self-efficacy. Accordingly, future research is recommended to employ qualitative methods, such as interviews, to collect data and verify the authenticity of self-reported information.
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