"At times, I feel I'm talking to myself": An EFL teacher's emotional geographies in emergency remote teaching

M. Faruq Ubaidillah
Universitas Islam Malang, Indonesia
Emy Sudarwati
Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia
Nunung Suryati
Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia
Ehsan Namaziandost
Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Iran

This paper reports on a narrative study that delves into the emotional experiences of an EFL teacher in emergency remote teaching situated in a higher education context in Indonesia. Data for this study were garnered from in-depth interviews during a two-month period. Anchored by Hargreaves' (2001a) emotional geographies on physical, moral, sociocultural, professional, and political aspects of lecturing, the study's findings revealed that the participant experienced sustainable adaptation through negotiated emotional changes in her emergency remote teaching. Such a situated practice gives rise to the issue of teacher professional development in times of crisis and how policymakers treat teacher emotions as an embedded domain in the teaching profession. The study also unveiled participants' agentive actions in overcoming the emotional geographies during emergency remote teaching. This empirical evidence situates teacher emotion as an influential aspect of a teacher's professional growth.
[ PDF full text for this article ]

Authors: M. Faruq Ubaidillah (corresponding author) is a lecturer at the Department of English Education, Universitas Islam Malang, Indonesia. He is currently undertaking a doctorate by research at the Faculty of Languages, Arts, and Cultures, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia. His research has been on using narrative inquiry to understand EFL teachers' identity, emotions, agency, and beliefs. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0275-8283 Email: mfubaidillah@unisma.ac.id Dr Emy Sudarwati is a lecturer at the Department of Languages and Literature, Universitas Brawijaya Malang, Indonesia. She holds a PhD in ELT from Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. Her expertise lies in the areas of teacher professional development and critical reading. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6618-6109 Email: emoy_sanyoto@ub.ac.id Dr Nunung Suryati is a senior lecturer at the Department of English, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. She holds a PhD in English Education from The University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Her research interests include teacher professional development and teacher education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4672-2952 Email: nunung.suryati.fs@um.ac.id Dr Ehsan Namaziandost is a senior lecturer at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. His research interests include CALL, applied linguistics, educational psychology, teaching language skills, and language learning strategies. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8393-2537 Email: e.namazi75@yahoo.com Please cite as: Ubaidillah, M. F., Sudarwati, E., Suryati, N. & Namaziandost, E. (2023). "At times, I feel I'm talking to myself": An EFL teacher's emotional geographies in emergency remote teaching. Issues in Educational Research, 33(2), 821-838. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/ubaidillah.pdf