Exploring the role of emotional capital in online teaching: A poly-ethnography of TESOL teacher educators

Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital argues that social assets confer and promote social status and power in a stratified society. Derived from this notion is the concept of emotional capital which refers to the personal and social skills one possesses to identify, interpret, respond to, and express their own emotions and to recognize and value the emotions of others (Cottingham, 2016; Zembylas, 2007). It adapts Bourdieu’s (1986) theoretical position that social factors – a symbolic collection of demographic variables, status, skills, mannerisms, credentials, and material elements – determine how one positions themselves in relation to others. With reference to emotions, this theory assumes that various factors of our social life impact the processes of acknowledging, respecting, and attending to emotions as well as the personal, institutional, and social resources available to an individual to assert and manage their emotional needs. Applying this theoretical framework to online TESOL teacher education, this study explores the self-esteem (i.e., opinion of oneself), self-regulation (i.e., capacity to control behaviours and thoughts), resilience (i.e., ability to respond to challenges), emotional energy (i.e., ability to steer toward positive emotions), and optimism (i.e. confidence in positive outcomes) of three teacher trainers with diverse demographic backgrounds, teaching experiences, and academic positions within the site university. This study adopts a polyethnographic approach, which is a methodology that juxtaposes the experiences, perceptions, and assumptions of several individuals to understand social phenomenon through reflexive dialogue (Norris et al., 2012). Through in-depth discussions about the inward and outward expressions of emotions and the emotional capital utilized and gained, the study seeks to give voice to the emotional journey of university educators (during and after the pandemic), capture the dynamics of power, illuminate the skills and habits involved in processing emotions, and articulate emotional knowledge and feeling capacities in online teacher education.