Text‑Based Analysis of Teachers’ Emotional Labor in American Educational Policies: An Exploratory Study Based on Grounded Theory

As a core component of educational work, teachers’ emotional labor has long remained implicit within policy discourses. Adopting grounded‑theory methodology, this study systematically analyzes federal educational laws, state‑level policies and professional standard documents in the United States to explore how teachers’ emotional labor is constructed, its underlying logic and institutional tensions embedded in policy discourses. Through three‑level coding of 52 policy documents, three core categories are identified: instrumental emotional discipline, institutionalization of care‑based ethics, and the accountability paradox of emotional labor. This paper unpacks the underlying mechanism through which American educational policies incorporate teachers’ emotional labor into performance‑management frameworks. The findings reveal a tendency of technical reduction of emotional labor in policy texts, where sophisticated emotional practices are converted into measurable behavioral indicators. While this process grants institutional legitimacy to emotional labor, it erodes its essential ethical‑care connotation. This study establishes a novel analytical framework for understanding the policy‑driven construction of teachers’ emotional labor and puts forward reflective suggestions for educational policy‑making.