El trabajo emocional en profesionales de la educación: una revisión exploratoria de literatura

Among educational population, recent studies have documented the presence of emotional labor as a factor with dual effects on well-being, mental health and job performance. This study is a scoping review of articles published in English language between 2019 and 2024 about emotional labor performed by various educational roles. The aim is to identify current topics and findings, the approaches and designs used, the representation of populations and geographic areas, and future research directions. The analysis included 58 empirical studies sourced from Scopus and WoS. The geographic distribution of publications was concentrated in China (52%), Türkiye (10%) and Canada (5%), while the remainder was dispersed. Most of the studies employed a quantitative cross-sectional design and relied on self-reported questionnaires. Secondary school teachers emerged as the most studied population, with five thematic categories dominating the research landscape: 1) job effectiveness and emotions, 2) engagement and organizational commitment, 3) well-being, emotional regulation and burnout, 4) job satisfaction and organizational climate and 5) professional identity. The findings highlight a lack of clear guidelines on emotional labor in educational settings, which hinders the ability to benefit from deep acting and genuine acting strategies.