Emotional Regulation Strategies Among Vietnamese EFL Teachers: Navigating Cultural, Professional, and Personal Dynamics

This qualitative study investigates how Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers at different career stages regulate their emotions in classroom settings, examining how these strategies are shaped by intercultural dynamics and the emotional demands of the profession. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with nine teachers (i.e., novice, mid-career, and near-end), analysis identified a repertoire of strategies including culturally anchored cognitive reappraisal, negotiated display management, and hybrid approaches that reconcile globalised teaching expectations with local norms of harmony and face-saving. The study advances a culturally situated model of emotional regulation in EFL teaching, conceptualising it as the interplay of individual cognitive processes, professional display management, and hybrid strategies that emerge at the intersection of institutional demands and cultural values. This theorisation complicates universalist assumptions about “adaptive” and “maladaptive” strategies, showing how suppression, for example, can function as a relationally protective and professionally strategic choice. Findings highlight career-stage differences in strategy sophistication, with experienced teachers demonstrating greater fluidity in adapting approaches to intercultural classroom contexts. Implications include the need for teacher education and professional development that recognise the legitimacy of culturally embedded strategies, foster hybrid strategy development, and address the intercultural complexities of EFL teaching.