Emotional vernacular boundaries: participation in school culture boosts the emotional logic of rural teachers' rootedness in the countryside—a qualitative study from China

Paying attention to the emotional labor of rural teachers is a necessary step to enhance their professional happiness and promote the development of high-quality rural education. Based on the theory of emotional intelligence (EI), this study conducted a qualitative research on 13 frontline rural teachers. From the three dimensions of emotional mapping, emotional investment, and emotional resonance, it explored the emotional cornerstone, emotional motivation, and emotional destination of rural teachers in participating in school cultural construction. The study also attempted to explore how to help rural teachers establish a sense of belonging and emotional attachment through emotional labor, ultimately taking root in rural education. The research findings indicate that rural teachers should be assisted in clarifying the direction of their emotional development amid confusion and constructing an emotional map; guided to explore emotional coexistence spaces amid differences and experience emotional investment in the school; and encouraged to cultivate emotional stability through refinement, achieve emotional resonance with the school, and thereby become excellent rural teachers who can take root, actively contribute, and pursue excellence.