Emotion as Pedagogy in Language Teacher Education: A Conversation on Critical Emotional Reflexivity and Ethical Practice

ABSTRACT This research brief presents a scholarly conversation on how language teacher emotion research can inform teacher education and professional development. The interviewee conceptualizes emotions as socially situated within institutional expectations, language ideologies, power relations, and sociopolitical conditions. The discussion distinguishes emotion as pedagogy, emotion as inquiry, and critical emotional reflexivity, emphasizing how emotional experience can become a resource for learning. It also addresses reciprocal vulnerability, contextual differences in emotional expression, and ethical facilitation. The conversation highlights the need for teacher educators to create nonprescriptive spaces for reflection while remaining attentive to power, readiness, and the risks of reproducing emotional norms.