Feeling race in English language teaching: racialized emotions in Japanese higher education

This study examines how racialized emotions shape the personal and professional lives of English language teachers in Japanese higher education. Drawing on a narrative multiple-case study of ELT educators of color working in Japan, it shows that emotions are not simply personal responses but are produced through raciolinguistic ideologies and institutional practices that govern legitimacy, belonging, and professional worth. The findings demonstrate how credentialism and native-speakerism function as forms of affective governance, requiring racialized instructors to continually prove themselves and generating feelings of anxiety, shame, frustration, and emotional exhaustion. Participants also described how pay inequities, limited promotion opportunities, and ambiguous recognition contributed to anger, disillusionment, and insecurity, while Whiteness was often associated with ease, confidence, and institutional trust. At the same time, teachers mobilized emotions such as care, pride, and solidarity to create supportive classrooms and to speak back against racialized marginalization. Conceptually, the study advances an understanding of emotions as entangled with race, language, and institutional power, showing how emotional life in English language teaching is unevenly organized by racial hierarchies that both constrain and enable educators’ agency.