The Relationship Between Internal Accountability and Teacher Burnout: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotional Labor and School Type

Abstract

Over the past few decades, to ensure the quality and efficiency of school education, schools have introduced accountability to monitor teachers’ work. However, such accountability may lead to low teacher morale and burnout. In response to these challenges, the Chinese government has promoted internal accountability policies. However, the link between such accountability and teacher burnout remains underexplored. Based on emotional labor theory, this study aims to address this gap by examining how internal accountability relates to teacher burnout, with emotional labor as a mediating mechanism and school type (vocational vs. regular high schools) as a moderating factor. In this study, 374 valid responses were collected by survey questionnaires, and the results revealed a positive correlation between internal accountability and teacher burnout. This study revealed that emotional labor mediated this relationship, in which internal accountability reduced burnout through less surface acting and more deep acting, whereas the natural expression of emotions unexpectedly increased burnout. School type moderated the link between internal accountability and surface acting, with a weaker association in regular schools. Vocational school teachers engaged in more emotional labor. The results highlight the complex dynamic relationships among internal responsibility, emotional labor, and teacher burnout in school settings.

Keywords

internal accountability emotional labor teacher burnout vocational high school regular high school

Since the mid-1980s, education policy-makers across the globe have introduced a managerial mechanism to hold teachers accountable to stakeholders such as parents and students, with the aim of ensuring the effectiveness and efficiency of school education (Besley, 2019; Wright, 2020). As accountability is designed to externally monitor teachers’ work with various measures, such as key performance indicators, school inspection, and school report cards, teachers often feel deprofessionalized and demoralized (Wronowski, 2021), thereby being at risk of burnout (Dworkin & Tobe, 2014; Jerrim & Sims, 2022) as symptoms of emotional exhaustion (being emotionally overextended and drained), depersonalization (being cynical and detached from work and other people), and reduced personal accomplishment (decreased sense of competence, efficacy, and achievement) (Maslach et al., 1996). Owing to concerns about the deleterious effects, education scholars (e.g., Cochran-Smith, 2021; O'Neill, 2013; Six, 2021) have searched for an alternative approach to accountability that can intrinsically motivate and empower teachers to engage in self-governance for the quality of education. Rosenblatt (2017) refers to such an approach as internal accountability, which is grounded in professional virtue, values, and ethics as inner standards for self-governance. The literature shows that numerous education systems have become aware of the importance of internal accountability for the quality of education (Rosenblatt & Wubbels, 2021). For instance, since 1997, Chinese government has issued various policies to enhance teacher professionalism in Chinese mainland by encouraging shide (the Chinese concept of teacher professional virtue, values, and ethics) through reforms in both pre-service and in-service teacher education (Liu et al., 2021; Ye et al., 2019). While internal accountability is generally regarded as advantageous, its impact on teacher burnout has not been thoroughly investigated, raising questions about the nature of the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout.

According to Li and Tsang (2023), emotional labor theory can provide an analytical framework for understanding the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout. The theory posits that teachers are required to manage their emotions in accordance with emotional rules rooted in teacher professionalism that prescribes teachers’ feelings and displays (Brown et al., 2018; Chang, 2020; Horner et al., 2020). If they fail to manage their emotions appropriately, they risk being labeled as unprofessional (Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006; Wang et al., 2023). To avoid the label and maintain a professional self, teachers need to consciously self-regulate their emotions based on the emotional rules (Brown et al., 2018; Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006). In this sense, emotional rules serve as a mechanism of internal accountability that makes teachers self-responsible for their performance in emotional labor (Li & Tsang, 2023), which is defined as emotion management done in workplace (Hochschild, 1983). Therefore, emotional labor may help teachers verify their professional self, leading to satisfaction, a sense of personal accomplishment, and self-fulfillment, when it is effectively performed (O'Connor, 2008; Oplatka, 2009; Yin, 2016). However, as emotional labor theory posits, inauthentic emotional labor is likely to create a dissonance between genuine feelings and displayed emotions, resulting in stress and burnout (Kariou et al., 2021; Yin et al., 2019). Thus, emotional labor theory suggests that emotional labor plays a critical role in the dynamic between internal accountability and teacher burnout, but the specific nature of the mediating role remains underexplored in existing literature. As a result, while emotional labor is a plausible mediator, the specific mechanism through which internal accountability influence teacher burnout remains uncertain.

Although numerous studies have explored the impact of accountability on teachers, most of these studies focus only on regular school settings. Nevertheless, this school setting cannot represent all school settings, such as vocational schools. In addition to the curriculum, studies have indicated significant disparities between regular and vocational schools in terms of students’ academic performance and learning attitudes (Sarani & Ahmadi, 2013), access to educational resources (Koreshnikova et al., 2018), and social status and recognition (Misra, 2011). Significant differences between the two types of schools are documented in literature on Chinese mainland (Chu et al., 2015; Coledam et al., 2022). In Chinese mainland, vocational education has been socially perceived as inferior to general education (Xiong, 2010). In the public mind, vocational education is seen as the means to prepare underachievers for low-skilled and manual labor, whereas general education is viewed as the path for high achievers leading to high-skilled and mental labor (Stewart, 2015). This negative social perception leads vocational high schools in Chinese mainland to disproportionately attract low-performing students with behavioral problems or weak self-efficacy, who are often from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than regular high schools are (Chu et al., 2015). In addition, Yu et al. (2025) report that the public expenditure on vocational education is significantly lower than that allocated to general education in Chinese mainland, resulting in less support for vocational high school teachers. Consequently, vocational high school teachers tend to work in a more stressful and demanding environment than their regular high school counterparts, but receive lower income and social status in returns (Li et al., 2025; Wang & Li, 2022). All these conditions tend to discourage missionary and high-quality teachers from pursuing careers at vocational high schools (Yu et al., 2025). Unlike their counterparts in regular schools, research has indicated that most Chinese vocational teachers are driven to the profession by extrinsic factors like job stability rather than intrinsic passion (Li, 2017), leading to weaker intrinsic motivation and a lower commitment to professional development (Gao & Yu, 2020; Wang & Wang, 2021). Differences in social status, student population, social support, and teacher rewards may make Chinese vocational high school teachers to perceive and emotionally react to accountability differently from their regular school counterparts (Tsang et al., 2025). In other words, the mechanism of internal accountability and emotional labor may operate differently for vocational school teachers. Therefore, investigating the moderating role of school type (vocational vs. regular) in the relationship between internal accountability and emotional labor is significant to advancing emotional labor theory, ensuring its applicability across diverse school settings.

Accordingly, this study aims to address these research gaps by examining the relationship between internal accountability, emotional labor, teacher burnout, and school type in Chinese mainland. Thus, this study intends to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout in Chinese mainland? (2) Is the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout mediated by emotional labor in Chinese mainland? (3) Is the relationship between internal accountability and emotional labor moderated by school type (vocational vs. regular) in Chinese mainland?

Literature Review

Internal Accountability and Teacher Burnout

Rosenblatt (2017) suggests that internal accountability can serve as a self-governance mechanism that operates without external security because it is a constitutive element of teacher professionalism. According to Eraut (1993), teacher professionalism encompasses a moral commitment to serving students’ interests and an obligation to cultivate praxis-oriented knowledge through critical self-reflection and collaborative engagement. Through professional socialization, teachers generally internalize professional values and ethics and identify themselves as moral agents who are responsible for students’ well-being (Sanger, 2017). Thus, professionalism becomes the inner standard by which teachers discipline themselves to struggle for the quality of education. In this sense, internal accountability can strengthen teachers’ moral commitment, fostering their resilience (Day, 2018) to sustain personal well-being while they encounter difficulties while they are striving for high-quality education (Ma, 2022).

Moreover, internal accountability operates on a foundation of institutional trust because it implies the belief that teachers can exercise professional judgment to improve educational quality (Six, 2021). Therefore, when a school system places more emphasis on internal accountability for teachers, it is more likely that the teachers will feel that they are being trusted (Cochran-Smith, 2021) and psychologically empowered (Llorente-Alonso et al., 2024). This condition may further enhance their sense of autonomy (Qin, 2019; Tsang et al., 2026) and meaningful work (Martela et al., 2021), which research has suggested may serve as protective factors against burnout (Lee et al., 2011; Nápoles, 2022).

Accordingly, internal accountability may help alleviate the level of teacher burnout. It is hypothesized that they are negatively associated.
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Internal accountability is negatively related to teacher burnout.

Emotional Labor as a Mediator

To deepen our understanding of the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout, emotional labor theory can provide a valuable analytical framework. According to the theory, numerous emotional rules define how teachers feel and display emotions in school settings (Chang, 2020; Pan & Zeng, 2022; Winograd, 2003). For example, Yin and Lee (2012) identify four emotional rules prescribing teachers’ emotions in Chinese mainland, namely, teaching with passion, hiding negative emotions, maintaining positive emotions, and instrumentally using emotions to achieve teaching goals. If teachers cannot feel and display the prescribed emotions, they can be perceived as unprofessional (Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006). Thus, they need to perform emotional labor, i.e., managing and regulating their emotions appropriately in accordance with these emotional rules.

According to Pan and Zeng (2020), emotional rules can be a form of internal accountability through the establishment of professional norms, values, and ethics through which teachers govern their own emotions. Existing research has illustrated that when teachers perceive emotional rules, they consciously or unconsciously self-regulate their emotions to align their feelings and displays with professional norms of teacher emotions (Horner et al., 2020; Hu & Du, 2022; Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006; Wang & Bian, 2022; Winograd, 2003). This positive relationship between emotional rules and emotional labor (Brown et al., 2009; Brown et al., 2018; Chang, 2020) suggests that internal accountability may similarly increase demands on teachers to perform emotional labor.

The literature has suggested that teachers can employ different emotional labor strategies, such as surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions, to manage their emotions in the workplace (Kariou et al., 2021; Yin et al., 2019). According to Yin (2012), surface acting is the effort to display prescribed emotions by expressing unfelt emotions or hiding felt emotions, deep acting is the effort to display prescribed emotions by modifying felt emotions with cognitive techniques such as distraction and self-persuasion, and the expression of naturally felt emotions is the effort to spontaneously display genuine emotions. Previous research has reported that these emotional labor strategies consistently affect teacher burnout in different ways. For instance, a meta-analysis conducted by Yin et al. (2019) indicated that teacher burnout was positively related to surface acting but negatively associated with the expression of naturally felt emotions (Yin et al., 2019). Similarly, Wang et al.'s (2019) meta-analysis also suggested that teacher well-being is negatively associated with surface acting but positively associated with the expression of naturally felt emotions. On the other hand, a systematic review conducted by Kariou et al. (2021) revealed that teacher burnout and deep acting can be positively or negatively associated depending on various factors, such as school type.

On the basis of this review of the literature, emotional labor, including surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions, may be shaped by internal accountability; on the one hand, it may affect the level of teacher burnout. This implies that emotional labor can play a mediating role between internal accountability and teacher burnout. Thus, the following hypotheses are formulated:
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Surface acting plays a mediating role between internal accountability and teacher burnout.

Hypothesis 3 (H3). Deep acting plays a mediating role between internal accountability and teacher burnout.

Hypothesis 4 (H4). The expression of naturally felt emotions plays a mediating role between internal accountability and teacher burnout.

School Type as a Moderator

The relationship between international accountability and teachers’ emotional labor should not be universal but be contingent upon the school context. In particular, the study proposes that school type (vocational vs. regular) moderates this relationship because of the profound disparities in institutional environments, student populations, and socio-cultural expectations between vocational and regular high schools in Chinese mainland (Pan, 2024), altering how internal accountability is enacted emotionally.

Compared from regular high school teachers, the literature has suggested that vocational high school teachers in Chinese mainland tend to be less motivated, committed, and passionate to teaching (Li, 2017) because of student disengagement, lower social status, and a lack of institutional support (Chu et al., 2015; Coledam et al., 2022; Li et al., 2025). This situation may underscore the need for the Chinese education system to strengthen vocational teachers’ internal accountability (i.e., their commitment to professional virtue, values, and ethics as a means of fostering self-discipline and sustained dedication to student development) (Bhattarai, 2019). Therefore, there has been a call to strengthen the shide of vocational school teachers in Chinese mainland in recent decades (Li et al., 2013; Zheng, 2010). The concept of shide, which can be translated into teacher virtue or professional ethics, encompasses a Confucian-derived ideal of teachers as a moral exemplar. For example, a teacher with shide should embody virtues like dedication, benevolence, self-sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to students development, regardless of external circumstance (Li et al., 2013; Zheng, 2010). Consequently, the external pressure to uphold a high standard of shide may be particularly salient for vocational school teachers, making their sense of internal accountability a more central and constantly tested aspect of their professional identity compared to their counterparts in regular schools.

Accordingly, due to the external pressure and salience of shide as internal accountability in the vocational school setting, the teachers may feel greater moral injunction at work (Li et al., 2013; Zheng, 2010). Therefore, they are more likely to engage in managing emotions with emotional labor strategies consciously, maintaining their professional image and status (Li & Tsang, 2023). In other words, compared with the regular high school setting, the vocational high school setting may be more likely to enhance the demands of internal accountability on emotional labor among teachers, leading to stronger relationship between internal accountability and emotional labor. Thus, it is suggested that school type is a moderator in this relationship. As a result, the following hypotheses are proposed:
Hypothesis 5 (H5). School type moderates the relationship between internal accountability and surface acting, indicating a difference in school type for the foregoing relationship.

Hypothesis 6 (H6). School type moderates the relationship between internal accountability and deep acting, indicating a difference in school type for the foregoing relationship.

Hypothesis 7 (H7). School type moderates the relationship between internal accountability and the expression of naturally felt emotions, indicating a difference in school type for the foregoing relationship, Figure 1.

Materials and Methods

Participants

During data collection, we sent a web link to the teachers we knew and invited them to participate in this study. Before the formal distribution of the questionnaire, the study calculated the required sample size using G*Power software (Faul et al., 2007) to ensure the scientific and statistical validity of the findings. And the results indicated that a minimum sample size of 172 was necessary to meet the statistical requirements for this study. In the survey questionnaire, the participants initially provided their basic demographic information, after which they completed the remaining measures. Ultimately, we received responses from 400 teachers at both regular and vocational high schools. After excluding invalid questionnaires (including those with identical responses, missing data, or incorrect answers to attention-check items), a total of 374 valid questionnaires were retained, yielding a valid response rate of 93.50%.

Among them, 213 (56.95%) teachers were female. In terms of age and teaching years, the mean age and teaching years were 38.94 (SD = 9.74) and 14.76 (SD = 10.73), respectively. In addition, 150 (40.11%) teachers held a bachelor's degree, 143 (38.24%) had a master's degree, and 78 (20.86%) had a doctoral degree. Moreover, 63 (16.84%) teachers did not have honorable titles such as backbone teachers, 119 (31.82%) had intermediate professional titles, and 103 (27.54%) had senior or higher professional titles. A total of 175 (46.79%) teachers worked in regular high schools, and 199 teachers (53.21%) worked in vocational high schools.

Measures

Internal Accountability

Internal accountability was measured by the Chinese version of the personal accountability measure (PAM-Ch) (Tsang et al., 2023). There are seven items used to measure teachers’ perceptions of internal accountability. A sample item was “Develop professionally in order to accomplish your work in the best way.” All the items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). In the current study, the internal accountability scale showed good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96).

Teacher Emotional Labor

Teacher emotional labor was measured by the 13-item Teacher Emotional Labor Strategy Scale (TELSS, Yin, 2012). This scale contains three subscales for assessing different emotional labor strategies: surface acting (6 items), deep acting (4 items), and the expression of naturally felt emotions (3 items). Each item was answered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = completely disagree to 5 = completely agree. Sample items included “I show feelings to students or their parents that are different from what I feel inside” (surface acting), “I try to actually experience the emotions that I must show to students or their parents” (deep acting), and “the emotions I show students or their parents come naturally” (expression of naturally felt emotions). In this study, the Cronbach's alpha values for surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions were 0.94, 0.88, and 0.91, respectively, indicating good reliability.

Teacher Burnout

Teacher burnout was measured with the 15-item Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (Li & Wang, 2009). This scale has 15 items assessing the three dimensions of teacher burnout: emotional exhaustion (5 items), depersonalization (4 items), and reduced personal accomplishment (6 items). The participants responded on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). Sample items for each dimension were “I feel emotionally drained from my work” (emotional exhaustion), “I doubt the significance of my work” (depersonalization), and “I have accomplished many worthwhile things in this job (reverse-coded)” (reduced personal accomplishment). In this study, the Cronbach's alpha was 0.82 as a whole, indicating good reliability.

Demographic Variables

According to previous research, several individual factors (such as teaching experience, gender, and professional title) influence teacher emotional labor outcomes and burnout (Wang et al., 2019). In the current study, gender, educational level, teaching years, and professional title were controlled for in the data analysis. School type (vocational vs. regular high school) was treated as a moderator variable.

Data Analysis

SPSS 26.0 was used to analyze the data. First, the Harman single-factor test and variance inflation factor (VIF) values were examined to ensure that there was no serious common-method deviation or multicollinearity concern. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were subsequently conducted to provide a preliminary analysis. Next, three steps were performed to further test our hypotheses: (1) linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout; (2) Model 4 of PROCESS was performed to test the mediating role of emotional labor in the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout; and (3) Model 7 of PROCESS was used to further examine the moderating role of school type in the aforementioned indirect relationships.

Results

Before the mediation model was tested, Harman's single-factor test was conducted to assess common-method variance. The results suggested that six characteristic roots were larger than 1. The first factor explained only 30.57% (below the common threshold of 40%), which indicates that common-method bias was not serious (Tehseen et al., 2017). Moreover, the VIF of the study variables was smaller than 4, which indicated that collinearity was not a problem in this study.

Descriptions and Correlations

The mean values, standard deviations, and correlation results among all the study variables are shown in Table 1. The results indicated that internal accountability was significantly and positively associated with deep acting, the expression of naturally felt emotions and teacher burnout but negatively associated with surface acting. Surface acting was significantly and positively correlated with deep acting and teacher burnout but was not significantly related to the expression of naturally felt emotions. Moreover, both deep acting and the expression of naturally felt emotions were significantly and positively related to teacher burnout. The data in Table 1 also indicate that compared with regular high school teachers, vocational high school teachers are significantly and positively related to surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions.

Table 1.
Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations of the Study Variables.

Variable Mean SD ST IA SA DA NF TB

ST 1

IA 4.15 0.69 0.048 1

SA 2.70 0.97 0.404*** −0.103* 1

DA 3.38 0.81 0.274* 0.268* 0.551*** 1

NF 3.64 0.80 0.122* 0.370* 0.057 0.503* 1

TB 4.41 0.67 0.024 0.113* 0.444* 0.261* 0.160** 1

Note. ST represents school type (0 = regular high school, 1 = vocational high school), IA represents internal accountability, SA represents surface acting, DA represents deep acting, NF represents the expression of naturally felt emotions, and TB represents teacher burnout.

p < .05; p < .01; p < .001.

Main Effect of Internal Accountability on Teacher Burnout

Taking demographic information as a control variable, internal accountability as an independent variable, and teacher burnout as the dependent variable, a linear regression analysis was conducted. The results revealed that internal accountability significantly and positively affected teacher burnout (β=0.104; t = 2.048; p < .05), whereas no demographic information significantly affected it (p > .05). Therefore, H1 was not supported.

The Mediating Role of Emotional Labor

The mediating role of emotional labor was examined by SPSS. After demographic variables were controlled, the results of the mediation model revealed that the direct effect of internal accountability on teacher burnout was still significant (β=0.155, p < .01; 95%CI = [0.057, 0.253]). However, these results suggested a difference between its indirect effects through surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions. Specifically, as shown in Table 2, surface acting mediated the effect of internal accountability on teacher burnout (β=-0.070, 95%CI = [−0.133, −0.011]). Deep acting mediated the effect of internal accountability on teacher burnout (β=−0.036, 95%CI = [-0.075, −0.005]). Thus, H2, H3, and H4 were all supported.

Table 2.
The Mediating Effect of Emotional Labor.

Effect SE 95%CI

Lower Upper

Direct effect 0.155 0.050 0.057 0.253

Indirect effect

IA-SA-TB −0.070 0.031 −0.133 −0.011

IA-DA-TB −0.036 0.018 −0.075 −0.005

IA-NF-TB 0.055 0.023 0.013 0.103

The Moderating Role of School Type

Model 7 of PROCESS was further computed to test the moderation role of school type. The results revealed that the interaction between internal accountability and school type was significantly related to surface acting (β=0.370, SE = 0.132, p = .005 < .01) but not to deep acting (β=0.186, SE = 0.114, p > .05) or the expression of naturally felt emotions (β=0.153, SE = 0.112, p > .05). The difference between the two regression coefficients derived from two separate samples (the teachers from regular high schools and those from vocational high schools) was subsequently examined (see Figure 2). In the regular high school group, the effect was −0.347, SE = 0.091, p < .001, 95%CI = [-0.525, −0.168]. In the vocational school group, the effect was 0.023, SE = 0.096, p > .05, 95%CI = [-0.166, −0.212]. The results indicated a significant difference between the two samples.

Figure 1.
Conceptual framework: Proposed moderated mediation model.

Figure 2.
Moderation of school type between internal accountability and surface acting.

Furthermore, the moderated mediation effect was tested. According to the results, the mediating effect of surface acting was moderated by school type, suggesting that there was a significant difference in the indirect effect of internal accountability on teacher burnout via surface acting between the regular high school and vocational high school groups. Specifically, in regular high schools, surface acting mediated the relationship between internal accountability and teacher burnout (β=-0.137, 95%CI = [-0.213, −0.075]). In contrast, the indirect effect was not significant in the vocational high school group (β=0.009, 95%CI = [-0.090, 0.099]). Above all, H5 was supported, whereas H6 and H7 were not supported.

Discussion

Accountability, Emotional Labor, and Burnout

In addition to the managerial mechanism of accountability, numerous education systems across the globe have placed greater emphasis on internal accountability to hold teachers self-responsible for their own performance in the recent decade (Rosenblatt & Wubbels, 2021). This is because internal accountability can serve as a motivating force for teachers to govern themselves without external scrutiny (Rosenblatt, 2017), increasing their sense of psychological empowerment, autonomy, and meaningful work, which can lead to a reduced level of burnout (Li & Tsang, 2023; Qin, 2019). Nevertheless, the findings indicate a positive association between these two variables. This means that when teachers perceive greater demands for internal accountability, their level of burnout increases. One possible explanation for these findings is that internal accountability may be externally accounted for (Li & Tsang, 2023). That means, teachers may be externally pressured to show evidence regarding their professional virtue, values, and ethics because these elements of teacher professionalism are being evaluated. In Chinese mainland, there is an established appraisal system to evaluate shide (Zhou, 2011). In 2013, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China issued a policy document entitled Regulations on Ethical Evaluation for Primary and Secondary School Teachers, institutionalizing the dimensions, focuses, and methods to assess primary and secondary school teachers. Thus, it is possible that teachers may find external pressure and demand upon their professional virtue, values, and ethics. The pressure and demand may compel teachers to anxiously demonstrate their professional virtues, values, and ethics through explicit behaviors, such as sacrificing leisure to take care of students’ academic performance, leading to an increased workload, heightened stress and exhaustion, and ultimately burnout. Notably, such a phenomenon is not unique to Chinese mainland. As Goodwin (2021) reports, teachers have to show evidence of how they are enthusiastic and passionate to take care of students’ overall personal development and cater to learning diversity because these aspects of professionalism are assessed and evaluated by a set of performance indicators in many education systems, such as Hong Kong, the United States, and Australia. In this sense, internal accountability may not necessarily be beneficial to teacher well-being.

However, the findings presented in Table 2 and Figure 3 reveal a nuanced relationship, i.e., internal accountability appears to alleviate teacher burnout by discouraging surface acting and encouraging deep acting. This suggests that while the direct effect of internal accountability on burnout may be positive, its indirect effect, mediated through emotional labor, is negative. This pattern supports labor process theory, indicating that emotional labor is a critical mechanism in this dynamic (Li & Tsang, 2023). The beneficial indirect effect can be explained through the concept of teacher authenticity. In Chinese mainland, the qualities of an authentic teacher, which is being approachable, passionate, and knowledgeable, are central to professional identity (Zhang & Liu, 2024). To uphold these standards and meet internal accountability demands, teachers are motivated to engage in genuine emotional management rather than faking emotions (Yin, 2016). This aligns with Horner et al.'s (2020) concept of modulation, a form of deep acting where teachers regulate the intensity of their genuine emotions or the mode of expression, rather than fabricating them entirely through surface acting. Because modulation aligns outward expression with internal feelings, it reduces the psychological dissonance that leads to burnout, whereas surface acting often creates an impression of inauthenticity (Jeong et al., 2019). Therefore, for Chinese teachers, internal accountability promotes a preference for authentic deep acting over inauthentic surface acting, ultimately serving as a protective factor against burnout.

Figure 3.
The mediation model.

Although numerous studies have reported that the expression of naturally felt emotions can reduce teacher burnout (e.g., Kariou et al., 2021; Yin et al., 2019), the present findings suggest the opposite. This paradox can be explained by the profound tension between the professional mandate for authenticity and the equally strict feeling rules that demand emotional moderation. Teachers face institutional pressure to be perceived as genuine and passionate, as a key component of managerial evaluations of professionalism. However, they are simultaneously required by these same professional norms to moderate their emotional displays, avoiding any extreme expressions of either joy or frustration (Isenbarger & Zembylas, 2006; Yin & Lee, 2012). Consequently, as Horner et al. (2020) illustrate, what appears as natural expression is often a carefully modulated performance. The spontaneous, unfiltered expression of naturally felt emotions, especially negative ones like despair, boredom, or contempt, can be therefore professionally risky. It may violate the shide ideal and can damage student–teacher relationships, leading to feelings of guilt, shame, and internal conflict (Farouk, 2012; Kelchtermans, 2011). Thus, it may not be the expression of naturally felt emotion itself, but the constant psychological effort to monitor and regulate its expression to meet contradictory professional demands that becomes a core, and often overlooked, source of stress that ultimately contributes to burnout.

Vocational vs. Regular High Schools

Despite significant differences in student backgrounds, institutional resources, and social status between vocational and regular high schools in Chinese mainland, the results of this study suggest that there are no significant differences in the levels of internal accountability or teacher burnout across these settings (see Table 1). This suggests that teachers in both school settings experience comparable pressures from accountability demands and similar degrees of burnout. On the other hand, the findings suggest significant differences in emotional labor between the two school settings. Compared with their counterparts in regular high schools, vocational high school teachers report significantly greater levels of engagement in all forms of emotional labor, including surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions.

The significantly greater emotional labor among vocational high school teachers may be attributed to several interconnected issues. First, Chu et al. (2015) reported students in vocational schools in Chinese mainland tend to exhibit low performance and underachievement, are less motivated and confident, and receive less familial support in their learning. Thus, teachers in vocational high schools may be required to provide more intensive emotional support and personalized engagement to help students overcome learning challenges, necessitating frequent emotional labor. Second, low social status and recognition of vocational education may compel teachers to overcompensate through heightened emotional displays. By expressing greater enthusiasm, care, and love to students via emotional labor, whether it is surface acting, deep acting, or the expression of naturally felt emotions, teachers may counteract negative societal perceptions and enhance their students’ morale and self-worth (Lippke, 2012). Third, Pan (2024) reported that vocational teachers in Chinese mainland face dual professional demands; they need to possess strong pedagogical and instructional skills to prepare students for further education while also providing technical and practical training to equip students with the necessary skills for the workforce. The expanded role and responsibility may require more intensive emotional labor, as teachers navigate their role as educators, industry experts, career guides, and emotional supporters for their students.

Moreover, the results of the present study suggest that compared with that in vocational high schools, the relationship between internal accountability and surface acting can be weaker in regular high school. In Chinese mainland, regular high school teachers are pressured to prepare students for Gaokao, university entry and high-stakes public examination. Thus, unlike vocational high school teachers, according to Zhang and Liu (2024), regular high school teachers’ professionalism is primarily judged by school administrators, parents, and students on the basis of academic outcomes. As mentioned above, since surface acting may not motivate and engage students in learning (Johnson & LaBelle, 2017), regular high school teachers may perform this emotional labor strategy less frequently than vocational high school teachers in Chinese mainland do, as they feel internally accountable for their teaching performance.

Limitations and Further Research

The present study has several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, the reliance on nonprobability sampling may limit the generalizability of the findings. Since participants were not randomly selected, the results may not fully represent the broader population of teachers in vocational and regular high schools in Chinese mainland. Future research should employ probability sampling techniques to increase the representativeness and external validity of the findings. Second, the cross-sectional design of this study allows for only the examination of associations between internal accountability, emotional labor, teacher burnout, and school type rather than the establishment of causal relationships. Longitudinal studies would be valuable for better understanding the directional and temporal dynamics among these variables. Tracking teachers over time could reveal whether heightened internal accountability leads to increased surface acting and burnout or whether these relationships operate differently across school contexts. Finally, some unexpected findings in this study remain insufficiently explained because of the lack of qualitative data. Without in-depth insights from the teachers themselves, certain patterns, such as the weaker relationship between internal accountability and surface acting in regular high schools, are difficult to fully interpret. To address this gap, future research could incorporate qualitative methods, such as interviews or focus groups, to explore teachers’ lived experiences and perspectives. A follow-up mixed-methods study would provide richer explanations for the observed phenomena and strengthen the robustness of the conclusions.

Variable	Mean	SD	ST	IA	SA	DA	NF	TB
ST			1
IA	4.15	0.69	0.048	1
SA	2.70	0.97	0.404***	−0.103*	1
DA	3.38	0.81	0.274***	0.268***	0.551***	1
NF	3.64	0.80	0.122*	0.370***	0.057	0.503***	1
TB	4.41	0.67	0.024	0.113*	0.444***	0.261***	0.160**	1

	Effect	SE	95%CI
Direct effect	0.155	0.050	0.057	0.253
Indirect effect
IA-SA-TB	−0.070	0.031	−0.133	−0.011
IA-DA-TB	−0.036	0.018	−0.075	−0.005
IA-NF-TB	0.055	0.023	0.013	0.103

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

No applicable.

ORCID iDs

Xiaoyu Wang

Kwok Kuen Tsang

Yunfei Yan

Ethical Approval and Informed Consent Statements

This study was conducted with the ethical approval of the Ethical Committee, Institutional Review Board (IRB), Research Ethics Committee, or equivalent ethics authority of The Human Research Ethics Committee of the Education University of Hong Kong (Approval/Reference No. 2023-2024-0133). Informed consent was obtained from all participating students and/or their legal guardians, as appropriate, prior to their involvement. The confidentiality and anonymity of all participants have been rigorously protected throughout the research process; all data were collected and analyzed anonymously, with no personally identifiable information retained. The study's purpose and procedures were fully explained to participants, and their right to withdraw at any time without penalty was emphasized.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the General Research Fund of Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, (grant number 18608324).

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Specifically, Kwok Kuen Tsang is a member of the editorial board of BIRE. To ensure impartiality, he was not involved in the editorial review of decision-making process for this manuscript. The manuscript was handled by a different editor, and the review process was conducted independently.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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	Effect	SE	95%CI
	Effect	SE	Lower	Upper
Direct effect	0.155	0.050	0.057	0.253
Indirect effect
IA-SA-TB	−0.070	0.031	−0.133	−0.011
IA-DA-TB	−0.036	0.018	−0.075	−0.005
IA-NF-TB	0.055	0.023	0.013	0.103