Shifting the Conversation: Emotional Labor as Learning in a Pedagogy of Discomfort

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Learning and Motivation in Social and Cultural Contexts Poster Session 2

Abstract

At a time when economic and social conditions increasingly exert pressure, restrictions, and penalties on teachers and students across the public PreK-16 continuum, the need to understand how people learn in relation to thorny questions of difference, inequity, and discomfort has become increasingly urgent. In response, this collaborative social inquiry study took up the framework of “an ethic of discomfort” (Foucault, 1994) to examine the emotional dimensions of learning in a teacher education course on culture, race, and difference. Guiding questions for this study include: When given the chance to engage emotions within conversations around difference, how do students respond? Do they utilize a framework of comfort and discomfort in their conversations? Do emotions matter in such discussions?

Authors

• Danielle Gioia, University of Pennsylvania

• Vivian L. Gadsden, University of Pennsylvania

• Karim A. Mostafa, University of Pennsylvania

• Katharine Emily Bartow Jacobs, University of Pittsburgh

• Nora Peterman, University of Pennsylvania