Emotional Discourse as Constructed in Environmental Science

• In Event: Researching Discourse and Social Practices in Science and Engineering Education

Abstract

Purpose
Despite research that emotions are entangled in sense-making and coping of environmental issues (e.g. Caillaud et al., 2016), emotions are largely neglected in science classrooms (e.g. Boler, 1999). When examined, they have traditionally been researched vis-à-vis methodologies and methods that essentialize them, especially in science classrooms (Author4, 2017). Since emotions are socially constructed in interactions (Boiger & Mesquita, 2012) I sought a logic of inquiry to capture contextual aspects of emotions in discourse. In this methodological presentation, I describe decisions I made throughout my interactional ethnographic (Castanheira et al., 2000) analysis of emotional expressions in a science course for pre-service teachers.

Theoretical framework
Since emotional discourse is situated in social practice (Author4 & Author1, in press) I drew from Spradley’s (1980) Ethnographic Research Cycle to analyze emotional expressions in context of use, openly and iteratively. Individuals negotiate meaning based on turns at talk and “background assumptions” (Gumperz, 2001, p. 218). Members of a classroom community also establish practices of talking and acting through social interactions that then create cultural practices, which serve as resources for further social interactions and even private internalization (Author1 & Author2, 1998). Hence, meaning of emotional expressions takes place through and in interactions (Author2, 1998).

Mode of inquiry and Data Analysis
My logic of inquiry entailed collecting video recordings and ethnographic field notes of each class meeting, all instructional and student artifacts, and 30 – 40 minute sets of interviews with eight students to examine emotional expressions during an environmental science course at a large public university. A structuration map (developed from field notes and video recordings) that encapsulated course events and written artifacts served as an organizational and analytical tool from which to examine emotional discourse within and across scales, forms of discourse, and the individual-collective nexus.

Findings
My inquiry started with “Which emotions did the pre-service teachers express and why?” but as I continued to collect and analyze data I constructed questions to make sense of in-process findings (see Figure 2.1) as the data illuminated new ways of understanding emotional expressions across scales of analysis. The poster session provides examples of structuration maps. From this static image of the iterative map, types of emotional discourse, labeled “unlimited,” “limited,” and “in between” (that were ultimately communicated as frequency) were relevant to how emotional discourse was framed throughout the course as seen in right-side columns labeled “potential deprioritizing”. Multiple snapshots of data analysis will be presented to reveal how examining emotional expressions was a succession of iterative steps in data analysis.

Significance
As students learn about complex issues in school science, their emotions are indicative of personal relevance (Author4, 2017). However, these feelings are embedded in the discourse in which they are used, shaped, and shared and should be examined as such. This work provides an illustrative example of how to approach emotional expressions as negotiated and patterned social practices, both for individual participants and the collective group across time, space, and text in a science classroom.

Author

• Elizabeth Hufnagel, University of Maine