The Emotional Politics of Seeking Help: Connecting Learning and Socio-Emotional Development in a Community College

• In Event: 25.052 - Designing Activity Systems to Support the Communities of Practice and Community Engaged Learning

Abstract

Drawing on TAS-extended Vygotskian theory (Stetsenko, 2016) and feminist politics of emotion (Boler, 1999), this paper explores the situated dynamics of emotions within the context of student learning in a community college. Extending previous work on the dialectics of learning and identity development (Vianna & Stetsenko, 2011), it focuses on the emotional politics students engage while seeking help in college and its role fostering or stunting such connection. Based on a year-long data collection qualitative data for seven students, findings reveal emotional patterns as integral for understanding the struggles of seeking help for learning. This paper makes the case for the crucial role of emotions as a contested site for the dialectics of agency and oppression.

Author

• Michael Rifino, The City University of New York