Student Teaching Controversial and Sensitive History: Identity, Context, and Affective Dilemmas

• In Event: Engaging Students in History Through Multiple Means

Abstract

This paper examines experiences of teaching controversial and sensitive history and how they are shaped by identity, context, and affect. The cases were drawn from a larger qualitative study on preparing preservice teachers for teaching controversial issues. I employ the concept “affective dilemma” (Zembylas & Loukadis, 2021) to illuminate tensions in two student teachers’ accounts of teaching history in the divided society of Northern Ireland. The analysis and recommendations for “affective practices” (Wetherell, 2012) are relevant to both novice and experienced history teachers in divided and/or post-conflict locations, including the United States.

Author

• Judy L. Pace, University of San Francisco
  Presenting Author