Examining the Influence of Emotions on the Development of Political Knowledge in Teaching Mathematics

• In Event: Affect and Sense-Making in STEM Teacher Learning: Toward Ecologically Valid Theories of Teacher Learning

Abstract

Purpose
Mathematics educators need to develop political knowledge to analyze inequities and take action for their students. Not only do they need political knowledge to critically analyze situations they face in their schools, but they must also identify and navigate their own emotional reactions as they consider how they will respond (e.g., Chubbuck & Zembylas, 2008).

Theoretical Perspective
Political knowledge in teaching mathematics refers to the kinds of understandings that allow one to see the politics in teaching mathematics and considers the relational nature of educators’ work with students, colleagues, administrators, caregivers, and community members (Author, 2017). We analyze how pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) emotional responses influence their development of political knowledge in teaching mathematics, using Zembylas’s (2007) conceptualization of emotional ecology. Emotional ecology refers to “a teacher’s (or a learner’s) emotional knowledge in a particular social and political context, including the rich connections to emotional experiences, and relationships with others (e.g., students, colleagues, parents) over time” (Zembylas, 2007, p. 357). Emotional ecology includes three planes and associated types of knowledge — individual, socio-political, and relational.

Data & Methods
We focus on three university-based mathematics teacher education programs, each with different PST populations. We are three womxn of Color mathematics education scholars, all working in predominantly white, public universities. We engaged students in four tools specifically designed to support their development of political knowledge in teaching mathematics. We analyzed reflective memos we each wrote across our sites, interview transcripts, transcripts from small-group and whole-class discussions, and reflection notes that PSTs recorded in Google Slides when using the tools. We used qualitative thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) to analyze and re-analyze data.

Results
Our analysis found that PSTs’ emotional responses predominantly related to the individual plane of emotional ecology, relating to their own emotional self-awareness. Many PSTs expressed a desire to suppress or control their emotions. For instance, one white 22-year-old woman — an undergraduate elementary PST — explained that effective responses to scenarios would be those when the teacher is able to be “level-headed,” rather than expressing emotions. She also raised concerns of stereotypes of women as overly emotional, which influenced her attempts to subdue or control her emotions.

On the other hand, some secondary PSTs’ emotional responses related to the socio-political plane of emotional ecology, which describes the emotional knowledge of power relations of the institutional context. Most emotional responses related to the individual or socio-political planes, but at times PSTs’ emotional responses related to the relational plane, pertaining to their relationships with students. Of interest are trends by grade level between elementary and secondary PSTs. We hypothesize that secondary PSTs may have felt less concerned with controlling their emotions due to mathematics being viewed as a masculinized space (Leyva, 2017).

Significance
This study of PSTs’ emotions in relationship to developing political knowledge is important because emotions may support or hinder PSTs’ justice-oriented work with students. The tools we’ve designed to support PSTs’ development of political knowledge in teaching mathematics explicitly invite students to reflect on and share their emotions.

Authors

• Kari Kokka, University of Nevada - Las Vegas
  Presenting Author

• Marrielle Myers, Kennesaw State University
  Presenting Author

• Rochelle Gutierrez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  Presenting Author