Facilitators' Management of Emotional Displays in Professional Development Discourse: Implications for Teacher Collaborative Sense-Making

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

Abstract

Purpose
Scholars advocate problem-based collaborative teacher learning, in which teachers inquire into problems-of-practice and jointly examine ways to cope with them (Horn & Kane, 2015). Discussing problems is bound to include emotions displays but the role of such displays and their potential to become resources for sensemaking is contingent on the way facilitators manage them. We explored how PD facilitators manage displays of pedagogical emotions during teacher discussions and the implications for teacher collaborative sensemaking.

Theoretical Perspective
We refer to teacher emotions related to teaching as pedagogical emotions, including work-related emotions that may impact teachers’ perceptions, judgment, and behaviors. We adopt a sociological approach that highlights the social-cultural construction of emotions and their display (Zembylas, 2004),viewing teacher emotions as constructed and interpreted through interaction with colleagues, coaches, and ideal concepts of learning and teaching (Zembylas, 2005).

Data & Methods
This ethnographic study focuses on a 30-hour yearlong PD program for science teachers, attended by thirty elementary and middle-school Israeli teachers. The program was designed and facilitated by two district coaches and two researchers to support teachers’ collaborative learning about problems of practice. We video-recorded the PD meetings and took fieldnotes.

For the analysis, we searched for emotionally charged episodes exhibiting a rise from the baseline emotional level, as indicated by, for example, d multiple speakers, interruptions and overlapping talk; shifts in intonation, volume, and prosody; ; hand gestures and facial expressions (Hufnagel & Kelly, 2018). We identified six emotionally charged episodes, which we explored applying linguistic ethnographic microanalysis (Rampton, 2006).

Results
Emotionally charged episodes were dominated by negative pedagogical emotions. The facilitators managed these displays through six major strategies: (1) ignoring the emotion; (2) mitigating the emotion; (3) normalizing the emotion; (4) rapidly offering practical solutions; (5) preventing further comments on the emotion; and (6) acknowledging and exploring the emotion.

The analysis demonstrates how acknowledging and exploring the negative emotions revealed tensions that advanced teacher collaborative sensemaking. Discussing the obstacles to diversifying science instruction, teachers shared emotions regarding the overloaded curriculum, student behavior, trying out new teaching methods, etc. The facilitator applauded these displays, confirmed and wrote them on the board, identified with them and shared her own emotions. She constructed these displays as an inherent component of the PD discourse, essential to their understanding of a key problem of practice: “We are familiar with plenty of ways to diversify the lesson and we understand its importance, and yet, why don’t we do it enough?” Teachers discussed how their insecurities, fear of failure, fear of losing control, work overload, pacing stress, and jealousy of colleagues hold them back from doing what they know needs to be done. Ultimately, the discussion of difficult emotions supported teachers to work through their concerns and develop solutions to their problem of practice.

Significance
The study highlights the potential of teachers’ emotional displays to become resources for collaborative sensemaking. It demonstrates how facilitators' responses can enhance this, but often constrain it. We propose developing facilitation strategies and tools that make room for pedagogical emotions as resources for teacher sensemaking.

Authors

• Karin Sarfati-Shaulov, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dana Vedder-Weiss, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Presenting Author

• Rotem Trachtenberg, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author