Normalization and Commiseration: Critical Resources for Attending to Science Learners' Affect in Moments of Uncertainty

• In Event: Affect and Emotions as Productive Sense-Making Resources in STEM Education

Abstract

Objectives
This study explores how a group of teachers—as science learners— came to develop perseverance in light of scientific uncertainty. We examine how teachers navigated feelings of frustration and vexation in moments of uncertainty and identify two key mechanisms that supported teachers’ perseverance in their science learning.

Perspective
Uncertainty is an inherent part of scientific endeavors (Pickering, 1995) and pertains to aspects of “scientists’ work that [are] non-obvious and contingent” and “must be figured out […] and negotiated in response to feedback from peers and the material world” (Manz, 2018; p. 288). Encounters with uncertainty—scientific or otherwise—can be emotionally charged and uncomfortable (Anderson et al., 2019; Carleton, 2016). With supports, emotions such as frustration, anxiety, and vexation in moments of uncertainty can be shifted toward feelings of excitement and curiosity that motivate learners to persevere (DeBellis & Goldin, 2006; Meylan, 2014). Navigating uncertainty, then, involves not only methodological and conceptual work (Manz & Suarez, 2018; Pickering, 1995), but also wrestling with and regulating emotions that emerge within this work (Author, 2016; Author, 2020). As science education research increasingly calls for engaging students with uncertainty (Manz & Suarez, 2018), it is essential that teachers understand the nature of navigating uncertainty in science to better support students’ learning.

Methods
Using a constructivist grounded approach (Charmaz, 2008), we analyzed interviews and field notes for four teachers participating in a six-week research experience at a U.S. national laboratory. Across the dataset, we identified moments of uncertainty in teachers’ work and emotions experienced in relation to these encounters, both in the moment of doing science as noted in field notes, and in teachers’ reflections on those moments in interviews. We tracked how participants recounted persevering through uncertainty (e.g., having to ‘keep going’ or ‘try and try again’) and the resources that supported teachers in doing so.

Findings
Our findings show that teachers had multiple opportunities to grapple with scientific uncertainty firsthand, and all similarly experienced strong emotional responses—including frustration and anxiety—in moments of uncertainty. While these emotions may be seen as negative, all four teachers leveraged and reframed these emotions to persevere in their inquiries with the support of two key players: (a) their mentor scientist and (b) their cohort peers and junior members of their lab groups. These actors served different but equally critical functions: Mentors made moves to quell teachers’ anxieties around uncertainty by normalizing it as a natural part of scientific pursuits, while interactions with peers afforded teachers opportunities to empathize and commiserate with one another’s frustrations and anxieties. These two support mechanisms—normalization and commiseration in tandem—served to promote participants’ perseverance.

Significance
This study contributes novel insights regarding affective dynamics around scientific uncertainty. By highlighting the importance of normalizing uncertainty and of making space for and empathizing with feelings that emerge around it, this work has implications for designing learning spaces that support science learners—teachers and K-12 students alike—to develop productive affective dispositions towards uncertainty in science.

Authors

• Shannon G. Davidson, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author

• Lama Ziad Jaber, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sherry A. Southerland, Florida State University
  Non-Presenting Author