Negative Affect as a Site of Agency and Resistance: A Case From Mathematical Play

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

Abstract

Objectives
Building on prior work (Jaber & Hammer, 2016; Keifert et al., 2021; Sinclair, 2004, 2018), this presentation takes agency, epistemic affect, and aesthetic practices as central to learning in dignity-affirming STEAM learning contexts. Through the lens of these constructs, I explore how expressions of negative affect at a mathematical playground were a means for children to exercise agency.

Theoretical Framework
Epistemic affect (Jaber & Hammer, 2016) and aesthetic practices (Sinclair, 2004, 2018) are inherent to the disciplinary activity of STEM professionals and learners (Author, 2021). While epistemic affect focuses specifically on the “feelings and drives connected to epistemic experience and objectives” (Jaber & Hammer, 2016, p. 5) of doing STEM, aesthetic practices involve a dual meaning of common-sense and (sensory) sensemaking. Both constructs (epistemic affect and aesthetic practices) shed light on the playful nature of meaningful engagement in STEM disciplines but are distinct from affect-in-general as they are entangled with disciplinary concepts and practices.

The idea that playfulness is central to STEM may seem contradictory to this symposium’s focus on negative affect as a contributor to meaningful participation in STEM. Yet, play is not synonymous with positive affect: play can be quite serious and even frustrating (Sutton-Smith, 2009). While Jaber and Hammer (2016) and Sinclair (2004, 2018) focus primarily on the roles of positive experiences of epistemic affect and mathematical aesthetic practices for fostering generative STEM activity, I focus on the potentially positive influences of negative expressions of affect for creating opportunities to learn in dignity-affirming learning contexts. Building on Keifert et al. (2021), I take both agency and affect as central to learning in contexts that cultivate a person’s mind, humanity, and potential (Espinoza et al., 2020).

Methods and Data
Using data from a larger NSF-funded study of learning at a mathematics playground (n = 345 participants), I use interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) to analyze GoPro video (head-mounted) data of one child’s activity at the Pattern Machine exhibit. Through multi-modal transcripts that capture gestures, materials, and verbal discourse features such as breaks (—), elo::::ngation, and intensity, I identify the child’s negative affect and analyze both the child’s and the exhibit volunteer’s co-constructed meanings in interaction.

Results
Findings show that the child resisted the adult volunteer’s attempts guide his play towards the volunteer’s mathematical goals. In doing so, the child created opportunities for himself to explore the exhibit’s playful materials in ways that made sense to him. I provide evidence that the focal child’s expression of negative affect was a site of agentic resistance and allowed the remainder of his activity to be an example of positive epistemic affect and aesthetic practices guiding activity.

Significance
Attending to the ways expressions of negative affect can be productive for learning counters the commonplace discourse about negative affect in the classroom as emerging due to negative STEM experiences or difficult content. In contrast, this analysis illustrates how negative affect can be a site of agency and resistance that opens opportunities for learners to broaden their sensemaking in STEM contexts.

Author

• Lara Jasien, CPM Educational Program
  Presenting Author