Addressing Uncomfortable Discourse in the History Classroom: Teachers’ Risk Calculation Heuristics and Emotional Disclosure Considerations

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating Teacher Disclosure in Uncertain Times: Lessons From the Field (Table 19)

Abstract

This paper presents qualitative findings from a mixed-method study that investigates how secondary social studies educators mediate their own and their students’ emotions while engaging in pedagogical reasoning and teaching about difficult historical and contemporary subject matter. Findings reveal an association among teachers’ perceptions of the pedagogical role of emotions, their willingness to support students in making sense of their emotional responses, and their practices for mediating emotions and emotionality. This study identifies risk calculation heuristics and elucidates the pedagogical practice of emotional disclosure when engaging students in emotionally laden, contentious, and potentially uncomfortable classroom discourses.

Author

• Rebecca Rosen, Princeton University