Emotional Configurations of White People Learning to Teach in Anti-racist Ways (Poster 1)

• In Event: Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education

Abstract

Objectives
This paper addresses the role of emotions in whiteness and anti-racist learning for prospective White science teachers in an effort to create a more anti-racist and justice-oriented science education. As such, this paper continues ongoing efforts of dismantling whiteness in science education (e.g., Bullock, 2017; Sammel, 2009) by addressing the question of, “What role did emotional configurations of whiteness play in White interns’ learning to become more anti-racist science teachers?”

Theoretical Framework
This paper draws upon White teacher identity studies (Jupp, 2021) and emotional configurations (Vea, 2020). White teacher identity studies describe and theorize White identities in non-essentialist and process-oriented ways. Emotional configurations frame learning from a sociocultural perspective (Danish & Gresalfi, 2018), and describe the “situated and reciprocal relationships between feeling, conceptual sense-making, and practice (including linguistic practice)” (Vea, 2020, p. 315). Taken together, White teacher identity studies and emotional configurations help reveal how emotions, in white supremacist societies, create affordances and constraints in anti-racist learning for White teachers.

Methods
This paper uses storytelling (Rodriguez & Morrison, 2019) to describe the experiences of three White interns participating in a secondary science program at a large primarily White institution. Data analysis was iterative and constantly evolving. I created event maps (Kelly & Chen, 1999) to get familiar with the data, engaged in open coding (Corbin & Strauss, 1990) to notice themes and patterns, identified salient moments (Maclure, 2013), and finally transformed those salient moments into narratives of engagement (Rodriguez & Morrison, 2019).

Data Sources
The narratives are constructed using video and audio recordings of all program-related interactions. I also used photographs and artifacts, including emails and text messages related to class. Lastly, I wrote field notes/memos on my teaching that focused on emotionally charged or complicated moments that were related to interns’ and/or my own learning (Emerson et al., 1995).

Results
Taking the form of three separate narratives, the findings revolve around three White interns, Boaz, Anita, and Luna. Each narrative focuses on how emotional configurations of white shame (Thandeka, 1999) and white ambivalence (Ellison, 1953) are persistent throughout their experiences. I also articulate how white shame constrains anti-racist learning while white ambivalence creates affordances for anti-racist learning.

Significance
This study advances understanding of the role of emotions within learning, specifically anti-racist learning for White teachers. Stepping away from perspectives that frame emotions as cognitive structures, this study shows how embracing a non-essentialist, process-oriented stance creates opportunities for White interns’ anti-racist learning by shifting either the emotions experienced and/or the sensemaking around emotions. These shifts have potential to alter teaching practice in potentially anti-racist ways. Additionally, by taking an emotional configurations perspective, I argue teacher educators can avoid reproducing pedagogies that provoke emotional configurations that prevent anti-racist learning (Lensmire et al., 2013) while designing for emotional configurations that support anti-racist learning. Ultimately, this paper serves as another example of ways science teacher education can begin to address the “disease” that is preventing science education from becoming more justice-oriented (Le & Matias, 2019).

Author

• Jonathan McCausland, Iona University