How Lactating Teachers Feel When They Pump at Work: Taking Outlaw Emotions Into Account

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: The Personal Is Professional: How Teachers Navigate the Demands of Family and Work (Table 2)

Abstract

This paper, based on a qualitative study about the experiences of lactating teachers in the US, addresses the question: How do teachers describe milk production in school spaces in terms of their emotions? I draw from Jagger’s (1989) concept of outlaw emotions to analyze the transcription poem “Pumping at Work”, written by compiling 20 participants’ responses to the prompt “In three words, describe your experience pumping at work.” I focus on two outlaw emotions, stress and loneliness, analyzing numerous examples from the transcription poem and from interviews with teachers to show why paying attention to outlaw emotions matters for social change. I conclude with an example of an administrator who prioritizes creating positive experiences for pumping teachers.

Author

• Elise Toedt, University of Minnesota