Towards and Away: Intersections of Emotion and Ideology along Trajectories of Learning within a Museum Exhibit about Climate Change

• In Event: Climate Emotion, Agency, and Justice in Formal and Informal Settings

Abstract

Objectives. Building from prior research showing that emotion affords and constrains learning and civic participation around climate change (Author et al., 2025a), this study examines emotion as it occurs socially in moment-to-moment learning in a museum exhibit about climate change. We aim to understand how emotion moves learners towards and away from ideas, ideologies, and each other, shaping relationships across the three.

Theoretical Framework. We use an adapted version of resource theory (Hammer, 2000), which suggests that learning happens through the construction and reorganization of resources, or pieces of knowledge that constitute a learner’s larger knowledge system. We adapt this notion of learning by integrating Philip’s (2011) conceptualization of ideological resources, or intuitions used to make sense of social, cultural, and political systems and by accounting for emotional resources, or the “pieces” that constitute emotional experience entwined in sensemaking. This view of emotional resources relies on the concept of emotion as socially, culturally, and politically situated practice (Vea, 2020; Zembylas, 2004). As language is inextricably linked with thought (Vygotsky, 1962), learners’ use of resources can be evidenced through discourse.

Methods & Data sources. This study took place in a natural history museum in the US at an innovative exhibit, Hopeful Future (HF). Developed through research-based design (Author et al., 2024a), HF engages learners through strategic frames, such as an emphasis on rational hope (rather than fear). Point-of-view video and audio data were collected from 63 different groups as they engaged with HF. We used microgenetic methods of discourse analysis to analyze transcripts made from video data of 30 groups, with 76 participants in total who represent the study’s diversity of participants in views on climate change, age, gender, home location, and ethnic/racial background. Through the development of an emergent codebook and progressive refinement of hypotheses (e.g., Engle et al., 2007), analysis sought to identify resources and understand how they shaped moment-to-moment learning and relationality.

Results. We found that emotional resources shaped learners’ interactions with new ideas, ideologies, and each other. For example, Brenda, a white woman in her 30s, often drew on emotional and ideological resources linked to her skepticism of climate change. Her use of these resources not only shaped her own engagement with HF but also influenced how others in her group took up and dismissed ideas presented within the exhibit, as well as the ideological lenses through which such ideas were interpreted. Furthermore, Brenda’s emotional practices around skepticism continued to shape and reshape her relationship with Nelly, a group member, over their time in the exhibit, at the center of which was ideological conflict. Similar phenomena were observed in many other groups.

Scholarly Significance. Through an integrated conceptualization of resource theory that includes ideological and emotional resources, this study helps to advance theorization of emotion and learning in naturalistic, social settings, as it unfolds around climate change. By showing how emotion moves learners towards and away from certain ideas, ideologies, and each other, this study builds the field’s understanding of emotion and relationality.

Authors

• Lynne Zummo, University of Utah

• Jordan Giron, University of Utah

• Kaitlyn Kinshella, University of Utah

• Ajla Auker, University of Utah

• Benjamin A. Janney, University of Utah