Depathologizing First-Year Teachers’ Negative Feelings Through Collectivity: A Case Study On Feeling Bad

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 11:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Caring for Teachers: Stress, Isolation, and Collective Well-Being

Abstract

This case study presents an analysis of the emotional dimensions of five first-year teachers’ work as they talked about it in an intergenerational teachers’ collective that met regularly in 2023-24. Analyses of transcripts from audio-recordings of the collective’s conversations constructed a pattern of negative feelings that teachers shared, including self-doubt, not knowing, and failure. Drawing on queer, feminist theoretical perspectives, we frame those negative feelings not as individual shortcomings or pathologies but as shared phenomena with social, cultural, historical, and political roots. Findings suggest that negative feelings, shared in the collective, became sites for community formation. This study meets a need to better understand the emotional toll confronting early-career teachers. Implications suggest the potential of engaging negative feelings in collectivities.

Authors

• Sara Staley, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Zander Nowell, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Bethy Leonardi, University of Colorado - Boulder