Analyzing Emotions and Affect in the Curriculum: A Critical Discourse Analysis

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Theoretical Analyses of Learning Environments

Abstract

This study examines how emotions and feelings function within secondary U.S. History curriculum frameworks. Using critical discourse approaches, I found three core functions of emotions and feelings in the curriculum: as historical explanations, justification for oppression and resistance, and as moral civic tools. Grounded in Ahmed’s theory of affective economies, this research highlights the power of emotional and affective discourses in curriculum and how these discourses can shape what students learn about how emotionality can be used to explain the past, justify harm, or inspire activism. This study offers implications for how educators and curriculum developers might center critical analyzes of emotions in instruction to illuminate the affective dimensions of the past, present and future.

Author

• Brittany Jones, University at Buffalo - SUNY