Feeling Rules and Emotional Geographies: A Comparative Case Study of Five Critical Multicultural Education Courses

• In Event: Teacher Education for Cultural Diversity and Social Justice: Insights From Multiple Methods

Abstract

This multi-case study highlights how emotions are used across student and teacher roles in five critical multicultural education classrooms. Analysis reveals that emotions were used in three primary ways by both teacher candidates and teacher educators as: 1) a means to negotiate power positions, 2) a form of protest meant to challenge power positions, and 3) an invitation to perform personal emotional work for learning. These invitations occurred as teacher educators made feeling rules explicit, encouraged student autonomy, and invited personal emotional work for learning. This study invites teacher educators to examine the ways they embody positions of power in the classroom and to consider how these positions may constrain or facilitate the use of student emotion for personal growth.

Authors

• Elizabeth Finlayson Harris, Brigham Young University

• Erin Feinauer Whiting, Brigham Young University

• Eric Ruiz Bybee, Brigham Young University