The Affect of Gun-Teacher on the Learning Environment and Greater Purpose of Schooling

• In Event: Philosophy and Emotion in/of Educators

Abstract

Thirty states now allow teachers to carry guns in some fashion. However, guns carry more than just bullets – they carry an affective weight that shifts a passerby of the gun. Therefore, I propose how a gun may affectively shift the purpose of schooling. The purpose of schooling is still highly questionable, especially in this epoch. While schooling has a rich history of being for a greater good and a dark history of being for assimilation, I ponder what the advocacy of “gun-teachers” (using Latour’s technical mediation) means for the greater purpose of schooling these days. As a conceptual paper, I theorize out how guns affect the notion of schooling to propose a greater post-phenomenological study to come.

Author

• Shelby J. Morris, University of Alabama