Paying Emotional Tolls: Politics, Poststructural Narrative Theory, and Research on Race and Racism Subjects for Emotional Well-Being

• In Event: Responsibility...Even in Our Methods: Critical Theories as Methods for Social Justice Research

Abstract

Objectives
Emotions are related to everything and education is no different, thus the need for critical theoretical methods on emotions that keep people whole and invested in the health of themselves and their communities while “paying emotional tolls.” Although many researchers address how emotions like burnout are serious issues in educational leadership writ large (Beatty, 2007; Friedman, 2002; Ittner et al., 2019; Mills & Niesche, 2014), we present aspects of using theoretical methods to advance knowledge on emotional well-being in leadership studies when race and racism are subjects and the impending implications for pedagogy. We offer a textual analysis of research precedent related to how poststructural narrative theory operates as a research method for doing theoretical research.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
We use poststructural narrative theory because it is a theoretical fuse that offers “epistemic and methodological diversity in the social sciences” (Clandinin & Rosiek, 2007, p. 52) used to critically examine experiences (Clandinin & Raymond, 2006). In doing so, it challenges majoritarian stories of privilege while considering issues of power and the limitations of the human experience. Although the primary purpose of narrative research is to create understanding, by-products include change or solutions to problems (Elbaz-Luwisch, 1997), but fusing it as poststructural narrative theory offers solutions that include challenging race and racism discourses regardless of how they manifest.

Methods/Data Sources
In our textual analysis of racial justice as precedent, poststructural narrative theory uncovers the ways that the correlation of emotions, as a research object, is muted or periphery when race is a subject pedagogically. Close readings, one where race and racism is a subject of study in a classroom on the ground and the other where race is a subject of pedagogical discussion in cyberspace, indicate key approaches involved in this unique research method. These offer a precedent of the academic peer-reviewed research that specifically uses poststructural narrative theory as a method to conduct theoretical scholarship emphasizing poststructural narrative theory nuances concerning place, temporality, and sociality.

Results/Significance
Our textual analysis exemplifies how poststructural narrative theory is used for the production of critical theoretical research methods in leadership studies on race subjects in curriculum policy and how these methods can mitigate the harm to emotional well-being among leadership committed to racial justice. Critical theoretical research methods provide a richer and more robust body in leadership studies than simple interviews, focus groups, and/or observations could ever provide.

Tie to Educational Responsibility and Curriculum Research
Education, as a function of society, is suffering from an emotional crisis and the demands for theoretical methods to address the complexities of this ongoing crisis. This begs the question: How can we advance racial justice pedagogy if educators are suffering from racial battle fatigue? Poststructural narrative theory offers unique and creative pathways to address the evolving problems that surface from burnout in educational leadership for racial justice in the context of race and racism subjects; thus creating pathways for increased systemic curriculum policies and practices that address racial justice in robust ways.

Authors

• Tanetha Grosland, University of South Florida

• LaSonja Roberts, Western Michigan University