TY - JOUR
T1 - If Students Don’t Feel it, They Won’t Learn it
T2 - Early Career Secondary Social Studies Educators Plan for Emotional Engagement
AU - Reidel, Michelle
AU - Salinas, Cinthia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/4
Y1 - 2024/4
N2 - This qualitative case study examines early career social studies educators’ knowledge of the role of emotion in teaching and learning. More specifically, we examine how our efforts to expand social studies educators’ understanding of emotion, shifted their perception of the role of emotion in learning social studies content and how they can use this knowledge to plan instruction. Prior to beginning their “emotion education,” all participants described the role of emotion in teaching and learning as important for relationship-building and as something to be carefully managed. They focused their efforts in the classroom on creating a welcoming environment for their students and managing their students’ emotions. Though they described their classrooms as emotional spaces, none had explicitly considered the role of emotion in learning content.As they learned about the role of emotion in cognitive processes like memory and problem-solving, participants began to recognize the need to rethink their pedagogical choices. However, none of the participants embraced or accepted an expanded view of emotions as social and political forces. Reluctant to consider how emotions shape our identities, our communities and our politics, these social studies educators did not meaningfully engage in a critical examination of how social studies curriculum can contribute to “schooling” students’ emotions. Findings from this initial study suggest it is important to engage social studies educators in critical awareness of their own emotions and critical examination of what emotions “do” in the world and how the social studies content we teach can contribute to the “schooling” of our students’ emotions.
AB - This qualitative case study examines early career social studies educators’ knowledge of the role of emotion in teaching and learning. More specifically, we examine how our efforts to expand social studies educators’ understanding of emotion, shifted their perception of the role of emotion in learning social studies content and how they can use this knowledge to plan instruction. Prior to beginning their “emotion education,” all participants described the role of emotion in teaching and learning as important for relationship-building and as something to be carefully managed. They focused their efforts in the classroom on creating a welcoming environment for their students and managing their students’ emotions. Though they described their classrooms as emotional spaces, none had explicitly considered the role of emotion in learning content.As they learned about the role of emotion in cognitive processes like memory and problem-solving, participants began to recognize the need to rethink their pedagogical choices. However, none of the participants embraced or accepted an expanded view of emotions as social and political forces. Reluctant to consider how emotions shape our identities, our communities and our politics, these social studies educators did not meaningfully engage in a critical examination of how social studies curriculum can contribute to “schooling” students’ emotions. Findings from this initial study suggest it is important to engage social studies educators in critical awareness of their own emotions and critical examination of what emotions “do” in the world and how the social studies content we teach can contribute to the “schooling” of our students’ emotions.
KW - critical citizenship
KW - early career educators
KW - emotion
KW - power
KW - teacher education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85190297694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/23522798231219967
DO - 10.1177/23522798231219967
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85190297694
SN - 0885-985X
VL - 48
SP - 87
EP - 101
JO - Journal of Social Studies Research
JF - Journal of Social Studies Research
IS - 2
ER -