The classroom as a space of feeling: Pedagogical challenges and opportunities

Event Date & Time

Event Description

Emotions are one important mode through which members of a learning community literally feel their relationships with each other and with course content. They are thus crucial to how students and teachers understand their place in classroom spaces. In some instances, emotions in the classroom can become so excessive that they challenge the capacity of both teachers and students to maintain a classroom climate that is conducive to individual and collective learning. Fear, guilt, defensiveness or hostility over challenging topics such as homophobia and colonialism can manifest in ways that damage collegiality and trust, which affect not only individual students and teachers, but the broader learning community. How should we, as teachers, understand and approach these emotions and their effects in the classroom? In this workshop, participants will work with each other and with the workshop leader, using their personal classroom experiences, to develop a conceptual framework and a set of pedagogical strategies for engaging emotional encounters in spaces of teaching and learning.

Facilitator Bio:

Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal is Instructor I in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies with UBC’s Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice. His research interests include the politics of emotions, embodiment and positionalities in teaching and learning spaces; queer of colour geographies; and Filipino-Canadian studies.