Session Information
99 ERC SES 08 M, Research on Citizenship Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Most Chilean teachers in public schools teach in marginalised contexts. Social segregation, racism, drug trafficking and gender violence are some of the problems they face every day in their communities (Matus et al., 2019). The situation is even more complex when the curriculum prescribes teaching these problems, which become difficult knowledge (MINEDUC, 2019). Teachers must confront the difficult issues in the school subjects (e.g., social studies, citizenship education, science, philosophy). This request interacts with their personal experiences with different forms of violence (Kim, 2021; Sonu, 2023). In short, teaching decisions are inserted in a complex assemblage that interests the field of citizenship education (CE), which is the focus of this research.
In the last decades, teaching difficult and controversial issues at school has represented a relevant topic for researchers in CE (Barton & Ho, 2021; Pace, 2021). Most studies have addressed teachers' beliefs, student's cognitive skills, and teaching methodologies (Journell, 2022). Recently, some scholars have been interested in studying the relationship between teachers' personal experiences and pedagogical practices (e.g., Sonu, 2023; Zembylas & Loukadis, 2021). The research agenda in the area has been developed under a humanistic and modern paradigm (Zembylas, 2022). As a result, the affective and embodied dimensions of teaching difficult knowledge have been unrepresented.
This study aims to analyse the affects produced by the encounter between teachers' experiences with violence and teaching difficult knowledge; from the new materialism theory (Barad, 2007) and the posthumanism (Braidotti, 2019). I understand the affects from Deleuze and Guattari's (1988) definition, as forces or energies produced by the encounter between human (e.g., students, teachers, families) and non-human bodies (e.g., social discourses, materialities, nature), changing the ability to act. These changes can manifest in different intensities and directions. Thus, these theoretical frameworks allow to understand the teaching of difficult knowledge, considering the embodied and affective dimensions that need more exploration.
This research contributes to the field of citizenship education, and particularly for those interested in teaching difficult and controversial issues in school contexts. In particular, at least three contributions could be named: first, teaching decisions depends on teachers' personal and affective relationships with curricular content; second, it contributes to understanding teaching difficult knowledge from a complex and holistic theoretical perspective; and third, it allows us to recognise the value of affects and corporeality on creating alternative teaching methodologies to face these issues in challenging contexts.
Method
I conducted a post-qualitative study (Lather & St. Pierre, 2013) under a narrative approach (Tamboukou, 2021) to analyse the experiences of 4 teachers of public schools in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. It should be noted that the decision to focus on public schools lies in my interest in exploring the entanglements between the sociopolitical problems faced (e.g., racism, homophobia, classism) and the teaching decisions. To produce data, I conducted two narrative interviews with each teacher to delve deeper into the intersection between their teaching decisions about difficult knowledge, the social problems faced by the schools, and teachers lived experiences. One of these interviews embraces Springay and Truman's (2017) proposal of walking data production. To do this, each teacher selected a location where personal experiences and teaching decisions intersect. In this instance, teachers shared photographs, class plans, and learning resources that they selected previously. After the narrative interviews, I met with the four teachers in a participatory mapping session (Risler & Ares, 2013). On this occasion, with the provided materials (e.g., drawings, pencils, magazines), teachers mapped an experience of teaching difficult knowledge intertwined with their lived experience and the social problems faced by schools. Each teacher designed their map and explained it to the group, and we collectively dialogue about the possibilities and challenges of affective citizenship education. Finally, I carried out a narrative interview with each teacher to deepen into the participatory mapping session, assess their participation in the research and discuss about the affects and body reactions produced by the research. To analyse the narrative data, I used rhizoanalysis (Masny, 2013) and intra-action analysis (Jackson & Mazzei, 2011). The records on my field diary were part of the data research and were analysed in their affective interrelationship with the teachers' narratives. This study followed the requirements of the university's ethics committee and developed an adverse event protocol due to the emotionally sensitive nature of the topics addressed.
Expected Outcomes
The results described the human and non-human elements that constitute the teachers' narratives. The interrelation between teachers' life stories and students' lived experiences stood out among the human elements. Regarding non-human elements, it appeared that teachers' narratives are tensioned by social discourses that pressure them not to address difficult issues. Also, their narrative intraact with the curricular prescriptions and the deficient infrastructure of public schools. In addition, the findings showed the intertwining between experiences teaching difficult knowledge and teachers' personal experiences with race, gender, and class discrimination. The broad sociopolitical context and challenges their schools address affect teachers' decisions. Finally, the affects of censorship, nostalgia and resistance appeared more strongly in teachers' narratives. In the discussion, I propose to build an affective CE that values the pedagogical potential of affects and recognises teachers as subjects full (and not empty) of experiences. Likewise, I theorise difficult knowledge and school citizenship education from new materialisms and posthumanities. These frameworks challenge the modern and rationalist view of teaching and teacher subjectivity and call to understand students' citizenship learning experiences entangled with teachers' political, affective, and embodied experiences.
References
Barad, K. M. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press. Barton, K. C., & Ho, L. C. (2021). Curriculum for justice and harmony: Deliberation, knowledge, and action in social and civic education. Routledge. Braidotti, R. (2019). A Theoretical Framework for the Critical Posthumanities. Theory, Culture & Society, 36(6), 31-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276418771486 Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1988) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Massumi, Brian. London: The Athlone Press. Jackson, A., & Mazzei, L. (2011). Thinking with Theory in Qualitative Research: Viewing Data Across Multiple Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203148037 Journell, W. (2022). Classroom Controversy in the Midst of Political Polarization: The Essential Role of School Administrators. NASSP Bulletin, 106(2), 133-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/01926365221100589 Kim, Y. (2021). Imagining and teaching citizenship as non-citizens: Migrant social studies teachers’ positionalities and citizenship education in turbulent times. Theory & Research in Social Education, 49(2), 176-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2021.1885543 Lather, P. & St. Pierre, E. (2013) Post-qualitative research, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26:6, 629-633, 10.1080/09518398.2013.788752 Masny, D. (2013). Rhizoanalytic Pathways in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(5), 339-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800413479559 Matus, C., Rojas-Lasch, C., Guerrero-Morales, P., Herraz-Mardones, P. C., & Sanyal-Tudela, A. (2019). Difference and Normality: Ethnographic Production andIntervention in Schools. Magis. Revista Internacional de Investigacion en Educacion, 11(23), 23-39. Ministerio de Educación de Chile. (2019). Bases Curriculares 3° y 4° medio. Unidad de Curriculum y Evaluación. https://www.curriculumnacional.cl/614/articles-91414_bases.pdf Pace, J. L. (2021). Hard questions: Learning to teach controversial issues. Rowman & Littlefield. Risler, J., & Ares, P. (2013). Manual de mapeo colectivo: recursos cartográficos críticos para procesos territoriales de creación colaborativa. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sonu, D. (2023) From criticality to shame: Childhood memories of social class and how they matter to elementary school teachers and teaching, Theory & Research in Social Education, 51:4, 503-529, DOI: 10.1080/00933104.2023.2210081 Springgay, S. & Truman, S. (2017). Walking methodologies in a more-than-human world: WalkingLab. Routledge. Tamboukou, M. (2021) Narrative rhythmanalysis: the art and politics of listening to women’s narratives of forced displacement, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24:2, 149-162, DOI: 10.1080/13645579.2020.1769271 Zembylas, M., & Loukaidis, L. (2021). Affective practices, difficult histories and peace education: An analysis of teachers’ affective dilemmas in ethnically divided Cyprus. Teaching and Teacher Education, 97, 103225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103225 in Education, 106(1), 59-76. https://doi-org/10.1177/0034523719890367 Zembylas, M. (2022). Decolonizing and re-theorizing radical democratic education: Toward a politics and practice of refusal. Power and Education, 14(2), 157-171. https://doi.org/10.1177/17577438211062349
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