Abstract
The study examines the emotional experience of five African-American female teachers in the Pacific northwest. The existing literature on emotion rules and teachers’ emotions is referenced and critiqued for its possible misrepresentation or marginalization of teachers of color. Using interview data, the study found that race and religion shape the emotional response of teachers. The teachers tended to reference race and racism as well as their religious or spiritual beliefs to contextualize teaching experience and accompanying emotions, including the use of emotions to manage and reconceptualize their professional identities. In the end, it appears that for these African-American teachers, in particular, the intersection of race, religion and emotion serves both personal and political interests.
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Appendix
Interview Questions
What are your rules for how you emote in the classroom?
Do you ever feel tension between how you are supposed to emote and how you actually feel? What do you do about this?
Do you ever feel angry or depressed or down in the dumps when teaching? What do you do to change this?
How do you see your role as teacher? What is your goal as teacher?
Do you ever experience racism or sexism on the job? How does this effect you emotionally? What do you about this emotion?
What role is there for religion or spirituality in your life, if any?
Do white teachers relate differently to black students and white students? Do you relate differently to white and black students?
Do you feel that you need to always be proving your competence, to your supervisors, colleagues and parents? If yes, what emotion do you have in response to this feeling?
What brings you satisfaction on the job? What motivates you?
Are you honest with your students about your emotions? Do you hide your emotions?
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Winograd, K. (2009). An Exploratory Study of Race and Religion in the Emotional Experience of African-American Female Teachers. In: Schutz, P., Zembylas, M. (eds) Advances in Teacher Emotion Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2_15
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