“Sometimes emotions are really beneficial and important”: Theorizing Emotional Tools of Creative Insubordination
In any US school, even in schools with strong commitments to equity, colleagues and administrators may make deficit-oriented, prejudiced, and/or problematic comments about students and families. These harmful comments are often fueled by white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, etc., and we refer to them as politically charged scenarios or dilemmas. When politically charged situations arise, teachers and teacher candidates, or TCs, need to take action and advocate for students, especially for students of marginalized and minoritized backgrounds. Attention to politically charged dilemmas is especially timely with current events such as recent executive orders eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, attempts to dismantle the United States Department of Education, and prior anti-Critical Race Theory attacks that push equity-minded teachers out of schools. This qualitative case study investigates white female elementary TCs’ understandings about the role of emotions when presented with politically charged dilemmas in their elementary mathematics methods course. The authors theorize emotional tools of creative insubordination, which emerged from the data as TCs described how they would respond to the various politically charged scenarios. Emotional tools of creative insubordination refer to actions that leverage emotions in order to advocate for students, especially those of marginalized backgrounds, such as regulating or de-escalating emotions, leveraging empathy, revealing emotions, and being comfortable being “called out” (or called in). The emotional tools of creative insubordination offer strategies for teachers and TCs to advocate for students’ learning and well-being to ultimately promote equity and justice in schools and society.