Frames for emotional expressions across discourse forms in an ecology course

ABSTRACT

Research on emotions illustrates a range of emotions that students and teachers experience, both individually and as a collective, in science learning settings. However, not as much attention has been given to how opportunities for emotional expressions are framed. Since emotions and their expressions are embedded in the discourse in which they are constructed, this research sought to describe the ways in which expectations for emotional expressions were constructed during an ecology course for education undergraduates. Utilising sociolinguistics, emotional expressions were examined across and within forms of discourse (discourse events, written artifacts) to make salient how cues informed the number of emotions expressed. Data sources were ethnographic field notes, video recordings, and written artifacts from an entire semester of the course. The specific features of the emotional frames in discourse events and on written artifacts are presented. Contrast points are utilised to showcase the ways different emotional frames were constituted by the members of the course under different conditions and across discourse forms. Implications for considering how to support learners’ emotional expressions within a science classroom are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective domain
• discourse
• ecology education

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the reviewers and editor for their thoughtful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Elizabeth Hufnagel http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2866-4901

Notes

1. Mike was not in class that day due to his field work schedule.