‘When saying you care is not really caring’: emotions of disgust, whiteness ideology, and teacher education

Abstract

Drawing on one of the author's experiences of teaching white teacher candidates in an urban university, this paper argues for the importance of interrogating the ways that benign emotions (e.g., pity and caring) are sometimes hidden expressions of disgust for the Other. Using critical race theory, whiteness studies, and critical emotion studies, it is shown how whiteness ideology erroneously translates disgust for people of color to false professions of pity or caring. This phenomenon is particularly interesting because care, sympathy, and love are emotions that are routinely performed by teacher candidates (who are predominantly white females) and embedded in teacher education. Yet not much literature theorizes how these performative emotions are not exempt of whiteness ideology. To engage in a genuine process of antiracism, we argue that the emotions that undergird teachers' dispositions need to be critically and sensitively unpacked. We end with implications for teacher education, particularly in relation to pedagogical ways of identifying and interrogating narratives of caring-as-hidden disgust and cultivating critical compassion.

The Emotional Dimension in Becoming a Teacher

“…In other words, a merely technical pedagogical perspective on student teachers' development, without acknowledging the essential role of the self-understanding runs the risk of simply missing the point or -even worse-of unconsciously contributing to existing practices and structures of inequality, injustice and oppression . An example of the subtle perversity in which emotions and the politics may be intertwined can be found in a study by Matias and Zembylas ( 2014 ) in the USA. They found that in teacher education a particular emotion may be disguised into another and as such may jeopardize efforts to train future teachers with the ideals of social justice and equity.…”

Whiteness in Higher Education: The Invisible Missing Link in Diversity and Racial Analyses

“…Matias and Zembylas () further explore White racial emotions of preservice teachers. This time, the analysis focuses on one class where the instructor specifically inserts explorations of Whiteness and emotions into the course syllabus.…”

Breakin’ Down Whiteness in Antiracist Teaching: Introducing Critical Whiteness Pedagogy

“…Like Matias and Zembylas (2014), the goal was to delve more deeply into why white teacher candidates continue to express pity (the socially-acceptable emotional display) to people of color while still exhibiting guilt, anger, and defensiveness when learning antiracist pedagogies (the commonly-expressed emotions in whiteness). If one is not emotionally-prepared to undertake antiracist teaching practices, then it stands to reason s/he will not be emotionally secure enough to engage in long-term racial justice in her/his teaching.…”