Publication Date
2018
Keywords
response, emotion, affect, community college, reflective practice
Abstract
This article reports on a study focused on understanding the relationship between teachers’ emotional responses and the larger contextual factors that shape response practices. Drawing from response and emotion scholarship, this article proposes affective tensions as a way for understanding the tug and pull that teachers experience between what they feel they should do (mostly driven from a pedagogical perspective) and what they are expected to do (mostly driven by an institutional perspective) in a contextual moment. The case study of Kim, a community college instructor, offers an analysis of two affective tensions that emerged from her think-aloud protocol (TAP): responding to grammar/sentence errors over content and responding critically to students she likes. Kim’s case reveals the underlying affective tensions between individual emotions, cultural constructions, and institutional contexts that are negotiated while she responds to student writing. This article concludes with suggestions for identifying emotions and affective tensions that both influence and paralyze writing teachers’ response practices.
Recommended Citation
Caswell, Nicole I.
(2018)
"Affective Tensions in Response,"
Journal of Response to Writing: Vol. 4:
Iss.
2, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/journalrw/vol4/iss2/4