Chapter 5: At the Heart of Teaching: The Role of Emotion in Changing Teachers’ Beliefs¹

“Emotions are ways with which we know the world around us.... Emotions inform you whether something needs to change” (Zembylas, 2002, pp. 92, 94). These quotes from Catherine, an elementary-school teacher who was the subject of a 3-year ethnographic study of the impact of emotions on teaching, reveal an important insight that has eluded educational researchers seeking to explain why it is so difficult to change teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices. That is, emotions play a crucial role in motivating change in beliefs. Using Foucault’s genealogical method, Zem- bylas showed how Catherine’s emotions, particularly her feelings of excitement, influenced her professional and personal identity, her relationships with students and colleagues, her curriculum decisions, her instruction, and her views and reactions to her school culture. On the basis of Catherine’s reactions, Zembylas concluded that discourse about teachers’ emotional reactions can be used to understand and transform their teaching.