Facilitators should monitor vulnerability and call out emotional regimes to preempt deficit narratives in teacher PD¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 5 claims (5 for) · 2 studies (1 qualitative, 1 theoretical), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article recommends that professional developers attend carefully to vulnerability for individuals and groups, since vulnerability preceded each introduction of deficit narratives. Facilitators and teacher leaders alert to potential inciting incidents may preempt or counter deficit narratives quickly, preventing their legitimation; practitioners should look for emotional regimes discouraging strong emotions "and consider calling them out to dispel their power." Shifting these regimes, not only combating deficit ideas, is required.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Facilitator alertness to vulnerability and to emotional regimes operating in the group

Constraints¶

• Prior research cited suggests strong emotions can catalyze learning, so regimes disallowing them are worth addressing rather than only avoiding discomfort

Target Learners¶

• teacher teams in collaborative and video-based professional development

Target Learning Goals¶

• asset-orientations toward students
• teacher learning from classroom video

Affordances¶

• Emotional Regimes Theory Teacher Talk

Claims¶

• In Case 1, sustained self-critique by the focal teacher led colleagues to attribute students' mathematics failure to parenting and parental lack of authority [+W]
• In Case 2, persistent strong negative self-critique led teachers to assign deficit narratives to students as having missed opportunities, serving as foils for teachers [+W]
• Deficit narratives are co-constructed in teacher collegial talk in response to teacher vulnerability under emotional regimes that disallow strong negative emotions [+W]
• Common threat-mitigation strategies preceded and failed to prevent deficit narratives, whose introduction followed the failure of mitigation to restore the emotional regime [+W]
• Strict emotional regimes contribute to the production of vulnerability that can precipitate deficit narratives from asset-oriented teachers [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Use empathy interviews as a professional development tool for shifting classroom practice towards rehumanizing mathematics
• Five research-based recommendations for teacher educators to address emotions in PD

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Samantha A. Marshall, Grace A. Chen. (2025). Deficit narratives as teacher foils: how vulnerability and emotional regimes shape teacher discourse. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-025-09740-9