Integrating recognition and exploration of emotions to navigate the tension between relational and learning goals¶

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

Description¶

The article argues that facilitators can, and in many cases should, navigate the tension between relational and learning goals by combining recognition of teacher emotions (serving relational goals) with exploration of those emotions (serving learning goals). The authors state "it is possible, and in many cases desirable, to navigate the tension between relational and learning goals by integrating the recognition and exploration of emotions." The strategy treats emotional displays not as obstacles to manage away but as material for joint pedagogical inquiry, while still providing the emotional support and solidarity that recognition affords.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Facilitators willing to open discursive space for emotions rather than close it; a group climate in which teachers can display difficult emotions safely

Constraints¶

• The authors caution they do not make a normative argument that opening the space is essentially preferable; strategies should be applied intentionally according to goals and context

Target Learners¶

• PD facilitators of collaborative teacher learning groups

Target Learning Goals¶

• Integrating emotional support with professional learning about problems of practice

Affordances¶

• Recognizing Exploring Emotion Continuums Framework

Claims¶

• Acknowledging the emotion to prevent further discussing it recognizes the emotion but constrains exploration of the underlying pedagogical problem [+W]
• Ignoring the emotion strategy neither recognizes nor explores the displayed emotion, closing the discursive space [+W]
• Mitigating and normalizing the emotion recognizes it more than acknowledging-to-prevent but limits exploration to attributions that avoid critique of PD design [+W]
• Quick transition from emotion to practice indirectly recognizes the emotion to a somewhat greater extent than ignoring it [+W]
• The three strategies highest in both recognizing and exploring emotions were all identified in the same 20-minute emotional event [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Avoiding or preventing discussion of teacher emotions may constitute emotional rules that exclude emotions from pedagogical discourse
• Facilitators can use a taxonomy of moves and strategies for acknowledging and exploring emotion to build a facilitation repertoire

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Dana Vedder-Weiss, Rotem Tractenberg-Maslaton, Karin Sarfati-Shaulov. (2025). Facilitation strategies responding to emotional displays in PD discourse: navigating relational and learning goals. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-025-09737-4