ERIC Number: EJ1161672
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0272
EISSN: N/A
Play of the Unconscious in Pre-Service Teachers' Self-Reflection around Race and Racism
Shim, Jenna Min
Journal of Curriculum Studies, v49 n6 p830-847 2017
Reading psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious desire for wholeness in the light of the notion of white racial supremacy, this study explores a constituted difficulty that self-reflection around the issues of race and racism confronts by exploring three white male pre-service teachers' emotional experiences inscribed in their responses to the process of engaging in self-reflection. The pervasiveness of strong emotional reactions to the process of engaging in self-reflection spoke volumes not only about how uncomfortable the participants felt in the face of ambivalence, incommensurability and vulnerability but also about their active resistance against their emotional states to defend their unconscious desire for wholeness that is intensified by the forces of white racial supremacy. This study also seeks to elaborate problems inherent in teachers' self-reflection and why and how unknown and unconscious emotional world filters and at times hinders the participants' willingness to inquire into their own relationship to race and racism. In the final section, the author discusses how the findings may be used to imagine how teachers' unknown and unconscious emotional world can become subjective curriculum which in turn becomes a foundation for students' learning or lack thereof and also informs the field of teacher education engaging in critical self-reflection.
Descriptors: Cognitive Processes, Preservice Teachers, Reflection, Racial Attitudes, Racial Bias, Emotional Response, Undergraduate Students, Ambiguity (Context), Anxiety, Focus Groups, Journal Writing
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A