Kristabel Stark recommends The Feeling of Teaching

The Feeling of Teaching

By Elizabeth D. Burris (BookBaby, 2013).

When I was working as an elementary and middle school special education teacher, I was intimately aware of the impact of my own emotions on my work, but I had received little training or guidance on how to navigate them. I could see how my own joy and enthusiasm, as well as my guilt, frustration, and fear, were affecting outcomes for both my students and me on a daily — if not momentary — basis. Despite these implications, I saw no mention of teachers’ emotions in policy discourse and few studies in which the role of affect in educators’ work was examined in a scientifically rigorous way.

I encountered The Feeling of Teaching by Elizabeth Burris when I was just beginning my doctoral studies, transitioning from special educator to education researcher, and looking for examples of scholar-practitioners who acknowledged the complex role of emotions in their work. Burris helps educators understand how reflecting on and regulating their emotions can improve their practice, for both themselves and their students. The book rests on three premises: that teaching and learning depend on relationships; that teaching is fraught with emotion, often negative; and that working through emotions can help illuminate the nature of classroom relationships, which points to ways teachers can improve their teaching. Through case studies and descriptions of useful strategies, this quick and practical book provides educators with simple entry points to exploring a critical but rarely discussed aspect of their everyday work.

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