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Discrimination Through Critical Emotional Reflexivity in Online Learning

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Discrimination Through Critical Emotional Reflexivity in Online Learning Adult Education Quarterly Volume 59 Number 1 November 2008 61-82 © 2008 American Association Engaging With Issues of '"^'' ""Edtat!» Cultural Diversity and .o.n7/o,,,,3,,,3,3,http://aeq.sagepub.eom, hosted at Discrimination Through http://online.sagepub.com Critical Emotional Reflexivity in Online Learning Michalinos Zembylas Open University of Cyprus The purposes of this article are to describe the adult learners' emotional experiences as a result of engaging with issues of cultural diversity and discrimination, and to interro- gate the ways in which critical emotional reflexivity emerges in the online format. The analysis is done in the context of an online course on diversity, inequality, and multi- cultural education; this course is part of a distance education master's level program in Educational Studies and the participants are primary and secondary school teachers. The findings provide evidence of (a) how adult learners respond and constantly nego- tiate their learning practices and the ways they feel about cultural diversity and dis- crimination, and highlight the different ways in which they reflect critically on their understanding of cultural/ethnic/social differences; (b) how online learning, contrary to popular belief, can be a useful medium to express difficult emotions related to racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Keywords: cultural diversity; critical emotional reflexivity: online education ecetit research shows that educating about cultural diversity, discriminatioti, and Rinequality and embracing critical pedagogies can evoke a range of powerful emotions to educators and learners alike—from passion and anger to shame and intense emotional discomfort (see Berlak, 2004; Boler, 1999; Boler & Zembylas, 2003; Zembylas, 2007; Zembylas & Boler, 2002).' There is evidence that learners may undergo profound changes coupled with distress and other emotions; thus it is not surprising that this research indicates how emotions may inhibit or support leam- ing about cultural diversity and social justice. The interrogation of learners' emotional investments in specific assumptions and ideas is an important component of critical pedagogies (Boler & Zembylas, 2003). Author's Note: Correspondetice should be addressed to Michalinos Zembylas, Open University of Cyprus, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, 5 Ayiou Antoniou str., Strovolos 2002, Nicosia, Cyprus; e-tnail: [email protected]. 61 62 Adult Education Quarterly Within adult education in particular, our understanding of the intersection between emotions and leaming about cultural differences is slowly growing (Ziegahn, 2005). However, we know very little about how adults from similar social and ethnic back- grounds negotiate relations to the Other and engage in emotional reflexivity, partic- ularly in the online context. Because the interest in designing new pedagogical environments in online learning has increased, there is need to better understand adult learners' emotional experiences in the context of learning about cultural diver- sity and related issues. My interest in this article is to gain a richer understanding of how critical reflection on one's emotions—what I call critical emotional reflexivity—affects adult learners' experiences through participation in a year-long online course. This course. Cultural Differences and Social Inequalities, teaches about diversity, inequality, and multicul- tural education and is part of a distance education master's level program in Educational Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. Operating from the assumption that participants in this course belong to a homogeneous cultural, religious, ethnic, and class group—they are all Greek, Orthodox Christians, middle class teachers at the primary or secondary school level—I invited them to reflect systematically on their emotions related to the topics we encountered throughout the 30-week course. These topics included issues such as stereotyping, discrimination, and racism in Cyprus and abroad, cultural values, intercultural communication, interethnic conflict, and multi- cultural teaching models. Primary emphasis will be given here to the discussion and analysis of the learners' emotion journals and e-mail communication (i.e., the e-mail messages exchanged between the instructor and individual learners as well as the e-mail messages posted by the learners to class discussion board) aimed at encourag- ing these adult learners to open themselves to the difficult topics of the course by pro- viding a safe environment for sharing their feelings and thoughts. This article's purposes are then (a) to describe the adult learners' emotional expe- riences as a result of engaging with issues of cultural diversity and discrimination and (b) to interrogate the ways in which critical emotional reflexivity emerges in the online format. The exploration of these two issues is important to the field of adult online education for two reasons. First, there is increasing recognition of the roles that emotions play in adult education (Dirkx, 2001; Yorks & Kasl, 2002), especially in relation to challenging issues such as cultural diversity and social justice (Callahan, 2004; Tisdell & McLaurin, 1994; Ziegahn, 2005). However, there has been no research on courses that looked at the intersection of criticality and emo- tional reflexivity for adult learners through a focus on cultural diversity and dis- crimination. Emotional reflexivity refers to the process of reflecting on the emotions and particularly on the emotional work conducted (Hochschild, 1979, 1983). The term critical emotional reflexivity captures more specifically how emotions can be engaged as critical and transformative forces. Second, with the exception of Ziegahn's (2005) study, we know very little about the confluence of critical emo- tional reflexivity, cultural diversity, and online learning. Knowing more about what Zembylas / Critical Emotional Rellexivity in Online Learning 63 adult learners experience emotionally in the online environment when they study about cultural diversity and discrimination is important to the design of relevant ped- agogies. This article begins with a discussion about the role of emotions in critical pedagogy and adult education and analyzes the challenges and possibilities from seeking ways to promote critical emotional reflexivity in online learning. Previous Research and Theoretical Framework Emotions in Critical Pedagogy and Adult Education A pedagogical approach which focuses on issues of valuing cultural diversity and problematizing discrimination and inequality often requires learners to engage in demanding and discomforting experiences; these experiences involve both learning about others and confronting one's own emotional investments to various ideas such as race and ethnicity (Berlak, 2004; Boler, 1999). Such a pedagogical approach includes examination of one's emotional experiences, values, and perspectives about social justice and cultural diversity. Unavoidably, such an examination can threaten one's core beliefs and create powerful negative feelings such as anger, shame, or resentment that may inhibit or support transformative leaining^ (Boler & Zembylas 2003; Zembylas, 2007b). Feelings of discomfort may even be more intense in adults, because adults have already formulated their core beliefs in life (Dirkx, 2001). Attending to the role of emo- tions in triggering transformative learning, then, is important in adult education—even more so, when learning involves difficult issues such as cultural diversity and social justice (Yorks & Kasl, 2002; Ziegahn, 2005). The existing evidence from research on critical reflection and intercultural learning shows that under some circumstances adult learners may undergo profound changes (see Ziegahn, 2005). However, it is not unlikely that these changes are accompanied by ambivalent emotions, that is, both positive and negative feelings in the context of learning about such difficult issues (Guy, 1999; Jeris & McDowell, 2003; Tisdell & McLaurin, 1994). Any transforma- tion begins with recognizing how one feels about social events (Callahan, 2004; Freiré, 2004). To reflect and even go against taken-for-granted assumptions and core beliefs is, then, an extremely discomforting process for adult learners. The reality of research in critical pedagogy and adult education, however, is that the emotionality of learning about social justice and inequality is generally marginal to dis- cussions of critical pedagogies; or, at best, emotionality is regarded as an effect, rather than as a phenomenon that may have a constitutive role in the descriptions of what teaching and learning about these issues may imply for adult learners. However, if one of the goals of critical pedagogy is to facilitate the changes needed to support greater equity, then the role of emotions must be acknowledged in challenging the prevailing 64 Adult Education Quarterly norms (Callahan, 2004). In particular, a better understanding of the emotionahty of adult learning on issues of diversity and discrimination arguably can contribute to efforts that problematize taken-for granted perceptions of inequity both in schools and the society. Especially, when adult learners are educators themselves, an investigation into their own emotional demons (Dlamini, 2002) becomes paramount to such efforts. Critical Emotional Reflexivity and Online Learning Given that the context of this study is online communication, I turn now my atten- tion to this field. Studies have shown that one of the
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