Vulnerability and Emotional Risk in an Educational Philosophy

This article explores my thought and emotional growth following a difficult, yet very common, teaching moment. By exploring the bifurcation between thought and feeling, and making a theoretical distinction between feelings and emotion, I reposition emotion as a critical window into learning that works alongside cognition and suggest that a commitment to good teaching requires continual reflection on the emotive aspects of teaching and learning. This piece combines Laura Micciche’s (2007) idea that “emotion is central to what makes something thinkable,” (47) with Robert Kegan’s theory of orders of consciousness, to make an argument for what is lost in classrooms when teachers dichotomize thinking and emotion. A strong dose of emotional vulnerability is necessary for classrooms to sponsor individual and collective growth. The conclusion offers some examples of assignments that re-center emotion in the classroom.