Happy places, horrible times, and scary learners: affective performances and sticky objects in inclusive classrooms

Drawing on data from two studies conducted in US public schools, this paper traces the affective productions and performances of teachers to illustrate the role of affect in delineating (non)normative pedagogical practices in inclusive classrooms. Occupying a borderland space in narrative inquiry that permitted the straddling of differing philosophical traditions, we sought to both acknowledge the agentive work of teachers as well as the affectively constituted nature of their engagements with schools and learners. Data from teacher narratives disclosed particular preconceptions of schools as ‘happy places,’ that delineated affective norms for an inclusive classroom. As teachers took up the affective responsibility of schools, they managed and modified their own as well as their students’ affective performances and orientations, producing meanings of disability that often worked at odds with inclusive ends. Their efforts indexed the importance of affect in the delineation of teacher competency for inclusive pedagogy.