‘When saying you care is not really caring’: emotions of disgust, whiteness ideology, and teacher education

AbstractDrawing on one of the author’s experiences of teaching white teacher candidates in an urban university, this paper argues for the importance of interrogating the ways that benign emotions (e.g., pity and caring) are sometimes hidden expressions of disgust for the Other. Using critical race theory, whiteness studies, and critical emotion studies, it is shown how whiteness ideology erroneously translates disgust for people of color to false professions of pity or caring. This phenomenon is particularly interesting because care, sympathy, and love are emotions that are routinely performed by teacher candidates (who are predominantly white females) and embedded in teacher education. Yet not much literature theorizes how these performative emotions are not exempt of whiteness ideology. To engage in a genuine process of antiracism, we argue that the emotions that undergird teachers’ dispositions need to be critically and sensitively unpacked. We end with implications for teacher education, particularly in relation to pedagogical ways of identifying and interrogating narratives of caring-as-hidden disgust and cultivating critical compassion.Keywords: disgustemotionspre-service teachersraceteacher educationurbanwhiteness Notes1. To the Martin family and to all of our children. May they never feel disgusting in the truly disgusting neo-globalized system of race.Additional informationNotes on contributorsCheryl E. MatiasDr Cheryl E. Matias is an assistant professor in the Urban Community Teacher Education Program and Urban Ecologies doctoral program at the University of Colorado, Denver. She will be moving to Educational Foundations this fall 2014. Her research is on race and ethnic studies in education with a theoretical focus on critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, critical pedagogy, and feminism of color. Specifically, she uses a feminist of color approach to deconstruct the emotionality of whiteness in urban teaching. Her other research interest is on mother scholarship and supporting woman of color and mother scholars in the academy. As a former teacher in both South Central, Los Angeles Unified School District and Bed-Stuy, New York City Department of Education, she earned her bachelor’s degree in cultural communication from the University of California San Diego, teaching credential at San Diego State University, and her masters in Social and Multicultural Foundations at California State University, Long Beach. She earned her doctorate at UCLA with an emphasis in race and ethnic studies in education. Some of her publications can be found in Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Teacher Education Quarterly, Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, and Multicultural Perspectives. She is a mother scholar of twins, an avid Lakers fan, and bachata ballroom dancer.Michalinos ZembylasMichalinos Zembylas is an associate professor of Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies at the Open University of Cyprus. His research interests are in the areas of educational philosophy and curriculum theory, and his work focuses on exploring the role of emotion and affect in curriculum and pedagogy. He is particularly interested in how affective politics intersect with issues of social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, and citizenship education.