Unsettling feelings in the classroom: scaffolding pedagogies of discomfort as part of decolonising human geography in higher education

This paper addresses the tension between the need to create spaces for unsettling feelings as part of a decolonisation of the curriculum in Higher Education, and the need to create a sense of safety in the classroom. Decolonising the curriculum, here, means exploring how histories of coloniality structure educational institutions, established canons, and socio-natural relations, and cultivating collective practices that move beyond oppressive patternings. As part of this process, as we find ourselves imbricated in the struggles of others and as our emotional grip on the world is unsettled, we – students and teachers alike – may find ourselves experiencing discomfort. This raises an important question, for it is clearly part of the responsibility of an educator to create spaces that feel “safe” for students, and do not induce or trigger trauma. Drawing on experiences in the university classroom and lecture halls, this paper develops the concept of “scaffolding” as the basis for an ethos for embracing discomfort pedagogically. The affordances of physical theatre, film, and visual culture are considered alongside particular tactics as ways to foster the transformation of “settled” fabrics of feeling in care-full ways.