Abstract In this research article, Abby Reisman, Lightning Peter Jay, and Jenni Conrad compare how two preservice teachers navigated discursive “third spaces” that emerged during discussions of slavery in ninth-grade global history classrooms. Both teachers were initially surprised by students9 engagement and responded in ways that welcomed and sustained student discourse. Yet the unfolding discussion presented challenges to both teachers that proved too difficult to overcome. Reisman, Jay, and Conrad9s analysis applies the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity to consider teachers9 moment-by-moment decisions in these discursive third spaces. The resulting portraits of teachers9 decision-making reveal the complex, often competing considerations that teachers navigate in facilitating classroom discussions, and the specific role that racialized emotions play in shaping how teachers respond to students9 contributions.
Reisman et al. (2026) studied this question.