Cultivating Inner Witnesses Attuned to the Emotional Experiences of Students of Color in Science
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| Title: | Cultivating Inner Witnesses Attuned to the Emotional Experiences of Students of Color in Science |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Alexis Patterson Williams (ORCID |
| Source: | Science Education. 2026 110(1):13-25. |
| Availability: | Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 13 |
| Publication Date: | 2026 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Descriptive |
| Descriptors: | Emotional Experience, Student Experience, Minority Group Students, Science Education, Equal Education, Psychological Needs |
| DOI: | 10.1002/sce.21944 |
| ISSN: | 0036-8326 1098-237X |
| Abstract: | Traditionally, disciplinary science has been represented as void of and uninfluenced by emotions; therefore, the professional vision of science teaching and learning does not often include attending to the whole person, particularly the emotional needs of those that are harmed in science learning contexts. We find this exclusion untenable given the persistent harm that students of color suffer across science education contexts. As part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, in this manuscript, we urge the field of science education to re-envision what science teachers need to attend to for equitable science teaching and learning. Indeed, we argue that science education is inequitable for students of color if their emotions within the classroom are not addressed. Thus, science teaching and teacher education needs to account for the ways emotions show up in science classrooms. Using illustrative vignettes from two science classrooms, we highlight the importance of developing an inner witness that is attuned to the emotional needs of students. We, then, use our equity-oriented inner witnesses to engage in pedagogical imaginings that critically interrogate our emotions and interpretations of what happened, what did not happen, how the students could have been better supported, how the teachers could have been better supported, and what it is about current models of science teaching and science professional vision that barred different possible responses. These instances, and what they illustrated to us about science (teacher) education, compelled us to explore and imagine science education research, policy, and practices that value engaging with emotional expressions--as both individually and sociopolitically situated--toward equitable science learning environments. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1491933 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwG1gH1Zxyw9Od1_aAZedNxXAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDIJh0qFBloJQFdqRaQIBEICBm8-wdfxxDg3wDs8w6kjQ3aPc_VD_lc_8MfRv5Nr4HKjhButWeIxjs5FKTZEwGL7ZEObxtFuZr3NzpJxBY1U4_ytLlG1_vhKtCLMjQe8BOt7vCfo6-jG9Hg0K3ZJ757VWu2AHEvfHBPTlN216UlZNGzlYehufHFuTNa1pTUyoJJjHcH3Wa4ViJ2vv6R4q16ly6X08uT0TmGIOxkgq Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0190305601;sed01jan.26;2025Dec19.06:03;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0190305601-1">Cultivating Inner Witnesses Attuned to the Emotional Experiences of Students of Color in Science </title> <p>Traditionally, disciplinary science has been represented as void of and uninfluenced by emotions; therefore, the professional vision of science teaching and learning does not often include attending to the whole person, particularly the emotional needs of those that are harmed in science learning contexts. We find this exclusion untenable given the persistent harm that students of color suffer across science education contexts. As part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, in this manuscript, we urge the field of science education to re‐envision what science teachers need to attend to for equitable science teaching and learning. Indeed, we argue that science education is inequitable for students of color if their emotions within the classroom are not addressed. Thus, science teaching and teacher education needs to account for the ways emotions show up in science classrooms. Using illustrative vignettes from two science classrooms, we highlight the importance of developing an inner witness that is attuned to the emotional needs of students. We, then, use our equity‐oriented inner witnesses to engage in pedagogical imaginings that critically interrogate our emotions and interpretations of what happened, what did not happen, how the students could have been better supported, how the teachers could have been better supported, and what it is about current models of science teaching and science professional vision that barred different possible responses. These instances, and what they illustrated to us about science (teacher) education, compelled us to explore and imagine science education research, policy, and practices that value engaging with emotional expressions–as both individually and sociopolitically situated–toward equitable science learning environments.</p> <p>The enactment of instruction results from pedagogical decisions based in values, priorities, and educators' positionalities. These decisions and values are often shaped by what Goodwin ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref1">17</reflink>]) calls a professional vision of a field. Goodwin highlights that ways of seeing and understanding phenomena are learned through professional socialization. A profession trains its newcomers to see and understand events and interactions aligned with the group's goals and experiences (Sherin and van Es [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref2">55</reflink>]; Jacobs, Lamb, and Philipp [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref3">25</reflink>]). Louie ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref4">30</reflink>]) emphasizes that professional vision is socially constructed and not politically neutral. Choices of what to highlight and how to interpret information can "privilege some and marginalize others" (p. 61). In teaching, professional priorities and values around smartness or achievement are often guided by white middle‐class ideals (Rogoff et al. [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref5">50</reflink>]; Sheth and Salisbury [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref6">60</reflink>]). Science education is informed by disciplinary science representations (Sheth [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref7">57</reflink>]), a discipline known for being steeped in white supremacist views and patriarchal norms (Ong et al. [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref8">42</reflink>]). Disciplinary science is traditionally represented as devoid of emotions, so the professional vision of science teaching often excludes attending to the whole person, especially the emotional needs of those harmed in science learning contexts. This exclusion is untenable given the persistent harm that students of color suffer across science education contexts. We argue that supporting equitable science teaching requires noticing and attending to emotions indicating harm to restore students' relationships with peers and science content.</p> <p>Current schooling models driven by standardization, academic benchmarks, and neo‐liberal, capitalistic characterizations of rigor and learning leave little room for students of color to learn about or from their whole selves, including socioemotional well‐being (Sheth and Salisbury [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref9">60</reflink>]). Current standards and principles for science education center on productive disciplinary engagement, characterized by a community of learners engaging in epistemic and discourse practices constituting and accountable to science disciplines in sustained ways (National Research Council [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref10">40</reflink>]). These dominant renderings of productive academic engagement present norms around science discourses and practices as objective, rational, value‐free, and power evasive (Sheth [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref11">57</reflink>]). This false binary defining knowledge construction as rational processes in opposition to emotionality upholds unequal power hierarchies (DeCuir‐Gunby and Williams [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref12">11</reflink>]), forcing students of color to choose between achievement and a holistic sense of self (Sheth [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref13">59</reflink>]). Countering narrow epistemic and discursive perspectives, recent science education scholarship attends to student and teacher socioemotional engagement. This includes calls to better attend to science teachers' and learners' emotions as necessary for authentic disciplinary engagement (Jaber, Dini, and Hammer [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref14">22</reflink>]; Jaber, Hufnagel, and Radoff [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref15">24</reflink>]; Engle and Conant [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref16">13</reflink>]; Luce and Hsi [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref17">31</reflink>]).</p> <p>Building with scholars who attend to the sociopolitical and emotional dimensions of science education, we argue that a new professional vision should address the emotional expressions of students of color to support holistic well‐being and healing. Emotions in science classrooms reflect how people of color feel in relation to themselves, each other, and the content within a web of power relations (Zembylas [<reflink idref="bib76" id="ref18">76</reflink>]). Responsiveness to emotions profoundly impacts students (and teachers) of color well‐being and academic engagement. Emotions may signal interactions beyond the class that affect engagement or trigger emotions from past experiences. Even an absence of visible emotions can indicate protective coping mechanisms preventing processes of grieving and healing (Sheth [<reflink idref="bib59" id="ref19">59</reflink>], Yoon [<reflink idref="bib74" id="ref20">74</reflink>]). Emotions are indicators of the social context, as important as emotions centered on science content or practices (Pierson, Brady, and Lee [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref21">48</reflink>]; Shalaby [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref22">54</reflink>]). Teachers and students must routinely attend to these emotions in science learning environments. Attending to the well‐being of students of color requires accounting for a range of reasons they may (or may not) express emotions in science classrooms. Cultivating an inner witness—a lens that shapes a teacher's analysis of classroom activity—that prioritizes emotional well‐being for students of color would expand possibilities for science engagement.</p> <p>We build our argument in three parts. First, we construct a conceptual framework that connects literatures on (a) emotions, students of color, and science, (b) teacher noticing for equity guided by inner witness, and (c) professional vision for science teacher education. Then, we animate our conceptual framework by making our inner witnesses visible, guiding us to bear witness to instances where students of color's affect was not engaged and imagine science education that could have engaged differently. We end with a re‐imagining of professional vision for science teacher education that cultivates inner witnesses attending to the emotional well‐being of students of color.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-2">Conceptual Framing: Noticing for Emotions as Professional Work of Science Educators</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190305601-3">Emotions, Students of Color, and Science</hd> <p>Researchers in social psychology define emotions as biological reactions to information, events, and experiences (Keltner and Gross [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref23">27</reflink>]). This definition highlights the individual experience of emotions, but scholars across social psychology and education (Rivera Maulucci [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref24">49</reflink>]; Mesquita and Albert [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref25">37</reflink>]; Shields [<reflink idref="bib62" id="ref26">62</reflink>]) point to their social nature. Emotions often occur in response to or during interactions with others and are shaped by social norms (Mesquita and Albert [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref27">37</reflink>]). Shields ([<reflink idref="bib62" id="ref28">62</reflink>]) argues that emotional expression is governed by social rules about when, how much, and which emotions are appropriate in a given context. Emotions are multidimensional responses, including feeling, thinking, and actions, mediating relationships between psychic and social experiences. Emotions are also socio‐politically constructed in how they are experienced, perceived, responded to, and disciplined (Zembylas [<reflink idref="bib75" id="ref29">75</reflink>]; DeCuir‐Gunby and Williams [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref30">11</reflink>]). Power relationships shape who is allowed to express what emotions, when they are appropriate, and how they are interpreted and attended to (Zembylas [<reflink idref="bib76" id="ref31">76</reflink>]). Emotions expressed by students of color may go unnoticed or be interpreted as aggressive or obstinate, disruptive to learning tasks. Collective emotions can reflect societal injustices, such as unacknowledged collective grief, rage, exclusion, and disconnection (Yoon [<reflink idref="bib74" id="ref32">74</reflink>]).</p> <p>Emotions tend to be excluded from school science in favor of objectivity and rigor. Such an exclusionary focus creates a false binary between the rational and reality. Emotions can reveal students' interests (Jaber and Hammer [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref33">23</reflink>]), highlight classroom engagement (Engle and Conant [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref34">13</reflink>]), motivate action (Curnow et al. [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref35">10</reflink>]; Pierson, Brady, and Lee [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref36">48</reflink>]), signal productive academic struggle (Shalaby [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref37">54</reflink>]; Zembylas and Papamichael [<reflink idref="bib77" id="ref38">77</reflink>]), and create a "taste for science" (Anderhag, Hamza, and Wickman [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref39">1</reflink>]). Sinatra ([<reflink idref="bib64" id="ref40">64</reflink>]) reminds us that emotions are taught through emotional beings (i.e., teachers), while other educators point out that science ideas are taken up in socioemotional interactions like group discussions (Patterson [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref41">44</reflink>]; Sohr, Gupta, and Elby [<reflink idref="bib67" id="ref42">67</reflink>]). Broughton, Sinatra and Nussbaum ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref43">5</reflink>]) distinguish between "academic" emotions, like test anxiety, and "topic" emotions related to specific content. Science study can evoke emotions such as joy, rage, skepticism (Sheth [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref44">56</reflink>]), care (Pierson, Brady, and Lee [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref45">48</reflink>]), passion (Mensah [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref46">36</reflink>]), hope, empowerment (Patterson Williams and Gray [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref47">45</reflink>]), hopelessness, grief, and anxiety (Ojala [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref48">41</reflink>]). Rather than avoiding emotions from entering the science classroom, students benefit by being with teachers who perceive emotions as learning resources. This paper joins other studies that argue for the centrality of acknowledging affect and emotions in science education.</p> <p>Despite this discussion, the discourse of emotions in most science classrooms is often marked by silence (Boler [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref49">4</reflink>]). This indicates that the professional vision of the field has not yet shifted to reflect the inseparability of science teaching, learning, and emotion. Our paper focuses on social interactions where emotions occur, thus we attend to what Hufnagel and Kelly ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref50">21</reflink>]) call emotional expressions or the way that emotions are expressed through discourse. Discourse includes language used in everyday conversations, including words spoken in context, intonation, facial expressions, body language, and cadence. We situate classroom discourse within broader power relations shaping schooling, science education, and social contexts for students of color. Next, we explore teacher noticing as a tool for creating equity by acknowledging the emotional expressions of students through discourse in science classrooms.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-4">Teacher Noticing and Noticing for Equity</hd> <p>Educators who attend to student identities promote equitable learning environments that prevent harm, exclusion, or marginalization (Kang [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref51">26</reflink>]). We propose that by noticing what students are and are not doing, teachers can recognize and address students' identities and emotional wellbeing. We define teacher noticing as an active behavior where particular situations are perceived and foregrounded; it is what we attend to despite the barrage of information (Hand [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref52">18</reflink>]). Noticing encapsulates the complex process of in‐the‐moment decision‐making and reflective activities that teachers engage in (König et al. [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref53">28</reflink>]; Patterson Williams et al. [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref54">46</reflink>]). Noticing for teaching has three main components: attending to classroom interactions, interpreting what is observed, and deciding how to respond (Jacobs, Lamb, and Philipp [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref55">25</reflink>]). Teacher noticing is not random or objective but guided by factors such as professional vision (Goodwin [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref56">17</reflink>]), teaching experience (Haverly et al. [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref57">19</reflink>]; Erickson [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref58">14</reflink>]), pedagogical commitments (Erickson [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref59">14</reflink>]), disposition (van Es, Hand, and Mercado [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref60">16</reflink>]), and positionality (Wager [<reflink idref="bib70" id="ref61">70</reflink>]).</p> <p>The literature on noticing for equity encourages teachers to become attuned to the sociocultural and personal histories of their students and the discipline, the array of actors and objects in classroom interactions, and students' learning (van Es et al. [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref62">15</reflink>]). Clark ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref63">7</reflink>]) highlights that "equitable noticing expands the foci to participation, identity, and multiple knowledge bases, and challenges systemic disenfranchisement" (p.509). Noticing for equity includes understanding pedagogical content knowledge and awareness of the sociopolitical nature of schools and learning. Noticing for equity means that sociohistorical subtexts that shape communities, student identities, and the disciplinary field are central for teaching and learning. When social hierarchies and other structural forms of oppression are ignored, then instructional decisions marginalize the needs of students. Teachers that notice for equity attend to how students are positioned as capable learners and which forms of knowledge and participation are privileged (Clark [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref64">7</reflink>]; Louie [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref65">30</reflink>]).</p> <p>In math education, Hand ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref66">18</reflink>]) highlighted how a teacher allowed students to take up space by promoting discourse, blurring distinctions between mathematical and cultural activities, and making visible the hidden curriculum and power dynamics of the field. The teacher blended noticing for mathematical content with the sociohistorical context, making students feel seen and more engaged. Hand ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref67">18</reflink>]) argues that teachers should allow issues of equity to inform their instructional practice. Louie ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref68">30</reflink>]) argues that equitable noticing requires support and training to help teachers become aware of how traditional practices uphold dominant approaches that do not recognize the cultural richness of non‐dominant groups. van Es et al. ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref69">15</reflink>]) encourage teachers to stretch and expand their noticing, considering "student' historicity and identities as socially constructed within larger sociopolitical narratives" while imagining new futures for students (p.117). Thus, teachers look at what unfolds in their classrooms and make decisions that lead to more expansive student engagement.</p> <p>The construct of noticing for equity is recently discussed in science education. Patterson Williams et al. ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref70">46</reflink>]) argue that noticing for equity requires teachers to see, interpret, and respond to behaviors that facilitate equitable interactions, participation, and learning. They argue that equitable noticing requires a lens or inner witness guiding how teachers make sense of sociopolitical forces shaping classroom interactions, highlighting Winn's ([<reflink idref="bib73" id="ref71">73</reflink>]) four pedagogical stances—history matters, race matters, justice matters, and language matters—as helpful in focusing teachers' attention. Luna, Bernstein and Walkoe ([<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref72">32</reflink>]) found that video clubs focusing on student disciplinary thinking and culture helped teachers recognize students' cultural and cognitive contributions. Haverly et al. ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref73">19</reflink>]) highlight the importance of teacher noticing informed by their "professional vision in action"—knowledge of pedagogy, learning, and classroom practice (p.64). Clark ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref74">7</reflink>]) describes how a chemistry teacher in a distance learning environment legitimized community and family‐based ideas while normalizing students' struggles with distance learning, creating space for students to express their struggles. Through both cognitive and sociopolitical noticing practices, this chemistry teacher was able to create a more equitable and responsive classroom. Finally, Kang ([<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref75">26</reflink>]) found that a Life Science teacher who engaged in responsiveness for equity, took pedagogical actions that supported students by attending to the sociopolitical context of the classroom and students' struggles. Kang characterizes these struggles as "a form of emotion, feelings, or behaviors, suggesting various important relational challenges" (p.226). This included positioning them as capable learners by being emotionally encouraging and reassuring, helping them see the relevance of the content to themselves, and supporting students in feeling connected to their peers and the learning environment (Kang [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref76">26</reflink>]). Taken together, the ability to notice for equity is an intentional decision of individual teachers informed by the professional vision of the field.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-5">Influences on Teacher Noticing for Equity</hd> <p>Below we consider how a teacher's ability to notice for equity is influenced by the field's perspective on what is valuable to recognize and address during science instruction—the professional vision, and the frameworks and experiences that guide attention and interpretation—the inner witness. These constructs are interconnected, as the professional vision informs the frameworks shared with teachers during induction and professional development. We outline the traditional professional vision of science teacher education, discuss how an inner witness can support noticing for equity, and highlight our equity‐oriented inner witnesses.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-6">Traditional Professional Vision in Science Teacher Education</hd> <p>Goodwin ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref77">17</reflink>]) conceptualizes professional vision as the ways members of a field learn to see and distinguish noteworthy stimuli within a domain and how to make sense of them. Many professions rely on using stimuli within a specific context to dictate appropriate next steps. Goodwin ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref78">17</reflink>]) article discusses the professional vision of police officers and archeologists. Several education articles outline the professional vision of educators in general and across specific disciplines. In education, professional vision involves the context specific processes and skills teachers use to notice and interpret classroom events relevant to learning. The professional vision of teaching is communicated via experts in teacher education and conveyed through policy documents, coursework, internship experiences, district and school policies, and professional development. Professional vision is political, not neutral, and socially constructed by its members. Louie ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref79">30</reflink>]) reminds us that the professional vision from teacher education programs and schools shapes teachers' attention and priorities. Louie ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref80">30</reflink>]) highlights how Goodwin's depiction of professional vision is "disciplined," contrasting with the literature on teacher noticing, which focuses on individual characteristics.</p> <p>In science education, the professional vision of teaching is layered with the professional vision of science, often encouraging teachers to prioritize disciplinary content, academic interactions, and outcomes, creating the illusion of competing commitments between equity and academic achievement. Westernized approaches to knowledge construction are depicted as rational, logical, objective, and antithetical to emotional expression and cultural relevance. These values shape science teachers' curricular design and instructional approaches, marginalizing women and people of color for centuries. However, professional vision, if shifted, enables students of color's emotional well‐being to be seen as part of noticing and teaching for equity.</p> <p>What a teacher notices and responds to shapes the flow of the lesson, learning outcomes, and classroom culture, and is crucial for creating equitable learning environments. Teachers must notice how their framing of content, processes, and expectations legitimizes specific ways of communicating, affecting student engagement and discipline identification (Wager [<reflink idref="bib70" id="ref81">70</reflink>]). While noticing in teaching often focuses on content decisions and moves, how a teacher responds to students' emotional expressions as a form of participation also impacts student engagement and discipline identification (Hand [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref82">18</reflink>]; van Es, Hand, and Mercado [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref83">16</reflink>]). We highlight the need for teachers to attend to students' emotional behavior, as emotions may signal moments of student disengagement and broader disconnections. This attention should come from the field or larger professional vision, through frameworks and instructional theories shaping the inner witness guiding teachers' classroom decisions.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-7">An Inner Witness Attuned to Issues of Equity</hd> <p>As a part of a profession, teachers are prepared or disciplined to notice particular behaviors and artifacts in the classroom (Mason [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref84">33</reflink>]; Goodwin [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref85">17</reflink>]). Disciplined noticing is refined over time as teachers gain expertise, dependent on the cultivation of an inner witness, or intentional self‐observation to sustain disciplined noticing (Mason [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref86">34</reflink>]). Mason ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref87">33</reflink>]) explains, "The mark of an expert is that they are sensitized to notice things which novices overlook. They have finer discernment because they have a refined sensitivity to professional situations and a rich collection of responses on which to draw." (p.1). While expertise relates to teaching experience length, the development of an equity‐oriented inner witness is more consequential to disciplined noticing for equity than time in the profession alone. The inner witness acts as a filter, highlighting information and interactions according to the teacher's developed lens. For teachers to notice for equity, they need to intentionally cultivate an inner witness equipped with theories and frameworks that support attending to issues of equity.</p> <p>The inner witness should be foregrounded in discussions of noticing, as it can afford us more discernment and attunement in the moment. Mason ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref88">33</reflink>]) highlights that the role of the inner witness is to take one's disciplined noticing from the place of retrospection to "spection" or noticing in the moment. This, then, becomes the pinnacle of disciplined noticing—to "support and enhance sensitivity to notice, and to make it possible to act upon that noticing" not in reflection but as the situation unfolds (Mason [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref89">33</reflink>], 87). Planning for equity is important but insufficient, as classrooms are dynamic environments. Thus our focus is on noticing for equity in the moment.</p> <p>Teachers may have developed inner witnesses towards certain identities based on their positionality. Patterson Williams et al. ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref90">46</reflink>]) describe a teacher who, as a feminist, noticed gender inequalities but found race harder to attend to. In this example, she has a blindspot towards race—she knows it's an issue worthy of attention but has not developed a lens for that perspective in the same ways she has for issues of gender. Although teachers can have an inner witness and work to develop lenses that notice inequities stemming from multiple sources of power imbalances, we advocate for an equity‐focused inner witness that considers the intersections of race, gender, and context‐salient identities. Teachers committed to equitable learning environments must ever‐develop a critical consciousness and robust lens to notice various equity issues (Milner [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref91">38</reflink>]; Williams and Gray [<reflink idref="bib72" id="ref92">72</reflink>]; Shah [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref93">51</reflink>]; Sheth [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref94">56</reflink>]).</p> <p>Responsive teachers must attend to the varied needs of students, from content and academic engagement to fostering discussions and maintaining a safe, equitable learning environment. The dynamic classroom environment is also shaped by policy mandates, parent expectations, and broader school culture. Wager ([<reflink idref="bib70" id="ref95">70</reflink>]) highlights that the equity lens is not the only focus for teachers. Patterson Williams et al. ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref96">46</reflink>]) argue that teachers face competing priorities for their attention. Sundeen ([<reflink idref="bib68" id="ref97">68</reflink>]) argues that teachers balance these influences, while Dong ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref98">12</reflink>]) reminds us that teachers' educational, cultural, social and political commitments mediate what they notice. Further shaping teachers' priorities are the priorities of the field or the professional vision shared in their teacher education program. Oftentimes, methods courses and the accompanying curriculum relegate equity‐based frameworks and instruction to a single/few courses while acculturating teachers into prioritizing content‐specific approaches (Milner and Howard [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref99">39</reflink>]), strengthening teacher' ability to notice academic engagement but limiting their ability to address equity issues. Noticing for equity should not be mutually exclusive to teaching content and student learning. This false binary often operates as a constraint causing teachers to deprioritize addressing issues of equity when noticing for equity can bolster student engagement and learning.</p> <p>We focus on noticing for equity within teacher‐student interactions that prioritize academic tasks. Our focus is on noticing for equity within teacher‐student interactions that prioritize academic tasks in lieu of addressing deeper equity issues. To highlight the importance of developing an equity‐oriented inner witness that engages with emotional expressions, we summon our inner witnesses to make meaning of classroom vignettes reflecting situations that routinely unfold in science classrooms for students of color. We delineate key aspects of our positionalities and experiences informing our multi‐lensed inner witnesses and argue that an inner witness primed for equity will take action to redress racialized tensions and harms.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-8">Making Our Inner Witnesses Visible</hd> <p>In this section, we highlight aspects of our inner witnesses relevant to understanding how we have borne witness to the emotional expressions of students of color in science classrooms. Our inner witnesses, rooted in our positionality and pedagogical commitments, allow us to imagine doing science education differently from the current professional vision we often encounter. For us, positionality, or critical reflexivity on how our social locations and experiences shape what we know and how we engage the world (Mensah [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref100">36</reflink>]; Sheth and Salisbury [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref101">60</reflink>]), drives the development of an equity‐oriented inner witness. Through understanding our communities' histories and knowledge systems (Collins [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref102">8</reflink>]; Matsuda [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref103">35</reflink>]) along with science education theories, we cultivate inner witnesses that guide our sensemaking and actions aligned with equitable outcomes for communities of color. As Black and South Asian American Women of Color, we bring our embodied experiences to the work of science teacher education and research. A shared experience across our differences is the tension of not having our experiences addressed in dominant science teacher education frameworks, negotiating the misalignment of our learning experiences with our inner witnesses, and struggling to articulate the kind of science education necessary for equitable pedagogy. Below, we highlight key aspects of our inner witnesses specific to science education, emotionality, and students of color.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-9">Alexis' Positionality</hd> <p>My inner witness blossomed from the stubborn Black pride of my mother, the overcoming of the Jim Crow South by my grandmother, and my own experiences as well as the witnessing of institutionalized racism in predominantly white schools and learning spaces. Inspired by my mother and grandmother's resistance to racism and pride in our Blackness, I devoured books focused on black history in my personal time, chose to focus in‐class assignments on the experiences of black people, and lamented to my family the erasure of our experiences in the academic curriculum I experienced in the suburban schools I attended. I excelled in school and was given many opportunities for gifted students (e.g., GATE classes, invitations to out‐of‐school camps and events) but often found myself the only black face in the room. As an elementary student, I watched my brilliant cousin be held back in kindergarten and one of my best friends be removed from the higher reading group and placed in a lower reading group. Watching him continue in the lower reading group and watching my cousin continue a year behind her peers taught me an important lesson about low expectations, educational injustice, and the need for advocacy for students of color. These narratives resurfaced in middle school, high school, and college as I watched my black and brown friends and peers struggle to excel in learning spaces not geared towards our success. It was in witnessing institutional racism in schools that I determined to be an educator.</p> <p>My identity as a science educator developed much later in life and was informed by my racialized lens. In K‐12 spaces, I hated science for its irrelevance to my life and the lack of representation in our curriculum and textbooks. My mother would tell me, "to make your worst subject, your best subject." So, I excelled in science although I held no interest. My disdain grew for science as a college freshman when I watched my peers study relentlessly for science classes and fail miserably as the "weeding out" process inhumanely skimmed out the black and brown faces that experienced their first taste of failure. I wanted no part of the poor teaching and clear racism that seemed to embody the undergraduate science experience. I found myself taking and being interested in science as I transitioned to the geography major. My draw was human geography which as a field asked questions of how identity, race, and place shaped and informed each other. As a major, I was "forced" to study physical geography and became fascinated by the science learning I experienced there.</p> <p>This degree opened opportunities for me to teach science to Black and Brown middle schoolers in Oakland, California. My commitment to teaching deeply relevant, historical, engaging, and race‐based science began there. My inner witness towards race was explicit but it was not until my middle schoolers left to private, parochial, and charter high schools did I realize the emotional harm our children suffer in schools as they navigate implicit and explicit racism trying to chase the American dream. My work in elementary schools that explicitly taught social and emotional skills and my doctoral studies on the role of emotion in classroom learning environments has supported the development of an inner witness geared toward the emotional needs of students. I carry into my research and pedagogy an inner witness that is keenly aware of the racialized oppression and lack of emotional support experienced by youth of color in secondary science learning environments.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-10">Manali's Positionality</hd> <p>My inner witness is shaped by my experiences as a Brown Asian American woman who has experienced schooling in the United States and India, a science teacher and teacher educator steeped in science professional vision informed by conceptual change, modeling‐based inquiry, and ambitious science teaching, and an Educational Foundations scholar rooted in feminist critical race theory. I have written about salient instances when racialized and gendered power imbalances shaped my academic disconnections and trajectory, as well as the emotional toll that these structured inequities took on my well‐being, elsewhere (Sheth and Croom [<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref104">58</reflink>]; Sheth and Takamori [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref105">61</reflink>]). Important to understanding my inner witness in the context of this argument is that the structural relations that lured my parents to the United States as exploitable, highly trained STEM workers while denigrating their humanity—that was already denigrated through colonization and patriarchy in their homeland—as "foreigner," "model minority," "robots," "docile," and "untrustworthy" were reproduced throughout my academic and home life (Takaki [<reflink idref="bib69" id="ref106">69</reflink>]; Shah [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref107">52</reflink>]). Although we experienced joys, excitements, and caring, the perpetual undercurrents of shame, fear, loss, isolation, resentment, and anger marked the normalcy of racism in our lives. In spite of the toll on our well‐being, we did not have the tools or resources to process the emotions or experiences of interlocking oppressions–we pushed everything down to move forward until we could not contain it any longer. Like many immigrant girl children, I took on the responsibility of doing the critical emotional healing work in my family and the community I continued to build around me.</p> <p>By the time I went to college, I had attended eight different schools, experiencing multiple different tracking systems, in two countries. Having been the Indian girl in America/the American girl in India, the ambiguous Brown girl who had to continually explain her quietness and attitude to everybody, I had to learn to be a critical ethnographer, critical race theorist, feminist, and coalition‐builder to survive. I continued to learn to be responsive to various emotional experiences present in my racially diverse community. At the same time, I learned that my emotional needs did not matter as I was expected to become a compliant instrument of science that had no needs or emotions (Shah [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref108">52</reflink>]). Having many critiques of education, I chose becoming a science educator with students of color as my act of transformative resistance.</p> <p>I taught high school science in a neighborhood school that served students of color with a wide range of racialized experiences, ethnicities, nationalities, languages, IEP statuses, and religions. On any given day, my students and I engaged in science teaching and learning while confronting aspects of each other's experiences as subjugated Other. There was anti‐Muslim racism, anti‐immigrant rhetoric, anti‐Black racism, anti‐Latiné racism, anti‐Asian racism, everyday gendered violence, and transphobia, all provoking hurt, resentment, and righteous anger. There were also moments of critical care, joy, and pride in learning science. In spite of the pressure to perform in line with neoliberal policies initiated by the district, supporting student science learning in this context meant attending to students' emotions and my own on a regular basis. I did not always succeed, because there was a lot I needed to learn, but I know that trying for connectivity rather than disconnection was a part of my science education vision and praxis (Sheth and Takamori [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref109">61</reflink>]).</p> <p>I carried this wisdom with me as I pursued doctoral study and academic research in science education and beyond, using it to shape my critiques, praxis, and desires for a different professional science vision. Grappling with racialized questions of purpose and belonging, I studied critical race histories and interpretive frameworks that had been withheld from me throughout my (science) education. This was in addition to the required deep study of science (teacher) education and learning frameworks. Aligned with Rivera Maulucci ([<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref110">49</reflink>]) call for supporting the emotional labor women science teachers of color do as they take up social justice science education, I know that without attending to the embodied emotions that emerge while doing the work of critical science education from the margins, I would not exist as the full human I am today.</p> <p>We tell the above origin stories of our inner witnesses to make visible the experiential and theoretical resources we engage to bear witness to science learning environments as researchers and science teacher educators. Each of our inner witnesses are differently attuned as our own biographies, social locations, and academic trajectories have differed; however, we can attest to the challenges and possibilities that emerge when we actively cultivate an inner witness that pays attention to student of color emotional expressions and well‐being as part of science learning. In the following portion of the manuscript, we demonstrate how our inner witnesses guided us in noticing and interpreting students of color's emotional expressions in broader sociopolitical contexts toward imagining how science education and professional vision could be different.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-11">From Bearing Witness to Emotional Expressions to Imagining a New Professional Vision Pedagogi...</hd> <p>Science education is embedded within social institutions that reciprocally shape networks of power, restricting what science education, teaching, and learning can be in today's classrooms (Parsons and Dorsey [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref111">43</reflink>]; Sheth [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref112">56</reflink>]). These constraining conditions place limits on what is taught, how it is taught, and the kinds of interactions that can happen in a given context (Skovsmose [<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref113">66</reflink>]). The constraints are constructed by (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref114">1</reflink>) policies dictating curriculum, class size, testing accountability measures, and so forth, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref115">2</reflink>) teacher, student, and community expectations, and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref116">3</reflink>) disciplinary perspectives taught in science and science teacher education. Often, the constraints in a given context may make different ways of teaching seem impossible. Skovsmose ([<reflink idref="bib65" id="ref117">65</reflink>]), speaking to the critical in critical mathematics education, identifies pedagogical imagination as a necessary part of generative critiques that deconstruct power/knowledge relationships and delimit contextual constraints. Pedagogical imagination—or exploring possibilities for what could be different—mediates realizing how constraints may be less determinant of educational practice than expected (Skovsmose [<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref118">66</reflink>]). As such, "critical practice and research address tensions between: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref119">1</reflink>) what is actual; (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref120">2</reflink>) what could be imagined; and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref121">3</reflink>) what could be tried out." (Skovsmose [<reflink idref="bib65" id="ref122">65</reflink>], 23). Generative critiques open up spaces for educational change by confronting taken‐for‐granted goals, ideas, and practices with alternative possibilities that shift power relations (see, e.g., Sheth [<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref123">57</reflink>]).</p> <p>We engage pedagogical imagination to explore possibilities for organizing science classroom relationships between teacher‐student and student‐student that prioritize emotional well‐being. We ask ourselves what could have been different during particular classroom episodes that resonate with our inner witnesses and what taken‐for‐granted relations constrained possibilities for students and teachers. In doing so, we demonstrate that perspectives on science professional vision, students of color, and productivity constrain pedagogical responses to the emotional expressions of students of color. Additionally, we imagine how these responses can be shifted through a professional vision for science education that supports their emotional well‐being alongside academic engagement and critical consciousness.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-12">Vignettes Illustrating the Inner Witness</hd> <p>We present vignettes that highlight the significance of attending to student emotional expression to open possibilities for equity‐oriented science teaching. The first vignette is from a study examining equity‐oriented high school science pedagogy in an urban Midwestern district serving a socioeconomically diverse population of students of color and White students. Data included ethnographic field notes of biweekly classroom observations and transcripts from audio‐recorded teacher interviews. The second study took place in a high school located in a lower‐income community on the West Coast of the United States. Data included classroom videos and post‐interviews with students and the teacher.</p> <p>Although the vignettes are drawn from larger research projects examining various dimensions of equity in science learning environments, their significance here is in that these classroom episodes have stuck with us—in fact, haunted us—as we continued our work as science educators. Yoon ([<reflink idref="bib74" id="ref124">74</reflink>]) draws upon concepts of haunting to name her epistemological commitments to attend to what is known/felt to exist even when not visually perceived. Haunting is the "affective experience of knowing something that has been suppressed, recognition of something that has been silenced" arising from "injustices—individual or collective—that have yet to be resolved" (Yoon [<reflink idref="bib74" id="ref125">74</reflink>], 449). As we grappled with why these episodes haunted us through rounds of writing and dialogue, we surfaced our inner witnesses, what we desperately wanted to be different, and how this connected to professional vision. We critically interrogated our emotions and interpretations of what happened, what did not happen, how students and teachers could have been better supported, and what about current models of science teaching and science professional vision barred different responses. These instances illustrated to us that science (teacher) education triggered our inner witnesses in ways that compelled us to explore and imagine science education research, policy, and practices that must value engaging with emotional expressions–both individually and sociopolitically situated–toward equitable science learning environments.</p> <p>The vignettes featured highlight the socioemotional complexity of science learning environments. Although the interactions, teachers' identities, and school contexts are different, we discuss the possible constraints shaping the teachers' responses. Following each vignette, we narrate the emotional attunement and meaning making that our equity‐oriented inner witnesses enabled. Based on animating our inner witness, we engage our pedagogical imaginations to consider what could have unfolded differently and what constraints precluded these possibilities. Our pedagogical imaginings, rooted in our equity‐oriented inner witnesses, opened a range of wonderings and responses usually foreclosed upon in power‐evasive science teaching and learning environments where emotional expressions are unexplored. We argue that the seeming impossibility of our imagined possible responses demonstrates a "professional vision in action:" mainly that engagement with emotional expressions constitutive of students' sociopolitical biography and histories is not yet central to science teaching.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-13">Vignette 1</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190305601-14">Noticing Students' Emotional Expression</hd> <p>It was the second day of AP Biology at one of Great Lake City's selective enrollment public high schools. Ms. Tomlin, as department chair, led efforts to remove prerequisites and instructor permissions for AP enrollment to implement a district initiative for more racially equitable AP science course‐taking. This AP Biology class enrolled a diverse group of 33 students, including African American, Latiné, and Asian American students.</p> <p>Ms. Tomlin set up the "Getting to know you" activity by emphasizing collaboration: "You need each other to make it through the class. It is a lot of work. You will not survive the class without each other, so I am going to force you to mingle. As a student, I hated that, but I recognize the value in it. You might know some people in the class but you need to know everybody." After the activity, Ms. Tomlin asked students to find a partner with whom they shared something in common. Two girls—we use girls to avoid the adultification of girls of color who are assumed to be strong, independent, and not in need of support—reluctantly paired up in the back after the rest of the class had paired. For the rest of the class, students collaborated on visually representing a lab safety rule as a public service announcement. Ms. Tomlin circulated the room, answering questions, providing encouragement, and observing how students approached the task.</p> <p>While most groups started socializing and negotiating the task, the pair in the back, an Asian American girl (Joanna) and an African American girl (Nashaunda), sat at opposite ends of their table without interacting. Joanna stared at the materials and periodically glanced at Nashaunda, who stared straight ahead. Ms. Tomlin, noticing their inactivity, asked if they had decided on a rule to represent. The girls continued to not interact. Ms. Tomlin checked in again, providing more directions and support. Joanna began writing while Nashaunda pulled out her phone. Ms. Tomlin encouraged them not to make the task harder than intended. By the end of class, Joanna worked on a drawing while Nashaunda remained on her phone.</p> <p>This vignette, from year‐long ethnographic data, reflects classroom dynamics seen throughout the course. Even as Ms. Tomlin encouraged both girls, she expressed ongoing uneasiness about their engagement and achievement. During interviews, she noted that Joanna was like other "quiet Asian girls" terrified to speak in class and puzzled by her refusal to turn in assignments despite seeming engaged. Ms. Tomlin initially described Nashaunda during interviews focused on her having an attitude. Over the course of the year, she marked that Nashanuda moved between having a negative attitude and "shining star" moments. Ms. Tomlin regularly communicated with Nashaunda's mom to support her science achievement. While Black and Asian American boys interacted and worked together, the girls tended to avoid working with each other.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-15">Animating Manali's Inner Witness</hd> <p>I sat in the back of the classroom watching the day unfold. It was the second day of class, and I was not yet comfortable moving about the room. I was excited to hear Ms. Tomlin's emphasis on interdependence for survival in the course. Having taught IB Biology, I recognized the pressure to support students in doing well in the course so that they could have access to future educational opportunities. I also remember the pressure students felt to learn the material well enough for the external evaluation. I was curious to see how Ms. Tomlin would cultivate this interdependence in such a big class with so much visible racial and ethnic diversity.</p> <p>While there were few words exchanged, the emotional expressions conveyed through looks, body language, and verbal silences drew my and Ms. Tomlin's attention to Joanna and Nashaunda. As I witnessed their interaction and Ms. Tomlin's interventions, I felt the tension in my chest grow. I did not know either of these girls or their personal histories, but I knew emotional energies based on my own embodied experiences and the sociopolitical meaning that the emotional expressions unfolding could hold in this Midwestern urban context.</p> <p>Individually, I felt the pressure of taking courses that I did not want to take but were expected to get into a good college and the loneliness of not knowing anybody else in a class and being the leftover person that nobody else wanted to pair with. Empathizing with Joanna, I felt the fear of rejection and not being good enough, of being foreign and not belonging, the shame of not being Black and not being White, of being the source of somebody else's disappointment because I was only Asian, of wondering if I spoke would anybody understand me or take me seriously. Empathizing with Nashaunda, I also felt the fear of rejection, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of having to prove my worth and capabilities because people did not believe in smart sciencey Black girls, the fear of having how I felt and what I said ignored.</p> <p>For me, Manali, the tension was palpable in the moment and has haunted me to this day. My inner witness understood this episode as racialized, gendered, and inter‐cultural, indicative of sociopolitical fissures that made collaborative–much less interdependent–science learning impossible between these two girls. It is possible that Joanna and Nashaunda had individual personalities that were shy and aggressive, respectively, that were compounded by adolescent, new‐school‐year‐awkwardness. However, this interpretation ignores that "submissive Asian woman" and "angry Black woman" are controlling images that misrepresent girls/women in these groups to justify ongoing racial inequalities (Collins [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref126">9</reflink>]; Matsuda [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref127">35</reflink>]). Additionally, I knew that when these two controlling images were juxtaposed, rather than dismantled, in a science classroom there was a strong possibility of reproducing the racial dynamics of pitting a "model minority" against the "problem minority", leaving whiteness as an unexamined ideal. While I did not know if this is how the students or teacher were interpreting the situation, I engaged my lived experiences, academic commitments, and knowledge of local contexts to know that this was a possible underlying cause for the tension. I also knew that community groups were actively confronting and addressing racial tensions between Asian American and Black youth in Great Lake City to create more coalitional relations.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-16">Pedagogical Imaginings by the Inner Witness</hd> <p>My inner witness enabled me to interpret the dynamics of Joanna and Nashaunda's science learning encounter with each other as racialized, gendered, and inter‐cultural. Imagining what I might have done, I wondered: What were Joanna and Nashaunda feeling about each other and themselves in this particular science class? Were Joanna and Nashaunda running racialized gendered narratives (schema) about each other and themselves? What were intergroup race relations like in the school and community? How were students from differing racialized and cultural backgrounds learning about each other in the school and community? What would it mean to counter White supremacist controlling images ("quiet" and "angry") of these Asian American and Black girls? What would collaboration towards survival in science classrooms that are racially diverse really mean and look like given invisible histories of differential racialization, solidarities, and racial tensions in science (Sheth and Salisbury [<reflink idref="bib60" id="ref128">60</reflink>]; Sheth and Takamori [<reflink idref="bib61" id="ref129">61</reflink>]; Chen and Buell [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref130">6</reflink>])?</p> <p>With asking these different questions, I also imagined possible actions. I drew upon my teaching experiences when I had to bridge racialized, gendered, ethnic tensions across students in my biology classes. I imagined supporting Joanna and Nashaunda individually in naming how they were feeling about taking the class and working with their peers to gain a better understanding of each girl's apprehensions, preconceived ideas, or miscommunications. When each girl was more grounded in herself, I might mediate a dialogue between the students and/or the class to address racialized, gendered, and ethnic tensions as they unfold in the school and science classroom. Doing this would mean consistently providing students tools and space to surface and talk through emotions such as shame, anxiety, fear, righteous anger, loneliness, confusion, feeling othered or rejected, empathy, forgiveness, connection, and sense of community. By mediating a dialogue about their experienced emotions, both teacher and students would have the opportunity to make sense of each other's behaviors beyond dominant racialized gendered narratives. Opening up these conversations models for students and creates a new norm where making sense of emotional expressions, rather than being disentangled from science learning, is a part of a healthy science learning environment.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-17">Vignette 2</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0190305601-18">Noticing Students' Emotional Expression</hd> <p>West Wood High School served close to 300 students, most of whom have Latiné backgrounds and African or Pacific Islander ancestry. The school prided itself on incorporating research‐based practices like Complex Instruction, holistic grading rubrics including social and emotional skills, and mindfulness programming. Groupwork was prevalent as students learned the norms of group work in their freshman year.</p> <p>The day Alexis visited the lab, the physiology class was working on a food science and nutrition unit. According to their teacher, Miss Lui, the guiding questions were: How can I ensure my family eats healthily? Why is that important? For Miss Lui, a third‐year teacher and daughter of Asian immigrants, this lesson merged content objectives with a social justice lens, as accessibility to healthy food and healthcare are limited in this community. Nunia, Jesus, Manuel, and Alicia were grouped to identify food groups in a lab activity. Nunia was the only one working on the lab. Alicia was finishing her pre‐lab, and Jesus and Manuel, without their pre‐lab packets, had wandered off.</p> <p>Ms. Lui noticed Jesus and Manuel were not at their station and gave them a "last warning," walking over and gently grabbing Jesus' arm to redirect him. Jesus snatched his arm away, mumbling unhappily. Miss Lui then redirected Manuel to his desk. Jesus brushes his arm off. Miss Lui returns to her desk and continues to work on her laptop, while Jesus goes back to his station, upset, went back to his station and vocalized his frustration: "Last f*cking warning, I don't give a sh*t." He continues, as he walks to his station and alerts the rest of his group of his decision, "Ay bruh, I'm not trying to do this sh*t." Miss Lui chose not to respond.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-19">Animating Alexis' Inner Witness</hd> <p>I was standing between Jesus' station and the one across from it helping another group of students, when I heard what felt like a heated emotional outburst. What happened? Who was upset? And why? I quickly turned on my heels to see Ms. Lui walking away from Jesus and encouraging Manuel to sit down. Jesus' language use within the classroom caught me by surprise. I was shocked and confused. The researcher in me made a mental note of the time, so I could go back to the video and see the initial interaction. The teacher in me also felt an urgency to witness the situation and see if it would escalate. I noticed an emotional Jesus–though it wasn't immediately clear whether he was angry, frustrated, or outraged. While I could not fully name the emotion, Jesus seemed triggered by the interaction with Ms. Lui. I felt confusion as to what could have happened to elicit that response. Seeing a student in distress made me want to fix or at least address the situation. I literally held myself back from responding to bear witness.</p> <p>I was shocked that Ms. Lui did not take direct action to address Jesus. I wondered what had triggered Jesus and how he was feeling. Even not knowing what had triggered him, I was concerned about Jesus. Despite his bad boy reputation, the outburst and swearing seemed out of character. I wanted to check in on Jesus and the group. I wanted to calm Jesus and inquire into what he needed. I was also concerned about placing the burden of addressing Jesus's emotional needs on his group. I wanted to help and felt helpless.</p> <p>For me, Alexis, my inner witness is attuned to issues of race and the social emotional well‐being of students in classroom learning environments, Miss Lui's silence after her interaction with Jesus was loud. Drawing upon my own experiences as a high performing Black student, I knew that the same teachers that were responsive and nurturing to me around my academics and emotional wellbeing would often ignore or over‐discipline other Black students who were academically low performing. These experiences confirmed by research around discrepancies in racialized discipline practices and teachers' expectations (Shores, Kim, and Still [<reflink idref="bib63" id="ref131">63</reflink>]; Pearman et al. [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref132">47</reflink>]) caused me to wonder: How might Jesus classify Miss Lui's behavior towards him? As a sister to a Black male who often has to temper his vocal tone and emotional response to situations (Wilkins [<reflink idref="bib71" id="ref133">71</reflink>]), I also wondered if fear of Jesus' explosive expression of emotion played into Ms. Lui's non‐response.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-20">Pedagogical Imaginings by the Inner Witness</hd> <p>In this moment, my inner witness enabled me to see Jesus through the lens of racialized and gendered dynamics of care. Here, I engage the pedagogical imagination as a means to recognize opportunities to respond and act in ways that could shift the arch of a science lab where emotional expressions could be used to engage students across a range of academic and emotional needs.</p> <p>Imagining myself in the role of the teacher, the idea that my interaction with Jesus was the source of harm or frustration would cause discomfort and dissonance (as most teachers do not intend to cause harm). I would need to make space for his emotion while also acknowledging my own discomfort. Curiosity and self‐interrogation would kick in: how did I feel about Jesus snatching away from me: offended, frustrated, nervous? Did touching Jesus' arm trigger him or feel too familiar? Did I misread the purpose behind Jesus' seemingly off‐task behavior? Did I judge his actions too quickly or inaccurately? What does Jesus need in this moment? What can I do to redress the harm my actions may have caused? The answer to these questions can only be answered by a conversation with Jesus. Thus, my priority would be to check‐in with Jesus. With that next step determined, new questions would arise: How can I better understand him? Should I give Jesus space and deprioritize the lab right now? When is the best time to follow up with him? These series of wonderings and questions, then lead to a series of imaginings about possible actions.</p> <p>For me, it becomes imperative to respond to the emotions and frustration displayed by Jesus with the goal to re‐engage him to the learning community. My training as a restorative justice circle keeper points to a need to address any harm done. Likewise, having an inner witness which strives to humanize students, reintegrate them into the learning community, and maintain the relationship, I would imagine taking action before the class time ended. Given the unknowns about the source of Jesus' emotional display, I may delay an immediate response in favor of further observation. During that delay, I might opt to print out the pre‐lab for Jesus and the other students who did not have that packet, so he and others could re‐engage in the task at hand. Such actions could reduce any frustration, embarrassment, or boredom Jesus and others experienced by not having the prerequisite materials for class. Additionally, I could imagine checking in with Jesus: sharing what I noticed, checking to see if my earlier interaction was offensive, determining Jesus' needs for future classes, and agreeing on ways to move forward if similar situations were to occur.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-21">Discussion</hd> <p>In this conceptual paper, we share our pedagogical imaginations and discuss potential constraints guided by our inner witnesses. We illuminate how race, gender, emotions, and science shape teaching practices. We argue that noticing for equity requires developing an inner witness attuned to these emotion‐mediated relationships, expanding the engagement of students of color. This kind of noticing involves activating well‐developed, multi‐lensed inner witnesses to humanize those involved, reintegrate students into the learning community, and restore relationships over short and long terms.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-22">Deconstructing Constraints to Re‐Imagine the Traditional Professional Vision of Science Teach...</hd> <p>Our rearticulation across vignettes from our inner witnesses demonstrated that noticing for equity in science learning means attending to students' emotions as embodied responses to broad societal and educational inequities. As we animated our inner witnesses to imagine how we might engage with the emotional expressions of students of color in these particular science classrooms, we surface professional constraints that science teachers come up against in cultivating such inner witnesses. We posit that these limitations (e.g., stereotypical or limited interpretive frameworks for understanding emotions and racialized experiences and increasing pressures to focus on management of academic tasks), far from being individual barriers faced by shortcomings of Ms. Tomlin and Ms. Lui, are embedded in the professional vision of science education.</p> <p>White men in power constructed a false binary framing scientific knowledge production as rational and devoid of emotionality, while communities of color and women were seen as emotional and irrational (Zembylas [<reflink idref="bib76" id="ref134">76</reflink>]; Hodson [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref135">20</reflink>]; Boler [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref136">3</reflink>]). It is feasible then, that teachers experience constraints from the traditionally narrow views of science where the professional‐vision‐in‐action is focused on objectivity, rigor, and rationality as well as the cognitive and academic contributions of students (Bellocchi, Quigley, and Otrel‐Cass [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref137">2</reflink>]). These frames constrain what many science teachers, influenced by the color‐evasive and emotion‐evasive culture of science and US schools, notice and attend to when aiming for equitable science education.</p> <p>We imagine a professional vision of science teacher education that prioritizes developing an inner witness that can serve as a professional guide and support teachers in identifying moments where students express emotional need and teachers respond to expand students of color's meaningful engagement in science. Our imagined professional vision views emotions as important to attend to and uses race‐conscious interpretations of emotional behavior within science teacher education. Our imagined professional vision supports teachers in developing an inner witness aligned with interpretive frameworks that recognize the historically contingent, systemic, and interactive dimensions of racial power imbalances. For science teaching, this means that a teacher with such an inner witness (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref138">1</reflink>) recognizes the interrelationship between attending to emotional expressions and science‐specific knowledge construction, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref139">2</reflink>) is attuned to the multidimensional relationship between emotionality, racialized gendered experiences, and science learning, and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref140">3</reflink>) attends to and interprets emotions (both students' and teacher's, if any were triggered) as a possible indicator of experienced racialized and gendered inequity in science classrooms. Finally, our imagined professional vision of science teacher education supports teachers in imagining actions that foster humanizing, reintegrating, and restoring responses in‐the‐moment and long‐term. Without engaging with emotionality as a guide, science teachers committed to equitable teaching are constrained to the single possibility of re‐focusing students on academic tasks without addressing the possible inequitable relationships triggering students' disengagement.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-23">Implications for Teacher Education and Policy</hd> <p>Policy shaping science teacher practices, such as science education and teacher education standards and curricula, provide little guidance on whether and how racialized, gendered narratives may manifest and need to be addressed in science classrooms. The curriculum and goals are constrained to science content and practices identified by external standards rather than local needs that addressed students' emotional well‐being at personal and sociopolitical levels. The course size, science education policy focus, and professional vision of science education can constrain the kinds of grappling with racism, from an intersectional lens, that holistic science teaching in science classrooms often entail. For many teachers, attending to racialized histories and community relations may seem to take time away from the standard science curriculum, however we do not see these goals as competing (Sheth [<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref141">56</reflink>]). Rather, noticing these elements in ways that make space for and address emotional needs of students of color can make science learning more equitable (Hand [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref142">18</reflink>]).</p> <p>It is imperative that science education move from narrow forms of equity to creating more just teaching and learning experiences. How do we as a field shift the traditional priorities and values to make equitable science teaching that engages critically with the complex emotions of students of color possible? Our answer: The professional vision of science education needs to shift. Because this vision is socially and culturally constructed (Louie [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref143">30</reflink>]; Goodwin [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref144">17</reflink>]), shifting it requires a multi‐pronged approach addressing teacher education for pre‐service and in‐service teachers and the conceptual resources guiding what science educators and researchers notice and attend to.</p> <p>The curriculum within most teacher education programs, approaches to policy imperatives, views of science from the discipline, and views of various communities of students all serve as "frames" or sociopolitical interpretative lenses guiding what teachers should attend to and how they should interpret and respond (Louie, Adiredja, and Jessup [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref145">29</reflink>]). Thus, if as Louie and Goodwin ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref146">17</reflink>]) argue, the coding schemes or ways of seeing and classifying within the profession lead to "synchronize[d] individual noticing with culturally established standards" (Louie [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref147">30</reflink>], 63), then teacher education programs are partially responsible for what we see happening in classrooms. By highlighting the parallel noticing and responses of two science teachers in very different contexts, we draw attention to the frames that shape a professional vision ill‐equipped to support students of color. These frames often encourage teachers to prioritize academic interactions and outcomes over emotions.</p> <p>To reconstruct the professional vision to align with expansive equity and justice‐oriented teaching, we recommend teacher education programs and policies supporting the development of an inner witness that is both emotion‐focused and race‐conscious. We bring together Shah and Coles ([<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref148">53</reflink>]) framework on racial noticing which refers to "the process of attending to, interpreting, and formulating responses to racial phenomena in learning settings" (p.586) with Zembylas ([<reflink idref="bib76" id="ref149">76</reflink>]) imperative to understand the complex affective dimensions of all classrooms and knowledge construction.</p> <p>Structuring teacher education programs, including discipline‐specific methods courses and fieldwork courses, around frameworks that help teachers recognize the sociopolitical forces shaping classroom interactions is an essential step. This includes incorporating race‐focused instructional modules within methods courses and additional justice and equity courses. Additionally, teacher education programs should incorporate learning and reflective activities, such as case studies (Shah and Coles [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref150">53</reflink>]), that cultivate pre‐service teachers' race‐conscious emotions lenses through engaging with their own emotions and those of students. An essential affordance of reflective tasks like case studies is the opportunity for pre‐service teachers to imagine pedagogical responses that intentionally work towards restorative relations. In addition to coursework, teacher education must create moments for developing an equity‐oriented inner witness within the fieldwork components of the programming. Both Resident Teachers and Supervisors need these sociopolitical frameworks focusing their attention on the intersections of race, emotion, and equity within science, so they can support in‐the‐moment decision making and thoughtful reflections of classroom interactions. Relatedly, in‐service teachers need professional development opportunities that extend beyond single learning sessions to include coaches providing support for in‐the‐moment decision making and thoughtful reflections of classroom interactions. These layered approaches to developing an inner witness, or the ability to notice, go beyond individual desire and place the onus on the school community and profession more broadly.</p> <p>Thus, we close with policy. As Kang ([<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref151">26</reflink>]) and Louie ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref152">30</reflink>]) argue, developing a professional vision and educators with an inner witness that actively works to see the emotions of students of color and expand their learning opportunities is a political act that works "against the prevalent culture, ideology, and norms" (p.227) that are race‐blind, emotions‐blind, and full of deficit views of historically marginalized students. Doing the political work to shift the field becomes even more challenging given our current political climate. In the face of emerging policies demanding the exclusion of race‐conscious disciplinary knowledge and knowledge systems, the field and teacher education programs must push back through programmatic decision‐making and local policy that align with goals of equity and justice. We see examples in states passing legislation to focus on ethnic studies (e.g., California) and designing standards incorporating social and emotional standards (e.g., Illinois). Here, local policy can act as a buffer and create security in times where threats to developing and enacting an inner witness attuned to issues of race and the emotional well‐being of students have financial, social, and political implications for educators. Science educators need structured communities to develop equity‐oriented inner witnesses and the safety that a community can offer. Indeed, the safety of educators and teacher educators, particularly those of color already doing this work, will lead to the creation of equitable learning environments well‐suited to support transformative learning for students of color.</p> <hd id="AN0190305601-24">Data Availability Statement</hd> <p>Data sharing is not applicable to this article, as we take a conceptual approach.</p> <ref id="AN0190305601-25"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref39" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Anderhag, P., K. M. Hamza, and P. O. Wickman. 2015. " What Can a Teacher Do to Support Students' Interest in Science? A Study of the Constitution of Taste in a Science Classroom." Research in Science Education 45 : 749 – 784.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref115" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Bellocchi, A., Quigley, C., and Otrel‐Cass, K., eds. 2017. Exploring Emotions, Aesthetics and Wellbeing in Science Education Research. 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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Cultivating Inner Witnesses Attuned to the Emotional Experiences of Students of Color in Science – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Alexis+Patterson+Williams%22">Alexis Patterson Williams</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9096-6073">0000-0002-9096-6073</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Manali+J%2E+Sheth%22">Manali J. Sheth</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2206-3366">0000-0002-2206-3366</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Science+Education%22"><i>Science Education</i></searchLink>. 2026 110(1):13-25. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 13 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2026 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Descriptive – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Emotional+Experience%22">Emotional Experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Experience%22">Student Experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Minority+Group+Students%22">Minority Group Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Science+Education%22">Science Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Equal+Education%22">Equal Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychological+Needs%22">Psychological Needs</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1002/sce.21944 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0036-8326<br />1098-237X – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Traditionally, disciplinary science has been represented as void of and uninfluenced by emotions; therefore, the professional vision of science teaching and learning does not often include attending to the whole person, particularly the emotional needs of those that are harmed in science learning contexts. We find this exclusion untenable given the persistent harm that students of color suffer across science education contexts. As part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, in this manuscript, we urge the field of science education to re-envision what science teachers need to attend to for equitable science teaching and learning. Indeed, we argue that science education is inequitable for students of color if their emotions within the classroom are not addressed. Thus, science teaching and teacher education needs to account for the ways emotions show up in science classrooms. Using illustrative vignettes from two science classrooms, we highlight the importance of developing an inner witness that is attuned to the emotional needs of students. We, then, use our equity-oriented inner witnesses to engage in pedagogical imaginings that critically interrogate our emotions and interpretations of what happened, what did not happen, how the students could have been better supported, how the teachers could have been better supported, and what it is about current models of science teaching and science professional vision that barred different possible responses. These instances, and what they illustrated to us about science (teacher) education, compelled us to explore and imagine science education research, policy, and practices that value engaging with emotional expressions--as both individually and sociopolitically situated--toward equitable science learning environments. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2026 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1491933 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1002/sce.21944 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 13 StartPage: 13 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Emotional Experience Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Experience Type: general – SubjectFull: Minority Group Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Science Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Equal Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Psychological Needs Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Cultivating Inner Witnesses Attuned to the Emotional Experiences of Students of Color in Science Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Alexis Patterson Williams – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Manali J. Sheth IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2026 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0036-8326 – Type: issn-electronic Value: 1098-237X Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 110 – Type: issue Value: 1 Titles: – TitleFull: Science Education Type: main |
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