Speaking your feelings in the moment: teaching geographic thought with emotion

ABSTRACT Emotion is important in teaching and research but are rarely the focus of geographic scholarship. This article aims to bridge the gap between teaching geographic thought and teaching that considers emotion based on the case of a university class in China. Class sessions, supported with an English language textbook, were connected with different emotions and feelings in the unfolding stages of course and class delivery. We document and analyze the process of teaching with emotion through consideration of numerous approaches to the integration of emotion in teaching and observing student responses within individual class sessions and across an entire semester. At the beginning of the course, students’ feelings are most often detachment and apathy. During the semester students’ feelings change from confusion to knowledge, confidence and a sense of peace. We find it is important to let students and the professor speak their feelings. By teaching with emotion, most students gain the ability to confidently express their feelings and at the end of the course some students even said they love geographic thought. Affect including feelings, emotion, and even love are suitable for teaching geographic thought and may be applied to other aspects of teaching in the discipline.