Digital Commons Network^™

Passionate Pedagogy And Emotional Labor: Students’ Responses To Learning Diversity From Diverse Instructors, April Schueths, Tanya Gladney, Devan Crawford, Katherine L. Bass, Helen A. Moore

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This qualitative study examines emotional themes in student evaluations from required diversity courses at a predominately white, US public university. We analyzed two years of student evaluations from 29 instructors. Situated by the work of Acker, Jaggar and Hochschild, we find contradictory themes of perceived instructional bias and the balue of diversity lessons. Student evaluations resulted in systematic disadvantage for minority instructors that may be heightened for female instructors of color. Non-minority faculty (both male and female) gain privileges by avoiding dealing with diversity directly, which is reflected in student evaluations through the process of "ducking diversity." The organizational structure …