We, Rachel and Raquel, designed an activity that encouraged Lab participants to explore ideas of embarrassment and place by asking them to engage with a number of prompts and reflections.
Raquel has been thinking a lot about ideas of mastery and what keeps us from taking risks and trying things that might feel out of our comfort zone. Rachel has been thinking about sex ed and difficult knowledge, the sharp edges of knowledge, knowledge that feels untouchable somehow, and knowledge that pushes against our edges–what might feel taboo. Through our discussion it was clear that there were some common themes that surfaced around the affective responses when we engage with subjects that make us uncomfortable. Rachel realized that the topic of sexuality can fall under difficult knowledge because of the ways that most of us have had early experiences with embarrassment or shame around topics of sexuality that can start to look or feel like social trauma. Raquel noticed the connection between fear of embarrassment and the unwillingness to experiment or do something badly. We ended up talking a lot about ideas of embarrassment and shame and how much those feelings keep certain explorations off limits, lock us into a certain mindset, or become barriers for engagement.
Embarrassment and shame are topics that we, as curriculum designers, may feel afraid to touch, but the reality is that these affective experiences shape and impact our teaching, learning environments, and learning experiences. That may be in as small a way as keeping us from taking risks or in a larger way can create long standing trauma that shapes our experiences moving forward. If we had more time we would want to explore more intentionally the relationships between embarrassment, shame, and humiliation.
