L06:Emotional Expressivity

A funeral is a moment of deep sadness, this is a universal well acknowledge truth. However, they way people express this sadness its quite different depending on which place or community you are.

At some parts of Mexico, especially in at the south of Oaxaca funerals can last to one week, yeah that is correct a whole week! During the week a band and mariachis will come to say goodbye to the death, the place will be filled with flowers and the invited people can stay for breakfast, meal and dinner. You will hear the loved ones crying within a mile and yet they will be singing cielito lindo at the next minute. From what I know the sadness from losing a loved one doesn’t always means crying to the beat of mariachis.

Emotional expressivity is quite an issue. The variety of emotional expressivity from culture to culture may generate unfair stereotypes. It can certainly happen in the classroom, and yet we can’t be indifferent to the feelings of our students.

We may struggle to understand some students because of their low emotional expressivity level, or we might feel like other student is being disrespectful because they consider to be ok showing their feelings. Emotional expressivity will vary, even in the same country.

Despite this as teachers we can use a variety of techniques to understand the feelings of our students. We can dismiss biases and allow students to feel like the classroom is a safe place to being themselves, some students will prefer to speak about their feelings alone, other will need to express in front of the class. We must allow and provide these opportunities for them.