The Role and Place of Fear In What it Means to Teach and to Learn1

A dominant theme arising out of a research project concerned with elucidating theory–practice relations in prospective and practicing teachers is the role and place of fear in what it means to teach and to learn. The text for this paper grew out of extended conversations the researcher had with 12 of these participants forming a self‐study research group centered on reconfiguring the concept of fear as holding agency within teaching and learning. Fear and its relation to the lives of teachers is examined alongside these 12 teachers naming fear as an internal concept they grapple with daily in their teaching/learning practices as they confront the given risks and opportunities inherent within the acts of teaching and learning. Participating teachers portray fear as a disconnect between self and other(s) that contains and restrains their practices, compartmentalizing knowledge, separating pedagogy from content, and theory from practice, halting fear as a moving force to be grappled with through deliberation and interaction. Such contained disconnect between teachers and their teaching/learning practices is evidenced through a disregard for self‐understanding, pedagogical tone, and plurality and natality. The result of such disregard is teacher epistemological and ontological insecurity undermining teaching and learning. The relevance and power of theory in addressing such insecurity is evidenced. Seeking accordance within the act of teaching for learning’s sake are the fearful risks and opportunities integral to the work of teachers.