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Abstract

This qualitative study investigates how three teachers attend to and pedagogically support socioemotional aspects of fifth-grade students’ learning during student self-directed inquiry projects called the Kids Inquiry Conference (KIC) using Spradley’s domain and taxonomic analyses of classroom observation and interview data. Theoretical underpinnings meet at the intersection of affective neuroscience, socioemotional competencies, and a Deweyan perspective of inquiry learning, emplacing this study within literature exploring the range of affective factors impacting elementary learners engaged in student-centered inquiry projects (e.g., identity work, motivation, self-regulation, etc.). KIC involved students self-selecting and developing research questions, designing a science activity, writing up a scientific article, and giving a multimodal presentation of their findings. Findings focused on teachers recognizing and supporting students’ increased emotional vulnerability in self-directed inquiry learning, teaching language to support feeling while thinking, and providing pedagogical supports for emotions and feelings involved with inquiry learning. In short, if we are to enable our students’ agency and autonomy in such self-directed inquiries into the world around them, we must first recognize and support their emotional realities in our classrooms.

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