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ERIC Number: EJ1491944
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2026-Jan
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8326
EISSN: EISSN-1098-237X
Available Date: 2025-04-01
Feeling a Goodness of Fit: Children Establishing Corporeal Comfort in STEM Learning
Deborah Silvis1; Jody Clarke-Midura2; Victor R. Lee3; Jessica Shumway4
Science Education, v110 n1 p247-262 2026
Affect has long been of interest in early childhood education, where social and emotional dynamics are seen as critical dimensions of learning, intricately linked to embodied activity. As part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, this paper conceptualizes affect through children's bodily comfort. Data were collected in two Kindergarten classrooms participating in an integrated computer science-STEM curriculum that involved small groups of children engaging in floor-based activities. Focusing on body positioning, we use interaction analysis to explore how a focal child found a comfortable fit in her learning environment, highlighting the role of clothing in establishing a mundane sense of comfort. We found that fitting in the space and fitting in with others involved creating comfortable spaces, or comfort zones, in the classroom. For focal participant Theresa, a comfort zone involved physically positioning her body and negotiating norms of social comportment that govern how different bodies come to feel like some-body. We discuss ways in which some children perform extra physical and emotional labor to establish comfort zones in the classroom, and how this contributes to their felt sense of belonging and dignity, whereby all children are valued participants and feel that they fit. We conclude with pedagogical implications of creating spaces for embodied belonging, where children feel a goodness of fit in STEM.
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Childhood/Early Childhood Education, SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY, USA; 2Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA; 3Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 4School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA