Skip to main content

What Struggle Feels Like

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Teaching Struggling Students
  • 557 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, I delve into what it feels like to struggle academically. Prior to struggling myself, I tended to overemphasize the intellectual aspects of my students’ challenges. This unbalanced approach gave me an incomplete understanding of how the affective dimensions of struggle manifest in ways that appear illogical. For example, I did not understand my students’ reticence to seek help until I experienced my own impulse to hide after receiving my first low grade on a test. This chapter focuses on the emotional side of struggle in hopes of shedding light on why students do seemingly irrational things when faced with academic challenges.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arnold, R. (2005). Empathic intelligence: Teaching, learning, relating. Sydney, NSW: UNSW Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bain, K. (2015). What the best college students do. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bringle, R. G. (2015). Crossing boundaries: Tension and transformation in international service-learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing LLC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, B. (2015). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, R. D. (2009). The college fear factor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • David, S. (2017). Emotional agility: Get unstuck, embrace change, and thrive in work and life. New York, NY: Avery.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087–1101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenreich, B. (2009). Bright-sided: How the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golden, N. (2017). There’s still that window that’s open: The problem with “grit”. Urban Education, 52(3), 343–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grisold, T., Kaiser, A., & Hafner, J. (2017, January). Unlearning before creating new knowledge: A cognitive process. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-50). Maui: IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guinier, L. (2016). The tyranny of the meritocracy: Democratizing higher education in America. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2015). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience. The Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oishi, S., & Diener, E. (2014). Residents of poor nations have a greater sense of meaning in life than residents of wealthy nations. Psychological Science, 25(2), 422–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paul, E. (2013). Beer goggles, catching feelings, and the walk of shame: The myths and realities of the hookup experience. In D. Kirkpatrick, S. Duck, & M. Foley (Eds.), Relating difficulty: The process of constructing and managing difficult interaction (pp. 141–160). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prince, J. (2015). University student counseling and mental health in the United States: Trends and challenges. Mental Health & Prevention, 3(1–2), 5–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, E. E. (2017). The power of meaning: Crafting a life that matters. New York, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Socol, I. D. (2014). Taking a closer look at the grit narratives. Knowledge Quest, 43(1), 8–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Twenge, J. M. (2017). IGen: Why today’s super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy—and completely unprepared for adulthood—and what that means for the rest of us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2008). Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development. Psychological Bulletin, 134(3), 383–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, B., & Schnuk, D. (2011). Handbook of self-regulation of learning and performance. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura M. Harrison .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Harrison, L.M. (2019). What Struggle Feels Like. In: Teaching Struggling Students. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13012-1_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13012-1_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13011-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13012-1

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics