Abstract

The demand for multicultural and culturally cognizant college graduates is greater today than before. With the changing population demographics, the cultural gap between teachers and students must close. Agriculture is no exception. The role of emotion in postsecondary teaching is under-researched and under-theorized. Using facial recognition to determine response during teacher training is one way to gauge student response to assist in the understanding of how students feel subconsciously, even if they are not participating verbally during class discussion. Noldus FaceReader© was used to analyze 14 college students during an intervention on racism and multicultural education as part of their teacher training program. FaceReader analyzed student emotions throughout the class and the 10-minute discussion that followed the insertion of an emotional stimulus. The class data was used to set a baseline and the 10-minute discussion was sliced out for further analysis. Students’ emotions of sad, happy and surprised were the highest discovered. Recommendations include assisting students in their own professional growth and expanding the study to a broader audience.”