Recognising the role of emotion in the classroom; an examination of how the psychoanalytic theory of containment influences learning capacity

Abstract

This paper begins with personal reflections about my work in school which began over forty years ago, outlining how the different roles of teacher and therapeutic practitioner have contributed to my interest in the role of emotion for children’s capacity for learning in the classroom. I suggest that focusing too heavily on achievement risks losing sight of the experience of the individual child and argue that a psychoanalytic framework informs us of the significance of relational aspects of teaching and learning. My aim is to alert educationalists to the complexities of the classroom context, particularly the conscious and unconscious elements at work there. I have chosen to examine containment, as one aspect of the psychoanalytic, developmental framework, as a way of thinking about relational influences in the classroom and the importance of the relational context of learning. These case studies relate to my workplace, an Infant and Nursery school with a high British multi-ethnic population, where I am employed as a teacher/therapeutic practitioner. Two brief child studies are included to illustrate this examination. The first, Hamzah, concerns a young child entering formal learning without the expected relational skills and therefore unable to connect with staff and children in any meaningful way. The second, Isa, demonstrated well developed relational skills but at times found it difficult to manage his feelings when his needs took second place to the requirements of the curriculum.

Keywords:

• observation
• psychoanalytic
• research
• education
• emotion
• unconscious
• children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lynn Stammers

Lynn Stammers is a retired teacher who has used play therapy to work with children having difficulty in a formal learning setting. Her interests are in the insight offered by psychoanalytic theory and practice into how emotions influence a young child’s capacity to learn in a formal setting. This interest is the basis of her PhD and she is currently at the stage of setting up the research project

Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams is the Programme Director of the professional training programme in Educational and Child Psychology at the University of Sheffield.