Reflect, ‘refract’ or reveal: sociocultural explorations of the place of teacher subjectivity in infant care

ABSTRACT

Research indicates that adult sensitivity to psychological states (both the adult’s and the infant’s) will affect the security of attachment yet the teacher’s internal state has received little attention in infant care. ‘Perezhivanie’ is a sociocultural concept that presents affect and intellect as a unit rather than separate elements. ‘Refraction’, a related concept, positions teacher subjectivity as the reference point for understanding caregiving behaviour as all thinking and behaviour is ‘refracted’ through the emotional prism of the person’s feeling state. This article discusses an emerging finding from a qualitative case study investigating early childhood teachers’ subjective and affective experiences of infant care. Early findings suggest teachers have difficulty expressing the personal and emotional nature of their work which appears at odds with studies confirming the significance of adult affect in adult–infant relationships. Theoretical and methodological explanations for the teachers’ silence are explored and implications discussed. ‘Refraction’ is presented as a supplementary theoretical tool to increase understanding of the personal and emotional nature of infant care.

KEYWORDS:

• Perezhivanie
• teacher subjectivity
• infant care
• refraction
• emotion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.