The significance of emotions in teaching and learning: on making emotional significance

Abstract

We follow the insights of psychoanalytic theory to offer a way of thinking about emotional life in the classroom. Using three case studies, each of which illuminates an aspect of emotional difficulty in relation to learning and failing to learn, we argue that educators and educational leaders benefit from attending to and listening for difficulties in making emotional significance, that is, in refusing to separate affective and cognitive processes, in encounters with knowledge and with others.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alice J. Pitt

Alice J. Pitt is an Associate Professor of Education and Associate Dean of Pre‐Service Education in the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto, Canada. Email: [email protected].

Chloë Brushwood Rose

Chloë Brushwood Rose is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum Theory in the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto, Canada.