pages from 20585-the_affect_theory_readerdesiringrecognitionaffectwatkinsdeleuze
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Desiring Recognition, Accumulating Affect
Megan Watkins
In studies of affect much is made of the ways in which it is distinct from emotion.
Against the more social expression of emotion, affect is often viewed as a preliminal,
preconscious phenomenon. A consequence of this is that affect is often conceived as
autonomous and ephemeral. Its immediate impact is highlighted; the ways in which affect
can arouse individuals or groups in some way but then seems to dissipate quickly leaving
little effect.1
While this distinction is a productive one for dealing with particular types of
affective experience, it doesnt account for the distinction Spinoza makes between
affectus and affectio, the force of an affecting body and the impact it leaves on the one
affected. Affectio may be fleeting but it may also leave a residue, a lasting impression
which produces particular kinds of bodily capacities. As Spinoza explains, the body can
undergo many changes and nevertheless retain impressions or traces . . . (III, Post.2). It
is this capacity of affect to be retained, to accumulate, to form dispositions and thus shape
subjectivities that is of interest to me. It suggests that we grapple with this as a pedagogic
process, whereby a sense of self is formed through engagement with the world and others
and the affects this generates. In turning attention to the cumulative aspects of affect,
however, I dont want to simply invert the focus of scholarly discussion. I am keen to
explore both dimensions of affect, its ability to function as force andcapacity, affectus
and affectio. While a discussion of accumulation may seem to emphasize the latter,
affectio is very much a product ofaffectus, and so affect as force or the processual aspect
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of affect, is in fact embedded in a discussion of affective capacity. Affect is importantly a
relational phenomenon and using an exploration of pedagogy to theorise affect highlights
this relationality.
In this chapter a particular type of pedagogic process is examined
primary/elementary education in which the pedagogic relation is that of teacher and
students. Drawing on key figures in the literature of child development Donald
Winnicott, Daniel Stern, and Lev Vygotsky this chapter will consider the ways affect is
accumulated within this context and has an enabling effect for both teachers and students.
As such, it addresses issues of both affect and pedagogic theory as each provides a useful
mechanism for exploring the other. Also, while primarily a theoretical explanation of
these issues, reference is made to a study of teaching desire and classroom practice which
illustrates some of these points. In doing so, it calls into question aspects of contemporary
pedagogy which, in placing emphasis on student-directed learning and on-line delivery, is
experiencing a marginalisation of the teacher at all levels of education. To those in charge
of the purse-strings this is a pleasing development. Independent learning,
personalised learning, self-paced education, whatever the nomenclature, the teacher is
being sidelined as learning is reconfigured as an activity independent of teaching or a
body externally directing the process. This move is certainly cost-effective, but is it
pedagogically effective? Whats lost in limiting the teachers role, refashioning them as
facilitators or learning managers and conceiving learning as primarily an autonomous
activity rather than a process of intersubjective engagement between teacher and
student?2
While this shift has been exacerbated in recent years by the impact of
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Information and Computer Technologies (ICT) and an economic rationalist drive to
minimize teaching costs through the adoption of the on-line delivery of curriculum, the
bifurcation of teaching and learning has a much longer genesis. To many, this rupture
dates from a period in the early 1970s, if not earlier, in which psychology came to
dominate educational thought, a discipline giving emphasis to students as agents of their
own learning (Walkerdine 1984; McWilliam 1996; Vick 1996; Watkins 2005). The
scientific truths framing psychology gave credence to the much older progressivist
educational tradition which places a similar emphasis on the natural development of the
child, viewing learning as did Piaget as primarily a function of maturation
discounting the effect of social intervention.
In exploring these issues I also want to give consideration to a notion of
recognition which is a fundamental aspect of the pedagogic process. This is not simply in
terms of a student desiring the recognition of their teacher but also the teacher desiring
the recognition of their students. This pedagogic relation involves a process of mutual
recognition realised as affective transactions which at one and the same time can cultivate
the desire to learn, and the desire to teach. It is interesting, therefore, that current
pedagogic practice seems to want to minimize contact between teacher and student and
encourage independent learning over whole-class instruction. While independent enquiry
may be a long-term objective, with students having less reliance on the teacher as they
move into the later years of school and onto tertiary study, independence in learning is
something that is acquired over time and it is the teachers role to help instill the
knowledge and bodily capacity for students to work in this way. It does not seem an
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effective pedagogy for the early years of school or, for that matter, as the sole approach to
learning in the later years. The teacher, whether at a kindergarten level or as a PhD
supervisor, has a significant role to play in scaffolding their students learning in the
acquisition of more sophisticated levels of competence. This is a view shared by Probyn
in her account of the affective dimensions of teaching (2004). In seeing herself as first
and foremost a teacher, she is critical of the impact of so-called progressive thinking on
tertiary education and the relatively uncritical embrace of the on-line delivery of
curriculum (Probyn 2004, 21). She refers to Brabazons work in this area which points
out that, despite the flexibility of on-line learning, students ultimately want to be taught
in interesting ways by teachers (Brabazon 2002). Given the current move away from
teacher direction, however, in a recent study I conducted into these issues in the primary/
elementary years of school, teachers were reluctant to foreground their role in their
students learning (Watkins 2007). Whole-class instruction, in particular, was not deemed
appropriate pedagogy and yet, in discussing their practice, it became clear that not only
was the teachers desire to teach more obviously realised through this pedagogic mode,
they also considered this a more effective means of curriculum delivery. This suggests
something about the role of affect and recognition in teaching and learning.
Before considering this in relation to one of the teachers in the study mentioned, I
want to explore the connection between recognition and pedagogy more generally and to
then draw upon the child development studies of Winnicott, Stern and Vygotsky to
examine the influence of affect, in particular the ways in which it accumulates in the
process of learning.
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Recognition and Pedagogy (A)
Progressivist critiques of teacher-directed learning such as those provided by
theorists of critical pedagogy, notably Giroux (1983, 1988) and McLaren (1989) tend to
focus on issues of power and what they see as a misuse of teacher authority. Their vision
of a transformative pedagogy is reliant on problematising teacher authority and
redirecting power into the hands of students giving them responsibility for their own
learning. Current perceptions of recognition within critical and cultural theory view
power in a similar way. As Yar explains, Recognition is taken as the instantiation of an
economy of power which produces objectified and subjugated subjects, and/or as thesine
qua non of an ontology which reduces alterity, otherness and difference to the identitarian
totality of the same (Yar 2001, 57). While Yars comments are a critique of the use of
recognition in examinations of identity politics, they are of particular relevance to the
negative perceptions of teacher-directed learning. A focus on a teachers delivery of
curriculum is seen to be at the expense of student learning with the teacher imposing their
own knowledge upon students, limiting classroom interaction and acting in a potentially
abusive manner by exerting their influence in an attempt to gain the recognition of their
students.
While little explicit treatment has been given to issues of recognition in discussion
of pedagogy, where it is evident, as in the work of Bourdieu, it is viewed in a similarly
negative light. To Bourdieu the search for recognition actually provides the motor for
pedagogic work but to him this is problematic. He views recognition as a form of
symbolic dependence, an egoistic quest for the approval of others (Bourdieu 2000,
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166). His central concern is for the child and the ways in which the symbolic capital
associated with recognition enables forms of domination which imply dependence on
those who can be dominated by it (Bourdieu, 2000). The perspective taken here by
Bourdieu, and others who share an equally pessimistic view of recognition, seems to
confirm Yars opinion that there is a tendency within critical and cultural theory to view
Hegels model of intersubjectivity in a negative light. As Kellner writes,
The Hegelian Master/Slave dialectic can help characterize relations between
students and teachers today in which teachers force their curricula and agendas
onto students in a situation in which there maybe a mismatch between
generational, cultural and social experiences and even subjectivities. (Kellner
2003, 67)
Of course there is always the potential for the abuse of power, it is the tension
underpinning the master/slave dialectic, but this need not be the case. In a pedagogic
context the dominant position a teacher exerts need not simply be read as a type of carte
blanche for the maltreatment of students. This, however, is the perspective taken by
progressivists who, in an attempt to neutralize this power and tip the balance in favour of
the student, give emphasis to student-directed pedagogies. Benjamin explains, Every
binary split creates a temptation to merely reverse its terms, to elevate what has been
devalued and denigrate what has been overvalued, but What is necessary is not to take
sides but to remain focused on the dualistic structure itself (Benjamin 1988, 9). This
seems a central point in understanding the pedagogic relation and the role of recognition
within it: the relationship between teacher and student may not be an equal one but its
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success depends upon mutuality, a recognition of worth by both parties with this
intersubjective acknowledgment being integral to their sense of self. Honneth (1995)
takes a similar view in his account of recognition. With a more productive perspective on
Hegels master/slave dialectic, he describes how individual subjectivity is premised on
the recognition of others. Power here is not neutralized. Rather, it can be conceived in
Foucauldian terms as not simply repressive but enabling, with the moment of recognition
involving at one and the same time a need for acknowledgement and a confirmation of
self-worth. Integral to this process is the role of affect. Honneth explains, recognition
itself must possess the character of affective approval or encouragement (Honneth 1995,
95). Affects, as such, are the corporeal instantiation of recognition; the sensations one
may feel in being recognized which accumulate over time, fostering a sense of self-
worth. Moments of recognition, therefore, function as affective force, or in Spinozan
terms, affectus.
While emphasis here is given to recognition as a positive process with the
elicitation of positive affects, this may not always be the case. Recognition can also
function in a negative way carrying the resultant force of negative affects. In a classroom
context this may involve a student being singled out for poor academic performance or
behaviour which, if a common occurrence, has a detrimental effect on self-worth,
impacting considerably on a students desire to learn. Similarly, teachers sense of worth
can be shattered by the failure of students to behave and engage in the lessons they
conduct, affecting their desire to teach. Negative affects, however, should not be viewed
as all bad. In terms of subjectivity they may have what seems a contradictory effect. As
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Probyn explains in her account of shame, although a negative affect, it is only possible to
feel a sense of shame if one possesses a degree of interest in the object which engenders
this reaction (2005). Shame, as such, has a positive ethical dimension, an essential
element of being human. Probyn bases this insight on the work of Silvan Tomkins
(1962), who attaches considerable significance to negative affects in the process of
learning. He provides an interesting critique of progressivist education in regard to this
and it is worthwhile to quote him at length on this point.
Although the progressive education movement has stressed the importance of
engaging the positive affects in education there has been a gross neglect of the
significance of the mastery of negative affects. The reason is clear. Since the
opposing philosophy of education had stressed rote, drill and discipline it was a
natural assumption that the mastery of negative factors was restricted to this
particular instance of puritanism and authoritarianism. But even a progressive
philosophy of education must include prominently within its program the
development of those abilities to tolerate negative affects ... (Tomkins 1962, 368)
At Tomkinss time of writing, progressivism was simply a movement. It was yet
to achieve a position of paradigmatic dominance as has been the case in many Western
countries from the mid 1970s.3 Yet even at this point, prior to its mainstreaming as an
educational philosophy, Tomkins was of the view that with an overemphasis on praise
and positive reinforcement progressivism failed to adequately equip students with the
resources to counter, and perhaps more importantly accept, criticism which is an
important aspect of learning.
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Recognition and Affect (A)
A more positive interpretation of recognition which highlights reciprocity over
domination, sociality over individuation, is characteristic of much recent work in the field
of child development studies, as in the work of Stern (1985) as well as the earlier work
of theorists such as Winnicott (1965, 1978, 2006) and Vygotsky (1986). Within a
psychoanalytic framework there has been a shift in emphasis away from an understanding
of the development of the infant psyche as based upon a Freudian model of the drive
ridden ego to one which relies upon interaction with significant others, and especially,
the mother; a move, therefore, from the oedipal to the pre-oedipal, father to mother
(Brennan 2004, 33). This shift within psychoanalytic thought has major implications for
the study of pedagogy and, in particular, theorising the nature of the pedagogic relation.
Yet notions of the solitary ego and an uncomfortable immersion in the social or
symbolic prevail. Bourdieu, for example, ponders the move from a narcissistic
organisation of the libido in which the child takes himself as an object of desire to
another state in which he orients himself towards another person, thus entering the world
of object relations (Bourdieu 2000, 166). In discussing this transition, Bourdieu refers to
the sacrifice of self-love in which engagement in the social is represented as a loss,
hence his negative perception of recognition as a loss of self. Given that Bourdieus logic
of practice is grounded in the notion of habitus, the embodiment of social structures
which in turn structure individual action, this seems an unusual position on his part as it
emphasizes reproduction over agency, the oft made criticism of the habitus. Yet, as Noble
explains, despite its usefulness, the focus of Bourdieus construct is more about
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explicating social reproduction rather than examining subjectivity and interpersonal
relations (2004). In positioning object relations as a phase following initial preoccupation
with the self the narcissistic ego Bourdieu in a sense misrepresents Winnicotts
perspective on child development.4
Winnicotts theory of object relations is not about a
move from an orientation of self to other. It is, in many respects, the opposite.
Winnicotts intention is to explain the process of differentiation. His focus is the
move from what he views as complete union with the mother hence his famous
declaration that there is no such thing as an infant to a position of independence as a
separate self with his notion of transitional object mediating the process (Winnicott 1965,
39). In doing this, however, Winnicott gives emphasis to the interaction between mother
and child with the development of self premised on intersubjective engagement.5
Recognition is central to this process. As Kojeve points out, The establishment of ones
self-understanding is inextricably dependent on recognition or affirmation on the part of
others (1969, 11). In explaining the development of a sense of self, the issue for
Winnicott is not simply how we become independent of the other but, as Benjamin
explains, how we actively engage and make ourselves known in relationship to the
other (1988, 18). Winnicott stresses that independence is premised on initial periods of
dependence and that this dependence has actually grown out of what he terms double
dependence (2006, 5). His reasoning here has much to offer pedagogic theory as if
typifies the mutual recognition underpinning a productive conceptualisation of the
pedagogic relation of teacher and student. Another dimension to how such a connection
with the other frames our notion of self is discussed by Honneth (1995, 99). Drawing on
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Winnicott, he refers to the ways in which infants gain a sense of bodily schema through
the process of being held. Intercorporeality, skin acting on skin, the sense of touch and
the affective realm allows one to know ones body. A similar perspective is evident in
Merleau-Pontys phenomenology of the body: understanding our somatic selves through
engagement with the world (1999).
In more recent work in the area of child development from the 1980s, Stern gives
a similar emphasis to the role of intersubjectivity in the formation of the self. Yet his
starting point and the way in which he maps development is quite different to that of
Winnicott. To Stern there is no point at which the infant is confused in relation to a sense
of self and other where development entails a process of differentiation. To Stern infants
are predesigned to be aware of self-organising processes (1985, 10). He is interested in
how different senses of the self manifest an emergent self, a core self, a subjective self
and a verbal self which, to Stern, are not successive phases of development. He
explains that once acquired each of these aspects of self continue to function and remain
active throughout ones life. These different senses of self are each a product of
increasingly complex forms of relatedness beginning with the mother/child dyad as the
primary relation of intersubjective engagement. This is an accumulation of self that
seems dependent upon an accumulation of affect, which Stern alludes to in his account of
mother/child interaction.
In discussion of this dyadic interaction and the ways in which infants engage with
the world psychologists make reference to what is termed contingent responsiveness,
that is, the sense of pleasure an infant feels in response to a reaction of which they are the
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cause (Benjamin 1988, 21). This could involve pushing a ball or other toy and the joy that
ensues in making it move. While the infant expresses joy in the response of the inanimate
object, it proves to be more pleasurable if this is accompanied by a reaction from the
mother or significant other. What becomes important in the repeated performance of this
activity is not so much the action itself but the reaction of another subject and the sense
of recognition it generates. This acknowledgement acts as a spur for further action; the
desire for recognition on the part of the infant instills a form of agency in the successful
completion of the process involved in making an object move. In this instance the desire
for recognition is not one-sided, it is mutual. The mother likewise desires the recognition
of her child and gains fulfillment in his or her responsive play. So, despite the differential
power relationship between mother and child, there is both a need to recognise the other
and in turn to be recognized. In discussing this dialogic play between mother and child
Benjamin refers to studies which provide a frame by frame analysis of the facial, gestural
and vocal actions and reactions of both parties that reveals a kind of dance of
interaction (1988, 27). Benjamin explains that the partners are so attuned that they
move together in unison with this play of mutual recognition seemingly fuelled by affect
(1988, 27).
This interaffectivity is a key concern of Stern. He points out that the sharing of
affective states is the most pervasive and clinically germane feature of intersubjective
relatedness (Stern 1985, 138). Elsewhere he stresses that it is only through the intensity
of this form of interaction that infants are able to attain high levels of feeling (Stern 1993,
207). What the infant experiences, however, is not simply joy this amplification of
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feeling has direct links with cognition. Prior to the work of Tomkins it was felt that affect
and cognition were separate and unrelated functions yet, while affect can operate
independently, Tomkins was able to demonstrate its impact on both thought and
behaviour, in a sense confirming the psychophysical parallelism expounded by Spinoza
and also the relationality of affect (Angel & Gibbs 2006).6
The interrelationship between
affect and cognition and the difficulty in identifying the formers effect on the latter is
perhaps best demonstrated by an examination of the affect of interest. Tomkins explains
how in his work on the emotions Darwin overlooked interest altogether, confusing it with
the function of thinking (1962, 338). To Tomkins, however, the absence of the affective
support of interest would jeopardize intellectual development no less than destruction of
brain tissue (1962, 343).
This relationship between affect and cognition and the heightening of affect that
recognition can evoke is of particular importance to pedagogic theory in terms of what it
suggests about the significance of the pedagogic relation of teacher and student: the ways
in which a teachers support influences student learning. While the focus of Sterns work
is the interpersonal world of the infant, and so his argument about the relationship
between affect amplification and interpersonal engagement relates to the early years of
life, he is also of the view that while adults can reach high levels of joy when alone, this
is largely dependent on an imagined other. Intensification of positive affects as in
interest seems a function of engagement with others and, pedagogically, a significant
other. The techniques teachers utilize in classrooms can act as a force promoting interest
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which over time may accumulate as cognitive capacity providing its own stimulus for
learning, a point I will return to below.
Accumulating Affect (A)
In Sterns discussion of affect, however, he does not simply refer to categorical
affects such as those identified by Tomkins. He also documents what he terms vitality
affects those dynamic, kinetic qualities of feeling . . . that correspond to the
momentary changes in feeling states involved in the organic processes of being alive
(Stern 1985, 156).7 He explains: They concern how a behaviour, any behaviour, all
behaviour is performed, not whatbehaviour is performed (Stern 1985, 157, emphasis in
original). This notion of vitality affects seems to nicely complement specific categories of
affect as together they can account for the ongoing interaction between self and other,
self and world. These may peak at particular intervals with the experience of positive
affects, such as joy or interest, or negative affects, such as shame or disgust, but, although
the general flow of sensation what Stern nicely terms the interpersonal traffic of
feeling is decidedly less intense, it still possesses an affective quality contributing to
different states of being. Affect, as it is understood here, is not viewed as simply transient
in quality. These states of being are not only momentary. Through the iteration of similar
experiences, and therefore similar affects, they accumulate in the form of what could be
considered dispositions that predispose one to act and react in particular ways.
In much of the quite diverse literature on affect, from psychology and philosophy,
cultural studies and literary theory, this ability of affect to accumulate is either denied or
rarely made explicit. Affect, as a bodily phenomenon, is typically conceived as fleeting
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whereas emotion, with its cognitive dimension, is viewed as long-lasting, triggered on an
on-going basis throughout ones life8. Massumi, for example, sees emotion as the capture
of affect given that the latter escapes confinement (2002, 35). Nathanson similarly
explains that affect lasts but a few seconds (1992, 51). From his perspective affect is
biology whereas emotion is biography (Nathanson 1992, 50). In making this distinction
Nathanson does point out that an organism has the ability to retain and store
information, but this storage capacity seems almost exclusively a mindful phenomenon,
namely as memories that produce emotion. Affect, as such, is viewed as the biological
component of emotion. While this may be the case, affect also operates independently,
accumulating as bodily memory that, while both aiding cognition and inducing
behaviour, may evade consciousness altogether. This is perhaps best demonstrated by an
example offered by Shouse (2005). He recounts the case of an elderly female patient of
the neurologist Oliver Sacks who suffered an accident and lost all feeling in her legs for a
period of three years. Continued therapy to help her regain mobility proved unsuccessful
until Sacks noticed that her foot would tap in time involuntarily when she listened to
music. After a change to music therapy, the patient eventually made a full recovery.
Shouse uses this case to highlight how affect trumps will, with the recollection of music
stored in the body prompting the womans leg to move. He also feels that it shows how
affect always precedes both will and consciousness.
Something, however, seems to be missing from this analysis. While Shouse points
out how the body is continually affected by numerous stimuli which it in turn infolds,
registering them as intensities, this does not capture the ways in which affect actually
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accumulates in the body nor the role of pedagogy in the process. This womans
involuntary tapping of her foot to music seems to indicate a lifetime of listening to music,
perhaps learning an instrument or how to dance and embodying particular rhythms.
Affect here does not so much precede will and consciousness, it simply evades or
bypasses them, provoking habituated behaviour stored in what could be termed muscular
memory: the motor significance of which Merleau-Ponty writes.9
This is not to suggest
that affect always operates independently. As mentioned, affect provides a motivating
force for consciousness. But while stressing their relationship, it is important to maintain
an analytic distinction between mind and body, consciousness and unconsciousness,
emotion and affect given the pedagogic implications of each category. Also, my interest
is not so much the role of emotions within education but that of affect and the ways in
which its accumulation within the body can promote the desire and capacity to learn.
Affect and the Pedagogic Relation (A)
It is this ability of affect to accumulate and its relationship to recognition that I
want to consider in terms of the interaction of teacher and students, particularly on a
whole-class basis, and the ways in which teaching and learning seem fuelled by these
interconnected processes. Learning, needless to say, is generally conceived as a cognitive
activity. While it has an affective dimension this seems to receive very little theoretical
explication. The connection Tomkins makes between affect and cognition has been
mentioned. Stern, similarly, is of the view that affective and cognitive processes cannot
be readily separated and explains how Learning itself is motivated and affect laden
(Stern 1985, 42). This is a view shared by the early 20th
century Russian psychologist Lev
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Vygotsky, a leading figure in the field of child language development. He was interested
in the relationship between intellect and affect and remarked that, Among the most basic
defects of traditional approaches to the study of psychology has been the isolation of the
intellectual from the volitional and affective aspects of consciousness (Vygotsky 1987,
50). Within education Vygotsky is best known for his theory of the Zone of Proximal
Development or ZPD which refers to the gap between childrens actual development
determined by independent problem solving and their potential development achieved
when assisted (Vygotsky 1986, 187).Vygotsky was interested in the benefits of play and
peer support in learning but attributed greater significance to the role of teachers and the
support they provided students. He was actually a fierce critic of the progressivist free
education movement prevalent in the Soviet Union during the 1920s (van der Veer &
Valsiner 1991, 53) and claimed that, Instruction is one of the principal sources of the
schoolchilds concepts and is also a powerful force in directing their evolution; it
determines the fate of [their] total mental development (Vygotsky 1986, 157).
While Vygotsky gave some account of the influence of affect on language, due to
his untimely death, he was never able to elaborate his ideas about affect and learning
(Vygotsky 1986). Given more recent developments in this field, as in the work of Stern, it
seems affect and interaffectivity could be especially useful in the theorisation of
pedagogic practice and engagement in learning, allowing for a more positive
interpretation of the teachers role in line with Vygotskys notion of the ZPD.
These ideas came to mind as I was interviewing teachers as part of a study into
teaching desire a notion that can be understood as a double articulation of both the drive
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or motivation to teach and the engagement to learn that this can promote in students. As
less and less emphasis seems to be placed on whole-class instruction, with a preference
for independent and group-based learning, especially in primary/elementary school
contexts, I was keen to investigate which pedagogic modes teachers considered the most
effective and which gave them the greatest sense of satisfaction. The study involved
interviews with twelve teachers and their principals in three schools within the Sydney
metropolitan area of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The teachers taught a spread of
grades, from kindergarten to 6th Grade, and ranged in age from 22 to 64, possessing,
therefore, a range of experience and understanding of the profession. The schools
similarly represented a diverse group in terms of geographic location across Sydney and
the socio-economic status (SES) and ethnic mix of students. The focus here, however, is
not so much the study, which is discussed in detail elsewhere (see Watkins 2007).
Instead, I want to refer to a number of teachers comments from both this study and an
earlier investigation (Watkins, 2006) and the account that one in particular provided of
her teaching that exemplifies the affective dimensions of pedagogy presented here. My
intention is not to present this example as empirical proof but rather to simply use it to
lend support to the notion of an accumulation of affect and the ways in which more
detailed analysis of the pedagogic relation could prove fruitful in explicating this point.
In interviewing the teachers I began by asking them about their practice and
having them identify their pedagogy as being either more teacher- or student-directed. As
with most of the teachers in this study, Nerida, a 2nd Grade teacher, saw her approach to
teaching as more student-directed or progressivist in design. Nerida was one of the mid-
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career teachers involved in the study. She had been teaching for thirteen years and trained
at a time when emphasis was given to progressivist techniques of teaching and learning, a
perspective still dominant within Australian teacher training institutions. As Nerida
explained,
They encouraged the teacher to be more of a facilitator rather than the person who
stands up the front and gives information. Do you know what I mean? You are
facilitating their learning. You are giving ideas.
Nerida displayed a reluctance to foreground her role in the classroom and her
involvement in her students learning. As the interview progressed, however, and she
began to discuss specific examples of her practice, it became clear that her desire to teach
was more obviously realised through whole-class instruction; the actual performance of
teaching and engaging with students. While Nerida seemed unable to explicitly articulate
this desire, there were a couple of teachers who reluctantly did so. Sally, for example, a
more experienced teacher in another school remarked, I have to admit I like my place
upfront and centre for instruction. Two other teachers, commenting on what they
considered the key ingredients for effective teaching, pointed out, Getting their attention.
I see it as performing. You need to perform, get them in and keep them there. You need
to be really animated I think to keep their attention. A colleague added,
To teach properly you really have to teach. You have to be a teacher out the front
[sic]. I mean I still believe that, I really do. Thats the one thing Im a great
believer in and really going around to kids on the spot.
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While not acknowledging the centrality of her position in the classroom, Nerida
took great delight in describing a lesson on syllable poems that had taken place on the
day of the interview which exemplifies this. Nerida was teaching at Spring Hill Public
School located in the more affluent northern suburbs of Sydney with a student population
high in SES but low in the number with a language background other than English. Like
most primary/elementary classes in NSW, Neridas 2nd
Grade class of 8/9 year olds was
of mixed ability, though in terms of state averages in literacy and numeracy, they were of
a higher standard. In discussing this lesson she explained,
Today it was just one of those lessons where it was like, Wow, I wish every day
was like that. And, we made one up together and they were coming up with all
these fantastic descriptive words and this whole year Ive been drumming it into
them.
She then provided more detail about her role in the lesson:
Well, we made it quite fun. Like I was hopping in and out of them and walking in
amongst them and Im going, Okay, whats another descriptive word about
this?, and then they would all cheer and Id write it on the board. And do you
know what I mean? I suppose it is your personality that comes through.
In explaining the effect of the lesson on both herself and the class, she pointed out
that,
You have the same feeling I think as the kids because they are excited about a
particular activity, or a particular experience and you think Oh! You are excited
for them because what you wanted them to learn is what theyre actually learning
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. . . Yeah. And so they did it and it was just like you could see the kids faces. I
mean I know its like the clich thing but you could just tell that they were so into
it.
In this brief account of her lesson Nerida effectively captures the way in which
her pedagogy impacts upon her students. In teaching the class she was not only assisting
them to arrive at a bank of words they could use in their own poems, with this input
acting as an aid to cognition, the desire that was driving this teachers performance
seemed translated through the act of teaching into a desire to learn, a potent force or
series of affects that her students embodied prompting their engagement in the lesson.
What is evident here is something akin to the dance of interaction between mother and
child that Benjamin describes, a form of mutual recognition en masse that seems to
captivate both teacher and students, heightening the learning experience and the
effectiveness of Neridas pedagogy. As she explains: You have the same feeling. This
affect attunement to which Stern refers is amplified here given the whole-class nature of
the learning activity, as opposed to students working independently or in small groups
(1985). This is not simply a dyadic relation of teacher and student but the excitement and
interest that are generated prove contagious with other students keen to be involved as
part of the experience. This contagious nature of affect has been explored by Tomkins
(1962) and more recently by Brennan (2004) who borrows the neurological term
entrainment in discussing how the nervous and hormonal systems are activated by this
process.
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The contagion that seems evident from Neridas account, and what she sees as the
success of not only her lesson but the poems that the students produced both as a class
and later individually, did not simply result from this singular affective experience. These
effects, and in particular the quality of the writing that the students later produced, seem
indicative of an accumulation of affect. While individuals are innately predisposed to
affective response, much of what we respond to, and how we respond, is a consequence
of learning; the repeated experience of similar affects accumulating in a dispositional
tendency. As Nerida explained, she had spent this whole year drumming it into them.
Many of her students reacted the way they did as throughout the year she had encouraged
an interest in writing, which this account of her lesson demonstrates, and this interest had
fuelled their desire to learn.10
As Tomkins explains, interest has a physiological function
as an aid to sustained effort (1962, 337). In applying themselves as a result of the interest
she promoted, Neridas students had embodied the skills to write effectively. As with the
mother/child dyad, however, the relationship between teacher and students is also
unequal, yet this does not rule out the desire for mutual recognition. Despite her dominant
position, Nerida seems intent on acquiring the recognition of her students and it is this
that engenders her desire to teach. Similarly, the students desire to please their teacher
serves to promote their engagement in learning and further the interest already ignited
which, as Nerida recounts, is clearly evident in the expression on their faces, what
Tomkins considers the primary site of affect.
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Concluding Remarks (A)
What this example suggests is that pedagogy plays an important role in the
accumulation of affects that can generate a desire to learn. The role of the teacher,
however, seems central to this process, as Vygotsky demonstrates in relation to his notion
of a ZPD. Rather than emphasizing the potential abusive nature of this relation, it is
important to stay mindful of the insights provided by child development studies which
emphasize the intersubjective nature of the formation of self and the important role of
recognition within this. As Reed explains, Becoming a self is something one cannot do
on ones own; it is an intensely social process (1995, 431). The social, however, as it is
embodied as an ongoing series of affective transactions, needs to be conceived as not
only a source of subjection but as a site of possibilities. It is cogent to conceive of
teaching desire in much the same way; that is, as a force with productive potential.
Giving emphasis to learning over teaching de-emphasises the teachers role and the
potentially powerful ways in which recognition and interaffectivity can augment the
pedagogic process. While power may be ever present, it provides the means through
which agency is achieved. As such, the transformative potential of education can be more
effectively theorized as for too long it has been clouded by the tired critique of both
reproduction models and critical pedagogy that seek to downplay the role of the teacher
and give students responsibility for their own learning; assuming power is only a force to
be resisted rather than embodied as capacity with agentic potential.
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Notes (A)
1There are exceptions to this interpretation of affect. Gregg, for example, examines the
use of affective address employed by key figures in cultural studies, arguing that the
writing technologies they employ do have a lasting political impact (2006).
2 In some cases on-line learning functions as an intersubjective experience between
teacher and student but, given the exchange is mediated by technology, the kind of affect
that is produced is quite different.
3For an historical account of the impact of progressivism, please refer to Cope, Bill and
Kalantzis, Mary. Histories of Pedagogy, Cultures of Schooling in The Powers of Literacy
eds. Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis. London: The Falmer Press, 1993.
4Piaget theorises this move in a similar way as is evident in his examination of the
transition from what he refers to as egocentric to social speech (1997).
5In much of the child development literature reference is made to the mother/child dyad.
Contact with the mother is viewed as the primary initial relationship of the infant. While
in many cases fathers now take a much more significant role in raising children in
contemporary Western society, the term mother is used here rather than caregiver
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given the mother generally retains a more significant role, particularly during the first 6
months in which breastfeeding occurs. Also much of the research drawn upon here makes
use of this term.
6 More recent work in neuroscience confirms the interaction between neural systems of
emotion and those underlying cognitive functioning. See Phelps, E. A. (2005, 52) on this
point who explains that, These interactions have prompted a reconsideration of the
appropriate role of emotion in efforts to understand cognition.
7Stern actually makes reference to three categories of affect: categorical affects, vitality
affects and relational affects (1993). He explains that this third category or register of
feelings operates in parallel with the other two and concerns the feelings of being loved,
hated, secure etc. While Stern is of the view relational affects cannot be reduced to the
categorical or vitality affects and so must form a separate type, I do not find this a
particularly useful distinction as, it could be argued, that most affects are relational when
they involve another animate body.
8 For a more detailed discussion of the distinction between affect and emotion see
Watkins (2006).
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9Maria Montessori makes use of the term muscular memory; a form of bodily know-
how required to successfully perform different tasks (1966, 145). To assist in the
development of physiological movements she advocated that children perform certain
exercises on a repetitive basis to ensure they habituated particular skills.
10Please see Watkins, which draws on observational data in a classroom with students
exhibiting similar reactions to the techniques their teacher employed (2006).