Affective Pedagogies: Emotion and Educating for Social Justice
On behalf of Professor Anne Looney, I have the pleasure of inviting you to the fourth, and final, in the series of virtual research conversations with the Awardees of the Institute of Education Research Fellowship.
This Research Conversation features Audrey Bryan in conversation with Dr Jones Irwin speaking about 'Affective Pedagogies: Emotion and Educating for Social Justice'.
Date: Wednesday 11th November, 6pm-7pm. Please click here to register for this Zoom Webinar online event. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Audrey Bryan is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Human Development at Dublin City University’s Institute of Education (DCU IoE). She is also an Associate Researcher of the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education, the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and the Centre for Educational Disadvantage. Her academic background spans the fields of Comparative and International Education, Sociology, Applied Social Research and Psychology. She teaches courses in sociology, childhood studies and research methods on the BA Joint Honours programme in Human Development and the Sociology of Education and Sociology of Childhood to undergraduate and postgraduate level teacher education students at DCU. She has published nationally and internationally in the areas of climate change education, gender and sexuality studies, racism and anti-racism and global citizenship education. Her current work explores the role of emotion and difficult knowledge in teaching for social justice.
In conversation with: Dr Jones Irwin is Associate Professor in Philosophy and Education at DCU’s Institute of Education. He is also Subject Leader in Philosophy for Open Education, DCU, co-ordinator of the Values Education specialism on the EdD and the Chair of the Professional Diploma in Education. His research and teaching interests are currently in the areas of Philosophy of Education, Multi-Denominational Ethos, Values Education, Contemporary French Leftist Theory and Early Years Education.
Focus of research conversation:
This research conversation with Dr. Jones Irwin makes the case for foregrounding emotion in education and in social justice related teaching in particular. It considers the educationally and socially transformative possibilities that exist when emotion, affect and feeling are viewed as essential elements of teaching and learning, rather than peripheral or irrelevant to education. It argues that that coming to a deeper understanding of how learners feel about various social injustices – as well as how they actively negotiate, contest and interpret them – is a necessary starting point for effective social justice education. Moreover, it suggests that the need to interrogate what emotions do in places of learning – i.e., what effect they have, and whose interests they serve – has arguably never felt more urgent in an era of impending climate catastrophe, global pandemics, a worsening refugee crisis and ongoing racial oppression. At the heart of the conversation is a consideration of some of the pedagogical challenges associated with enabling learners to think more deeply about their own involvement in, and connection to, both past and present social injustices in order to derive new ways of seeing, and being in, the world. The conversation will consider various frameworks, resources and strategies through which to cultivate deeper forms of emotional self-awareness and ‘cosmopolitan reflexivity’ amongst learners (Christensen & Jansson, 2015).