ABSTRACT
Awkward, irritating and painful feelings can play a powerful role in getting in the way of learning. The realm of feelings, of our subjective experiences, can indeed both facilitate and inhibit growth, development and learning. In the sometimes troubling experience of working with children in distress, difficult feelings can be aroused in teachers and other workers, as well as in other children, and the adult’s capacity for reflection upon his/ her work can be hampered. Yet the capacity to provide for the needs of disturbing children is powerfully enhanced when the adult is able to reflect upon, and respond to, what is happening in relationships with the child-in other words, when the adult consciously works from an understanding of the processes of development and interaction. This is the field of enquiry of this book. The core of the discussion is the processes of taking account of emotional aspects of experience, to facilitate emotional growth and to enable children to become more autonomous learners, able to take more effective responsibility for themselves.
