ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore sociocultural and neuroscientific perspectives on emotion, considering learning and experience from the perspective of the whole self. This is despite the fact that there are difficulties about the way the affective is conceptualized in the literature generally. The now well-known work of Gardner (1983) and Goleman (1995) and the notion of ‘emotional intelligence’, have undoubtedly spotlighted the importance of emotion in all aspects of life, including learning. However, from our point of view, their notion of emotion is problematic as it leaves intact the idea that emotion is something one possesses—a quotient. This view aligns more with the neurological than the sociocultural. In education research on learning, there has been a significant interest in the theme of engagement (Ellis and Coddington, 2013) but little theorization of emotion as part of the engagement pedagogies advocated in such studies. This chapter makes a first attempt at further theorization of emotion as a part of participation. The accounts and discussion here foreground affect and illustrate the enmeshed nature of the affective, the bodily and the sociality in learning.
