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Emotions in classroom microsituations : a sociocultural perspective

The central argument of this thesis is that a sociocultural approach, based on Vygotsky’s work, allows embracing simultaneously both the individual and the social aspects of emotions. The thesis comprises two parts. Sociological and psychological literatures about the study of emotions are reviewed to show the difficulties that these disciplines have faced in accounting for both the physiological and the cultural aspects of emotions simultaneously. In the first part of the thesis, I build an all-embracing historical psychological approach that pulls together aspects of Vygotsky’s work in order to overcome those difficulties. In so doing, my investigation of what emotions ‘are’ has changed to acknowledge the need to investigate what emotions ‘do’ in social contexts and interactions. The study of emotions, I argue, needs to avoid their separation from the context in which they emerge to overcome the separation of individual and social aspects of emotions. The second part of this thesis consists of an exploration of the necessary traits for an adequate sociocultural study of emotions in the classroom. This involves the analysis of emotions as they feature within pedagogic practices that take place in four classrooms, through a detailed examination of video-recorded microsituations. Three foci are constructed to discuss situated emotions: context, social practice and microhistory. The empirical study offers the basis for two conclusions. First, through the data analysis I show diverse ways in which teachers accompany, encourage and ‘contain’ or ‘regulate’ emotions as part of the interactions that take place in classrooms. Second, I offer an outline of a sociocultural approach to the study of emotions which does not separate their individual and social aspects. Finally, I discuss some of the implications of this study for teachers’ practices and for future research.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:639828
Date January 2014
CreatorsEncinas Sánchez, Lilia Mabel
PublisherUniversity College London (University of London)
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10021604/

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