The representational structure of feelings

The word “feeling” denotes a reactive, subjective experience with a distinctive embodied phenomenal quality. Several types of feelings are usually distinguished, such as bodily, agentive, affective, and metacognitive feelings. The hypothesis developed in this article is that all feelings are represented in a specialized, non-conceptual “expressive” mode, whose function is evaluative and action-guiding. Feelings, it is claimed, are conceptually impenetrable. Against a two-factor theory of feelings, it is argued, in the cases of affective and metacognitive feelings, that background beliefs can circumvent feelings in gaining the control of action, but cannot fully suppress them or their motivational potential

Middle School Science Teachers\u27 Vulnerability in the Written Discourse of a Professional Learning Community

Vulnerability is omnipresent in personal and professional human experiences (Gilson, 2011; Lasky, 2005) and an unavoidable condition of work as a teacher (Bullough, 2005; Kelchtermans, 1996). It plays a role in teachers’ interaction with themselves, their students, and their professional communities, as they engage in making sense of their role in these social environments (Uitto, Kaunisto, Kelchtermans, & Estola, 2016). This study examined the written reflection journals by 12 middle school science teachers in a professional learning community (PLC) in New England. Teachers engaged with each other to co-construct knowledge and emotional understanding of their practice within this professional community. By examining teachers’ expressions in the discourse of their written reflections, vulnerability was brought to the forefront as a situated, relational way in which we open ourselves up by breaking from the expected norms of the space and outcomes of sharing. There was no existing method for analyzing vulnerability in this context therefore, the project also addressed the development of methodological processes in educational research focusing on vulnerability. Hufnagel & Kelly’s (2018) methodological considerations for examining emotional expressions informed the process along with conceptualizations of vulnerability. By examining the subject (aboutness) and discursive features of teachers’ expressions of vulnerability it was made salient what teachers’ expressed vulnerability about and the ways in which they did so. Previously, orientations to vulnerability across all disciplines have been toward minimization, rather than leveraging its necessity and importance in human connection (Gilson, 2011). While this thesis progressed research on vulnerability in education, it remains important to expand the spaces within which we have examined vulnerability to both develop and expand conceptualizations of teachers’ professional experiences and the ways in which we can support them

Beyond talent management: a relational portrait of companies adapting to global financial downturns

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire for the degree of Professional Doctor in Systemic PracticeThe thesis examines life within large Danish companies affected by the global financial downturn. It does so from phenomenological-relational perspectives, as a counterpoint to the traditional, mechanical (Cartesian) ways of viewing structures, problems and processes leading to resolutions. In particular, the thesis dwells on the differences between “aboutness” and “withness” as criteria for judging how people behave in such companies, particularly at times when a CEO suddenly announces major and rapid change. The thesis attempts to shape some of the contours of a relational landscape - with different understandings of life and living. In that respect, it looks beyond models, tools and recipes as the only ways of evolving as companies move towards future survival