Pedagogical Work with Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children in Denmark - a Prism to the Study of Emotional Work in Education

TY - CONF

T1 - Pedagogical Work with Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children in Denmark - a Prism to the Study of Emotional Work in Education

AU - Moldenhawer, Bolette

N1 - Conference code: XIX

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Interpersonal and emotional aspects of pedagogical work have during the last few decades been of great interest among educational researchers. This paper offers an analysis of social and moral dimensions of education by using professional interactions with asylum-seeking and refugee children as a privileged prism through which to study the relational and emotional aspects of pedagogical work. The paper argues that the link between education and emotion is well addressed by considering the positioning of asylum-seeking and refugee children as a particularly vulnerable group characterized by anxiety and insecurity (Vitus & Nielsen 2011). Drawing on empirical material based on participatory observations and interviews with staff from the administration, asylum centre and schools in selected municipalities, the analytical attention is directed towards professional practices and ideas, norms and sentiments expressed within and between the institutional settings. The investigation is informed by a micro-sociological approach based on Erving Goffman's theory of the interaction order (1983) and Arlie Hochschild’s conceptualization of emotions and emotional work (1979). As such, strategic emotional work is informing the analysis of how to maintain a professional distance to the pedagogical work without being to personal engaged in the asylum-seeking and refugee children's fate and destiny. By understanding emotional dynamics in this specific sociocultural and learning context, the paper opens up for a more general understanding of interpersonal and emotional aspects of education (Turner 2009). References: Goffman, E. (1983) 'The Interaction Order', American Sociological Review, 48:1-17. Hochschild, A.R. (1979) 'Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure', The American Journal of Sociology, 85(3):551-575. Turner, J.H. (2009) 'The Sociology of Emotions: Basic Theoretical Arguments', Emotion Review, 1(4):340-354. Vitus, K. & Nielsen, S. S. (red) (2011) Asylbørn i Danmark – En barndom i undtagelsestilstand [Asylum-seeking children in Denmark – a childhood in exceptional state], København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

AB - Interpersonal and emotional aspects of pedagogical work have during the last few decades been of great interest among educational researchers. This paper offers an analysis of social and moral dimensions of education by using professional interactions with asylum-seeking and refugee children as a privileged prism through which to study the relational and emotional aspects of pedagogical work. The paper argues that the link between education and emotion is well addressed by considering the positioning of asylum-seeking and refugee children as a particularly vulnerable group characterized by anxiety and insecurity (Vitus & Nielsen 2011). Drawing on empirical material based on participatory observations and interviews with staff from the administration, asylum centre and schools in selected municipalities, the analytical attention is directed towards professional practices and ideas, norms and sentiments expressed within and between the institutional settings. The investigation is informed by a micro-sociological approach based on Erving Goffman's theory of the interaction order (1983) and Arlie Hochschild’s conceptualization of emotions and emotional work (1979). As such, strategic emotional work is informing the analysis of how to maintain a professional distance to the pedagogical work without being to personal engaged in the asylum-seeking and refugee children's fate and destiny. By understanding emotional dynamics in this specific sociocultural and learning context, the paper opens up for a more general understanding of interpersonal and emotional aspects of education (Turner 2009). References: Goffman, E. (1983) 'The Interaction Order', American Sociological Review, 48:1-17. Hochschild, A.R. (1979) 'Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure', The American Journal of Sociology, 85(3):551-575. Turner, J.H. (2009) 'The Sociology of Emotions: Basic Theoretical Arguments', Emotion Review, 1(4):340-354. Vitus, K. & Nielsen, S. S. (red) (2011) Asylbørn i Danmark – En barndom i undtagelsestilstand [Asylum-seeking children in Denmark – a childhood in exceptional state], København: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Pedagogical work

KW - emotion and emotion strategien

KW - asylum-seeking children

KW - refuges children

M3 - Paper

SP - 450

T2 - ISA World Congress of Sociology

Y2 - 15 July 2018 through 21 July 2018

ER -