Department of Childhood Studies PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Theory Infatuated or Mind Dead

1. Department of Childhood Studies PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES Theory Infatuated or Mind Dead To learn or not to learn: a semantic view Dr Alan Bainbridge

2. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view a moral view Considering the psychosocialexperiencing self – a psychoanalytic approach Thinking about semantics not syntax (Frosh, Bainbridge and West) Thinking about generalities and particularities From subjectivity to objectivity From evidence based to value based and evidence led Thinking beyond the superficial and into revolutionary territory

3. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view Some Theories (…to play with) We are born too soon Experience proceeds knowing Relationship with knowledge Implications of early relationships The particular nature of education

4. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view • Some Theories (…to play with) • We are born too soon • Dog world/Human world • Anthropological idea • Attachment and dependence • Relationships with people/places/processes • Relationships between the subject and the ‘object’ • Psychosocial/Object Relations Theory

5. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view • Some Theories (…to play with) • Experience proceeds knowledge(… the beginning of education?) • Feel before thinking • Shadow of the object • Lived (subjective) experience • Omnipotent delusion • Feeling memories

6. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view • Some Theories (…to play with) • Relationship with knowledge • Epistemophilic instinct • Identity formation – developing ‘the self’ • Difficult knowledge and the threat to the self • Chaos of learning and teaching

7. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view • Some Theories (…to play with) • The particular nature of ‘formal education’ … in • Pupils - re-experience early learning relationships • Relate to the knowledge and process of education • Professionals – archives of the past re-emerge and ‘interfere’

8. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view • Some Theories (…to play with) • Implications of early relationships: highlighting the unconscious • Feeling memories – emotion/cognition link. Unconscious but ‘felt’ • Anxiety and education • Passion for ignorance • Attachment and learning • Transference/countertransference • Splitting

9. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view Some applications (…to play with) Why a particular Jack learnt at a particular moment … Why a particular Jack responded to a learner in a particular way … The importance of the ‘experiencing self’

10. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view Margot and Anne Lucy and education

11. To learn or not to learn: a semantic view Some applications (…to play with) Listening to lives/reflexivity Consider fear of rejection/getting it wrong Contain anxiety The particular and the general Behaviour has meaning All off for therapy …

12. References Bainbridge, A. and West, L. (Ed.) (2012). Psychoanalysis and Education: minding a gap. London: Karnac Books. Bibby, T. (2011). Education – An ‘Impossible Profession. London: Routledge Britzman, D.P. (2009). The Very Thought of Education: Psychoanalysis and the Impossible Professions. New York Press: New York Coren, A. (1997). A Psychodynamic Approach to Education. London: Sheldon Press Geddes, H. (2006). Attachment in the Classroom: the links between children’s early experience, emotional well-being and performance in school. London: Worth Publishing Greenhalgh, P. (1994) Emotional Growth and Learning. London: Routledge Salzberger-Wittenberg, I., Williams, G. and Osborne, E. (1999) The Emotional Experience of Learning and Teaching. London: Karnac Youell, B. (2006). The Learning Relationship: Psychoanalytic thinking in education. London: Karnac