Emotions play a critical role in various facets of our political landscape, yet their significance is often overlooked. (Shah, 2024; Wolak & Sokhey, 2022) The same can also be said in relation to how emotions are regarded in the educational landscape. As Shah (2024) writes "Emotions permeate everyday experiences of individuals and nations, deeply entwined with power dynamics, public perceptions, and societal structures”. People act and react in relation to different emotions, and researcher have shown how this also has political consequences (Ahmed, 2004; Illouz, 2023). Emotions are political and relational – they are not entities that move from the inside to the outside (towards us) but are relational. (Ahmed, 2004, Zembylas 2007) Some emotions are sought after in educational settings, such as empathy, or even love and passion, other feelings are not so sought after, or even welcome. For example, anger and hate, jealousy or shame are emotions that are regarded as difficult in educational settings (cf. Little 2023; Jackson, 2020).

This paper explores one of these negative emotions, namely anger, in educational settings, by asking the question: What kind of role does or can anger play in education? More specifically the paper will explore and discuss what kind of role and potential emotions more generally, and anger more specifically, can have for learning and studying in educational settings. In short, the paper will present how emotions, and specifically anger, are not only private matters, but also relational, as well as pedagogical and political. In a constructive way, they can also be used – or perhaps in better words – understood or met – within teaching. (Cf. Ahmed, 2004; Zembylas 2023; Removed for peer-review)

Example:

I was teaching undergraduate students in a course within teacher education. There were approximately 100 students there, it was their first semester, and the lecture was about knowledge, media climate and policy theory. The students were new to me, but I had been told before that they had been noisy and disrespectful towards a colleague of mine. Education is a matter of placing objects and ideas in front of the students, so that the students are invited to face, touch, taste, smell, listen to, and think about them. (Korsgaard, 2024) Put simply, the students are invited to study them and hopefully the students also learn from them. This was my point of departing when entering the lecture hall. However, this did not seem to influence the students. Even though I was prepared and took a formal outfit on me, and my most upright posture, the students were noisy, chatty, and one by one they started to leave the room. At the end of the lecture, after the break, there were perhaps twenty students left. I was disappointed, and perhaps also sad and full of resentment. Towards myself, my own deficiencies as a teacher of not reaching out better, but also angry at the lack of respect – for me, for the content being taught - from the students. Are these the becoming teachers-to-be, I asked myself.

However, there was more to the setting. Since the lecture was covering what kind of knowledge we can gain in a modern society with fake news, post-truth theories and testimonial injustice (cf. Removed for peer review), the discussion by the students covered the media landscape, Trump and the war in Gaza as well as in Ukraine. The students were emotionally involved, I could see this through the way they spoke, and how many of them wanted to participate.

Since this is a philosophical paper, I will use the coming headings to continue my paper.

The lecture was full of contrast. Some students involved, others who left the lecture. As a teacher I was intrigued by the student’s engagement, as well as my own emotional involvement and political understanding of the topic, but also upset at the students leaving, as well as how the feeling of indignation led us astray – not coming to the core of what was supposed to be taught according to the syllabus of the lecture and course. To put it short, it was a lot. Anger in politics: a possibility for discussion What does anger do? And what can it do within educational settings? Anger can promote a sort of engagement in politics, one that can undercut the deliberative potential of informal political discussion. One can regard anger in terms of dissensus and as agonistic (Mouffe, 1999). At a first glance, anger seams to close a potential openness to further understandings. However, as Wolak & Sokhey states: “anger is a powerful emotion within political discussion networks, tied to both greater engagement in political expression as well as avoiding discussing politics with those who do not share the same views.” (Wolak & Sokhey, 2022, s. 187) They write that feelings are a possible factor of being involved in more political conversations rather than fewer. That is, people feeling something can also lead to engagement with their own social discussion network. Different emotions such as anger, embarrassment or anxiety inform how people engage. (Wolak & Sokhey, 2022) In similar terms as enthusiasm, anger is an emotion that can motivate people to act and challenge opinions and opponents. Interesting as well is how “people who feel angry are more likely to say that they enjoy political talk” and “that feelings of anger are associated with greater political expressiveness with friends, family, and acquaintances.” (Wolak & Sokhey, 2022, s. 192) Different emotions create different possibilities. The question I want to ask here is, what kind of pedagogical possibilities can be created? Anger in education: Wolak & Sokhey (2022) show how anger as a feeling can be fruitful within politics and the public space. However, the school is a special place. Bergdahl and Langmann (2017) states that the school is not yet the public space, nor is it a private space. The school is not the children’s home (the private space), nor is it the agora (the public political space).

It is somewhere there in between. In family and the private space, I would argue anger is not welcome, anger in families can even be regarded as dangerous. I am here thinking of anger in relation to domestic violence. However, regarding the school as a special place, as scolé, a place for studying (cf. Lewis, 2013); what kind of possibility can anger have within this setting? Jackson writes how “anger is not all bad.” (Jackson, 2020, s. 168) For example, Aristotle conceptualizes a justified, a moral sense of anger, and similarly Ahmed points out that anger can point to injustice (Jackson, 2020; cf. Ahmed 2004) To conclude, the paper is a first draft of reflections of what anger can do in educational settings. Emotional responses are not only private, or related to the singular student, but can also be regarded as relational as well as political. As Shah writes: “emotions in everyday politics serve as both tools for resistance and mechanisms that reinforce dominant narratives, illustrating their multifaceted role in shaping societal dynamics.” (Shah, 2024, p. 11) The task for the teacher, I argue therefore, is to handle and address emotions and affective logics pedagogically in critical, rather than sentimental or even naïve ways. Education should not to look away from these emotional and political implications. From the philosophical argument, I will go back and reflect on the example given in the paper. Rather than viewing the students’ and my own emotions as unwanted in the educational setting, I ask, perhaps one can view them as starting points for acting, learning, and to begin anew?

Reference: Ahmed, S. (2004). The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge. Bergdahl, L., & Langmann, E. (2017). ‘Where are You?’ Giving Voice to the Teacher by Reclaiming the Private/Public Distinction. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 51(2), 461–475. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12244 Removed for peer-review. Removed for peer-review. Illouz, E. (2023). The emotional life of populism: How fear, disgust, resentment, and love undermine democracy. Polity. Jackson, L. (2020). Beyond Virtue: The Politics of Educating Emotions. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108699747 Korsgaard, M. T. (2024). Retuning Education: Bildung and Exemplarity Beyond the Logic of Progress. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003437666 Lewis, T. E. (2013). On Study: Giorgio Agamben and educational potentiality. Routledge. Little, S B. A Case for Shame in Character Education, Studies in Philosophy and Education 42:283–302 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-023-09868-6 Mouffe, C. (1999). Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism? Social research, 745-758. Shah, T. M. (2024). Emotions in Politics: A Review of Contemporary Perspectives and Trends. International Political Science Abstracts, 74(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208345241232769 Wolak, J., & Sokhey, A. E. (2022). Enraged and Engaged? Emotions as Motives for Discussing Politics. American Politics Research, 50(2), 186–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211042288 Zembylas, M. (2023). Democratic education in the post-democratic turn: Disenchantment with democracy and the pedagogical potential of ugly and negative feelings. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 18(2), 147-160. Zembylas, M. (2007). A Politics of Passion in Education: The Foucauldian Legacy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 39(2), 135–149.