Emotion, Reason, and Information and Communication Technologies in Education: Some Issues in a Post-Emotional Society

Abstract

In this article, the authors work across issues of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education to explore the meaning of emotional experience in the context of online learning. In light of Mestrovic's (1997) notion of a ‘post-emotional’ society and the increasing role of ICT in education, it is argued that educators need to rethink, modify, or extend some of the assumptions made about the relationship between emotion and reason (e.g. as these assumptions are expressed in the traditional binaries between body and mind, and emotion and reason). The argument put forward is that opportunities and consequent decisions and actions about particular pedagogical practices and philosophies must engage with an analysis of the meaning and implications of these assumptions for learning and learners.