Exploring emotions at school with children: Reflections on the role of the visual and performative in engaging with children’s constructed and embodied meanings of emotion

Abstract

This chapter reflects upon the use of visual and performative methodologies to examine the emotional dimensions of children’s school lives. It draws upon a collaborative ethnography in a junior school (ages 7-11) where den-building, the construction of small-scale spaces using fabrics and other materials, was used as a way for children to symbolise and examine the role of emotion in their unfolding experiences of school life. Over the course of the workshops children used these dens as catalysts for storytelling leading to the production of their own dramatic plays. In this chapter Procter focuses upon children’s representations of bullying through a den and related impromptu play. She suggests that researching emotion requires using methods that go beyond words. More specifically, she shows how the collaborative design and construction of visual, material and digital artifacts provides a means through which constructed and embodied meanings of emotion can be explored.