Over the last twenty years many writers, including ourselves, have drawn attention to the affective in educational organisations, including Fineman (1993, 1999), Hargreaves (1998a; 1998b), Beatty (2000), Zembylas (2005), Crawford (2007, 2009), Samier and Schmidt (2009) James (2010), Oplatka (2011), James and Crawford (2015), Berkovich and Eyal (2015) and Dale and James (2016). Recently, Chris James and I have been looking at role of affect in organising in schools. We have had some robust debates about the ‘how’ of research into affect, but are both agreed that affect needs a more central place in educational organisational theory. There are several aspects to our argument about the importance of affect in educational organisations, despite some of the problems of research in this area (as we discuss below). Drawing on our own research, and our experiences as teachers/managers in educational settings, we are working on developing a clear theoretical framework.

We argue that the cognitive knowing we experience does not of itself initiate willed behaviour/actions

We know that affect is one of the three basic kinds of mental processes: affection, cognition and volition, which are often referred to as the ‘triune of consciousness’ (Tallon, 1997) or the ‘trilogy of the mind’ (Hilgard, 1980). Affection concerns the experience of feelings while cognition relates to the processes of thinking and apprehending. Both are processes of knowledge acquisition. Volition is the mental processes that initiate action or change. It underpins purposive action and is manifest as desire, determination, striving and trying. Although thinking and feeling may be distinguished analytically as different phenomena (LeDoux, 1995; Elliott and Dolan, 1998), the interplay between them in everyday experience is complex. We have drawn attention (2015) to the interaction between what is felt and volition. We argue that the cognitive knowing we experience does not of itself initiate willed behaviour/actions. It is the feelings we have about cognitive knowing that produces the motivation to act.

We take the view that feelings are what we experience whilst emotions are feelings that are shown

In the literature, typically, three types of affect are differentiated: feelings, emotions and moods (Forgas, 2000). Feelings and moods can be distinguished on the basis that feelings are temporary, intense, have an identifiable rationale and a definable content, whereas moods are persistent, of relatively low intensity, and may be hard to explain/define. The term ‘emotion’ is used interchangeably with ‘feelings’/‘moods’ in the literature. We take the view that feelings are what we experience whilst emotions are feelings that are shown. So, particular facial expressions and other demonstrations of feelings, such as crying or laughing, depict internal affective states and are emotions. The distinction between feelings and emotions is helpful analytically and raises two interesting issues. First, feelings can be made apparent in an enormous variety of ways as actions, some of which would not be considered to be emotions. The second issue is the role of volition in the display of feelings as emotions. The display of feelings is a form of willed behaviour. Likewise, preventing the display of feelings is also a form of willed behaviour. Thus emotions are not always an accurate indicator of feelings. Reading this, you may begin to see the problematics of researching and theorising affects. We suggest that knowing and measuring affective experience is problematic for a number of reasons (James and Crawford, 2015).

1. Feelings may vary temporally. Affective experience may be transient or persistent, may change over time, or be delayed. 
2. Affective responses to events can differ. Similar events elicit different affective responses in different individuals. Some people may experience feelings more strongly than others and perhaps disproportionately so. The experience of feelings and those that are shown may not be closely or even directly linked. 
3. Feelings can often be complex and contradictory. Individuals may experience a range of different and even strong and opposing feelings simultaneously in response to an event. In addition to the difficulties of knowing and measuring feelings, communicating knowledge about them can be difficult for various personal, interpersonal and cultural reasons (James and Crawford, 2015). Feelings have a central but often unacknowledged role in initiating and carrying through actions. Also important is the relationship of affect and power. The centrality of power in organisational interactions is well established. As Hawley (1963) long ago argued, “Every social act is an exercise of power, every social relationship is a power equation, and every social group of system is an organisation of power” (Our emphases) (p 442). Further, the central place and existence of power in social actions is central: “Power only exists in actions” (Foucault, 1980, p. 89). So, where do we go from here? There is still much to research. We have argued that feelings may be best understood through the actions, including emotions, they initiate. Understanding feelings in this way requires the interpretation of actions from an affective standpoint. This is the basis of an affective paradigm for organisational analysis. By suggesting that feelings have a central but often unacknowledged role in initiating and carrying through actions, we argue for more work on the relationship between feelings and the concept of power. 

References

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Crawford, M. (2009) Getting to the Heart of Educational Leadership. London: SAGE.

Dale, D. and James, C. R. (2015) The importance of affective containment during unwelcome educational change: The curious incident of the deer hut fire. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 43(1): 92-106.

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