Emotion as a Student Resource in Higher Education

Abstract

This article offers a critical examination of students' emotional bargaining in higher education. Based on an analysis of student emails and staff interviews, the article uses a case-study approach to explore the nature of this behaviour and the motivational drivers behind it. The paper reveals an amalgam of socio-cultural and educational factors, identifying the particular importance of a neo-liberally inflected climate.

University teachers’ perceptions of appropriate emotion display and high-quality teacher-student relationship: Similarities and differences across cultural-educational contexts

“…In contrast, some Australian teacher educators stressed their effort not to display strong negative emotions in order to maintain positive relationships with students and not to risk authority. In a recent study, Bartram (2015) found that sometimes students take advantage of close and caring relationships with HE teachers, a behavior he coined "affective strategizing" (p. 68). This suggests that a caring attitude of HE teachers may not necessarily be positive, as it comes with individual costs for the teacher (e.g.…”

University students and emotional bargaining: a comparative study of staff perspectives in Northern Europe

“…Colleagues at each institution distributed information about the study via staff networks. In the end, 43 participants volunteered to complete anonymous on-line questionnaires, consisting of 16 closed and open-ended items structured around Bartram's (2015) analytical framework (more detail is provided in the findings section below). Questions consisted of several typessome capturing categorical detail, while others were based on a mixture of agreement/item selection/open commentary on various aspects of students' emotional bargaining.…”

“…Swedish and 6 Dutch, the others mostly expressing uncertainty. As for the 'emotional scenarios' underpinning the students' AS-behaviours, table 2 presents the numbers of staff agreeing with the contexts identified by Bartram (2015)…”

“…All respondents expressed agreement with at least one motive, providing thus support for the goaldirected/social-functional approach to emotion underpinning the enquiry (cf. Morris and Keltner 2006) and Bartram's (2015) study which revealed emotional bargaining as a strategy for securing academic advantage and concessions. Table 3 offers an overview of agreement and rankings: Respondents were invited to discuss their views further here, and several provided instances and details which illuminated many of the above motives, such as the following remarks describing a perceived strategic approach to negotiating additional time for assignment completion:…”

“…This paper builds on previous qualitative research carried out by the author (Bartram 2015) on university students' emotional bargaining or 'affective strategizing' (AS), by extending the focus to an examination of the views of staff working in higher education (HE) in three different European countries -England, the Netherlands and Sweden. The previous study was based on an analysis of student emails and staff interviews at one English university, and used a case-study approach to explore the nature of AS and the motivational drivers behind it i.e.…”