The Malaise of the Soul at Work: The Drive for Creativity, Self-Actualization, and Curiosity in Education

Paolantonio, Mario Di

doi:10.1007/s11217-019-09653-4

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…After all, the newly discovered possibilities (and responsibilities) to 'access' new friends, to reinterpret feelings in more positive ways and to profit from the productive potential of the proper imagination promise to result in enhanced well-being, more self-confidence and on the long term, better academic performance and increased mental resilience (Malfait & Jeannin, 2012, p. 23). Di Paolantonio (2019) draws our attention to the way in which this demand on toddlers to be happy to have discovered every experience and situation as an opportunity for learning replicates the prevailing discourse on the so-called creative class. The latter glorifies creative jobs with flexible schedules that allow for 'the ability to learn and grow .…”

Section: The Magical Forest As Prefiguration Of a Cognitarian Work Ethicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Di Paolantonio (2019) notes that the educational experience too is familiar with the 'mood' of depression and in particular the emanating feelings and dispositions of boredom and withdrawal. According to Phillips (1993, as cited in Di Paolantonio, p. 617), what we see is that 'often, in fact, the child's boredom is met by the most perplexing form of disapproval' .…”

Section: Power Through Freedom and The Depressive Mood As Antidotementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Di Paolantonio (2019), we want to suggest for education that 'we do not to rush to close down these moods' (p. 617). Like boredom, the toddlers' passivity and withdrawal might be understood as 'a way in which the soul resists and helps to preserve our [their] interiority amid the endless barrage and imperatives we face today' (pp.…”

Section: Power Through Freedom and The Depressive Mood As Antidotementioning

confidence: 99%

“…School as ‘scholè’ is that place ‘where things are of “free use” and thus disconnected from the usages of the old generation in society but not yet appropriated by students as representatives of the new generation’, opening up the possibility of renewing the use of things, to ‘make new use of [them]’ (2010, p. 544). Di Paolantonio develops this register of newness as ‘the hope of ‘passing on’ in education’ (2016, p. 148), explicitly intending different senses of the word ‘to pass on’, c.q. ‘passing on’ the world, from old to new generation, as well as ‘the passing on of’ the world: ‘our present must inherit the past (as something readable and transformable) to pass it on, and, at the same time, prepare for its own passing, in which it itself is handed over to the unpredictable birth of another’ (2016, p. 150) 8…”

Section: Concluding Remarks: An Educational Register Within Berardi's...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toddlers as soul workers: A critical take on emotions and well‐being in early childhood education

Damme

Ramaekers

2022

J Philosophy of Edu

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In this article, we provide a critical philosophical analysis of contemporary early childhood education practices on emotions and well‐being. We develop our argument against the backdrop of an intensifying preoccupation, since several decades, with the psychological, social and emotional well‐being of pupils and students. Our focus is on one exemplary case: Het Toverbos (The Magical Forest), a Flemish nursery educational method evoking the principles of psychodrama to support the socio‐emotional development of toddlers. Drawing on the work of Italian philosopher Franco Berardi, we explore to what extent Het Toverbos promotes a kind of learning that seemingly prefigures a contemporary work ethic putting to work human affects, communication and creativity. We argue that the method seems to approach toddlers’ emotions, imagination and peer interaction as immaterial resources that can (and should) be mined in the name of their proper development. What seems to be cultivated is a willingness to endlessly reinvent the self and in line with Berardi, we suggest a link with the cultural psychopathologies of our time: panic, depression and burnout. We also explore how the method's permanent imperative to express oneself seems to subject everything to the claim of transparency and knowledgeability, thereby limiting the possibility of the child's ‘otherness’ or ‘newness’. We conclude by situating our Berardian take on these early childhood education practices on emotions and well‐being within the broader pedagogical tradition in which the potentiality engendered by the child's ‘newness’ is emphasised and articulated in various ways.

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Section: The Magical Forest As Prefiguration Of a Cognitarian Work Ethicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Power Through Freedom and The Depressive Mood As Antidotementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Power Through Freedom and The Depressive Mood As Antidotementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Concluding Remarks: An Educational Register Within Berardi's...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Toddlers as soul workers: A critical take on emotions and well‐being in early childhood education

Damme

Ramaekers

2022

J Philosophy of Edu

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“…And yet, it seems there is little scope to meaningfully invoke the idea of ‘soul’ in contemporary education where a spirit of essentialism dominates, an inevitability, when ‘educators today are being asked more than ever to “observe”, “measure” and “improve” on what is going on in the minds of learners when they learn’ (Di Paolantonio, 2019, p. 602). The idea that there may be ways of responding to the interiority of others, one's pupils, that do not conform to the strictures of evidence‐based teaching and the measurement of learning seems a non‐starter.…”

Section: ‘Soul’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Expressing an interest in mental health education

Skilbeck

2022

Journal of Philosophy of Education

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Despite the convergence of approaches to mental health in schools, criticisms have been levelled about the triviality of mindfulness and the reluctance of teachers to encourage more personal expression in the classroom, relying instead on a mixture of ancient practices and modern cognitive behavioural therapy. Furthermore, there are still real problems with selfharming, and the COVID-19 pandemic has placed huge strains on mental health services for the young. It would suggest the language of mental health education is inadequate for the needs of the young as it fails to provide them with the means to voice their experiences. The discussion first turns to Biesta's idea of 'soul' and how our contemporary usages capture something of the integrity of mind and body that is absent in speaking in terms of 'mental' and 'physical' health. Furthermore, 'soul' functions as a means of expressing what matters to us. This directs us towards the need in mental health education to express our experience of the world and our being within it as well as acquiring 'the tools' we need to manage our mental health. What, therefore, matters to us is our life with words and having an authoritative voice in our experience. For this reason, I turn to the work of Stanley Cavell as the philosopher for whom such concerns were central. Applying these insights to mental health education, I will argue that opportunities for more personal expression of the experience of mental health need to be created rather than avoided.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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How to identify the canaries that might save the organizations: Mapping the most curiosity‐oriented in Brazil

Amaral¹,

Behrens²

2023

Thunderbird Intl Bus Rev

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This study explores the effectiveness of international instruments for identifying the curious and alerts us to the relative ineffectiveness of foreign instruments to map the curious in Brazil. We used indirect questions to better map the most curious collaborators at Brazilian organizations. We believe our instrument eludes the Brazilian bias for impression management. Our sample covered 384 respondents in Brazil and identified that there are more curious professionals in small and medium‐sized enterprises than in large and multinational companies, and that team members are more curious than those in managerial positions. Furthermore, our study reveals that the most curious perceive to be penalized when offering their perceptions regarding weak signals. This study points the need to invest in developing and protecting a more curiosity‐oriented staff. In addition to contributing to the literature on curiosity at work, this study provides insights for companies that want to develop their teams to perceive business weak signals.

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The Malaise of the Soul at Work: The Drive for Creativity, Self-Actualization, and Curiosity in Education

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Toddlers as soul workers: A critical take on emotions and well‐being in early childhood education

Toddlers as soul workers: A critical take on emotions and well‐being in early childhood education

Expressing an interest in mental health education

How to identify the canaries that might save the organizations: Mapping the most curiosity‐oriented in Brazil

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