Emotions - connecting with the missing body

Observing science classroom activities presents an opportunity to observe the emotional aspect of interactions and this chapter presents how this can be done and why. Drawing on ideas proposed by French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, emotions are theorized as publicly embodied enactments, where differences in behavior between people shape emotional responses. Merleau-Ponty’s theorization of the body and feelings are connected to embodiment, while examining central concepts such as consciousness and perception. Merleau-Ponty describes what he calls the emotional atmosphere and how it shapes the ways we experience events and activities. We use our interpretation of his understanding of emotions to examine an example of a group of Year 8 science students who were engaged in a physics activity. Using the analytical framework of analyzing bodily stance by Goodwin, Cekaite and Goodwin the chapter presents worked vignettes of analyzed episodes, where we examine talk, voice (prosody) and embodiment contextualized in the physical environment where those activities took place. These examinations are related back to Merleau-Ponty’s thinking to propose a possible way forward to analyzing emotions.