Jean McAvoy

From Ideology to Feeling: Discourse, Emotion, and an Analytic Synthesis

Recent arguments in the social sciences exhort a turn to affect and, either explicitly or by implication, a move away from or beyond the earlier turn to language. This conveys a presumption that the site and logic of discursive investigation must inevitably be different to the site and logic of affective investigation. Instead, this article suggests that a nonreductive psychosocial understanding of both discourse and affect needs a way of dissolving the dualism which inhabits and motivates much current debate around discursive and affective “fields.” This article illustrates a route towards dismantling the apparent segregation of discourse and affect in the call to an affective turn. The data come from a project exploring women’s talk of success and failure. Analysis here focuses on affective-discursive practices in discussion of “failed attempts to control body weight” set within the context of contemporary western neoliberal ideology. Discourse and affect are both approached as semiotic, relational practice. As such, affect is made accessible to analysis via concepts already familiar in studies of discursive practice in social psychology, including the reproduction and negotiation of ideologies and the management of trouble. This analytic focus on practical deployments in interaction enables epistemological and ontological psychosocial arguments to be grounded in practical discursive-affective accomplishments.

Researching the Psychosocial: An Introduction

This special issue explores key issues relevant to psychosocial research and presents innovative qualitative approaches for investigating this emerging field. The term ‘psychosocial’ is increasingly widely used and has become associated with its own ‘turn’ in social theorising and research. Such a turn would be consistent with a now-well established trajectory of academic innovation. It implies a Kuhnian leap and a major re-framing through which deficiencies and absences in current theory and research are recognised then remedied, opening up new directions and problems for investigation, as occurred in psychology with the ‘discursive turn’ of the 1980s and 90s. However, the status of a psychosocial turn is less clear-cut, first because of the very broad reference of the term ‘psychosocial’, second, because of the apparent overlap with the project of social psychology, and third, because of the odd relation of the psychosocial to psychology more generally, including the rejection of its main traditions of qualitative research. This introduction expands on these points and introduces the five central articles in this special issue, each of which contributes a particular resolution to the challenges of the new turn, and the commentaries in which two senior critical and social psychologists, Ian Parker and Margaret Wetherell, reflect on future directions for psychosocial research.

The Future of Online Teaching and Learning and an Invitation to Debate

This chapter opens by re-visiting the social and economic context of UK higher education, a context dominated by globalisation, new liberalism and competition, but also shaped by the opportunities associated with digital learning. It revisits theories of pedagogy and issues arising from the chapters focusing particularly on: online forums in teaching, developing a learning community through digital technology and by analysing how such technology shapes the identity of teachers. Finally, it argues that despite constraints, challenges and work intensification, technologies are an important resource within Higher Education, increasing access and broadening reach whilst also contributing to the formal and informal education of citizens and positively contributing to the creation of critical publics – publics with the capacity to challenge established social norms and centres of power.

The Context of Online Teaching and Learning: Neoliberalism, Marketization and Online Teaching

This chapter introduces the context in which online teaching takes place within Higher Education (HE). It begins with an outline of the political and economic climate, moving on to describe neo-liberal discourses that are influencing and affecting teaching staff and students. We then take a diachronic look at the ways in which new innovations have been received throughout history, before moving onto the realities of teaching and learning online. Examining the role of academics in online teaching leads into a description of the particular context of The Open University and the evolution of its teaching and place in HE.

Introduction to Chapters: Creativity and Critique in Online Teaching and Learning: Innovations in Online Pedagogy

This chapter introduces the contents of the book Creativity and Critique in Online Learning and describes what each case study contributes to knowledge in the field. It explains what we mean by the terms creativity and critique and in so doing highlights the challenging context in which online teaching and learning is taking place. Can online study really replicate the challenges and occasional joy of learning in a face to face environment? Can it foster relationships in the same way? Not only learner to learner but also between teacher and learner. Can it achieve the type of transformational learning that traditionally took place at residential schools and face to face tutorials? The type of learning that transforms the lives of individuals, radically altering their worldview, critical acuity, and social mobility? Some would argue that these are the wrong questions—that we should instead be asking: what can online learning do that face to face learning can’t; how can it help teach the ‘hard to reach’ and how can it provide learning for those who have failed in (or rejected) learning in a face to face context. This book uses case studies to engage with these questions and issues. We examine the benefits of various methods of teaching and learning online, whilst also analysing how effective these methods have proven to be in practice. In so doing the book aims to both inform and challenge those who are already teaching online or thinking of doing so in the near future. It looks to help those who are designing programmes of learning, in offering a comprehensive view of some of the tools that can be used to enhance the student experience, whilst also exposing areas of weakness that may well have the capacity to alienate learners and teachers if not incorporated carefully into the planned curriculum. Finally it explores the ways in which online teaching and learning can be creative for both teacher and learner, whilst acknowledging that no teaching method is perfect.

Supporting Team Teaching of Collaborative Activities in Online Forums: A Case Study of a Large Scale Module

This chapter explores mechanisms for supporting a group of over 200 tutors working together to deliver team teaching of pre-set online collaborative activities to a cohort of over 3000 students studying a first-year undergraduate psychology module. It describes the development of resources in support of this team teaching, from the perspective of the module team chair with overall responsibility, and that of the consultant tutor who co-authored resources and oversaw an online forum where the tutor team raised questions, discussed implementation, and sought advice on issues arising. Feedback from tutors and students is summarised along with a note of changes implemented in response. The chapter concludes with a summary of recommendations for effective support of tutors conducting online team teaching of collaborative working by students.

Doing reflexivity in psychological research: What’s the point? What’s the practice?

ABSTRACT Reflexivity is a fundamental expectation of qualitative work in psychology (and the wider social sciences), but what it looks like and how we do it is frequently ambiguous and implicit. This makes doing reflexivity a challenging endeavor, particularly for those new to using qualitative methodologies. This article explores reflexivity as a form of critical thinking and evaluation by demarcating reflexive activity in relation to other forms of critical thinking used in psychology. Using notions of perspectival location, we shed some practical light on the objectives and processes of reflexivity, from its significance in the identification of a research topic, through designing, conducting, and writing the research report. The overarching question of “what is the point of reflexivity?” is answered through an interrogation of common assumptions around producing “good” research in psychology as well as through a series of key questions illuminating different steps in the research process. We conclude that reflexivity requires the unpacking of partial, positioned and affective perspectives we bring to the research. This process facilitates our questioning and moves us beyond our own taken-for-granted assumptions and sense-making of the social world.