Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This research analyzes the affective-cognitive teaching-learning approach and its relationship with the concept of agency among the participants in a circle time activity in an international bilingual education context. Circle time is an essential educational practice for child development. Studies have pointed out its importance as a privileged moment for promoting socialization, establishing bonds, and developing affectivity, critical awareness, and creativity. On a theoretical basis, the research alludes to the theory of Socio-Historical-Cultural Activity, the concepts of learning, zone of proximal development (ZPD), Perezhivanie, agency, linguistic repertoire, Spinoza’s view of affection, among others. The project has been conducted as a Critical Collaboration Research – PCCol, in which participants and researchers join in the construction of new possibilities of reality emerging from the research process. The focus of the study was a group of fifth graders, in an international elementary school. A survey completed by the students was used in order to analyze the participation of those involved in the activity. The responses were then organized in the following levels: contextual-enunciative, discursive and linguistic, as materialized by the lexical choices of the participants. After the categorization of thematic contents, it was possible to notice the development of the discursive dynamics in which the affective-cognitive teaching-learning process and the agency of the participants are based. The results reveal that students have learned aspects regarding living together, dealing with their feelings, and asking colleagues for help, especially displaying relational agency.