Running head: Feeling-Function Centered Pedagogy

1

Feeling-Function Centered Pedagogy: Using Student-Centered Curriculum and Friendly
Student-Teacher Relationships to Heal Educational Alienation, Loneliness, and
Meaninglessness

Carson W. Cardinal
School of Education, Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

A capstone project submitted to Thompson Rivers University in partial fulfilment of the
requirements of the degree of Master of Education.

November 29, 2022

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

2

Abstract
This paper is set within the context of my academic journey through my Master of Education
program. I became interested in the subjects of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness
during my final year of undergraduate school. I have worked with classmates from Canada, the
United States, and Switzerland. The study of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness is
important since a lack of inclusion, belonging, and meaningful learning in the lives of students
leads to increased incidences of estrangement, isolation, and purposelessness. Supporting
learners through their personal quests for meaning is therefore an essential aspect of holistic
education. Feeling-function centered pedagogy is cultivated through attentive, creative,
imaginative, and friendly classroom instruction. The presence of warm and friendly studentteacher relationships is essential to learner inclusion, belonging, and meaningful learning. I argue
that student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships are central to the care
of post-secondary students. Jung (1933, 1989), de Troyes and Cline (1985), and Frankl’s (1986,
2006) psychoanalytic, mythological, and existential perspectives reveal how it is the wounding
of a student’s feeling-function which exacerbates their feelings of loneliness, alienation, and
meaninglessness. As my graduate program became imbued with feelings of relatedness, I healed
from my own experiences of loneliness and meaninglessness. If educators desire to decrease
academic loneliness, alienation, and meaninglessness, they will practice student-centered
curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships with their students.
Keywords: feeling-function, student-centered learning, student-teacher relationships,
alienation, loneliness, meaninglessness

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 5
My Academic Journey ................................................................................................................................ 5
My Interests: Alienation, Loneliness, and Meaninglessness in Academia ................................................ 7
The Significance of Alienation, Loneliness, and Meaninglessness ......................................................... 10
Argument: Student-Centered Curricula and Warm Student-Teacher Relationships are Central to
the Care of Post-Secondary Students ...................................................................................................... 11
The Path Ahead ......................................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter Two: Literature Review ............................................................................................................ 14
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 14
Objectives................................................................................................................................................... 14
Understanding the Wounded Feeling-Function of the West ................................................................. 15
Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 17
Supporting Student-Centered Curriculum Within Education ............................................................. 18
Scholarly Resistance to Student-Centered Curriculum ............................................................................ 20
Supporting Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships Within Education ............................................ 21
Scholarly Resistance to Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships ........................................................... 23
Supporting Mutually Engrossing Classroom Climates Within Education .......................................... 24
Scholarly Resistance to Mutually Engrossing Classroom Environments ............................................... 25
Summary of Support & Counterarguments to Student-Centered Curriculum, Friendly Student-Teacher
Relationships, and Mutually Engrossing Classroom Environments ....................................................... 26
Feeling-Function Focused Pedagogy and Qualities in Education......................................................... 27
Attentiveness ............................................................................................................................................... 28
Creativity .................................................................................................................................................... 29
Imagination ................................................................................................................................................ 29
Warmth & Friendship................................................................................................................................ 30
Summary.................................................................................................................................................... 31
Chapter Three: Application ..................................................................................................................... 32
Aims............................................................................................................................................................ 32
Considerations for Student-Centered Curriculum ................................................................................ 33
Attunement, Life Contexts, and Increasing the Success of Student-Centered Curriculum.................... 33
Attuning to Classroom Environments to Utilize Student-Centered Curriculum ..................................... 34

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

4

Strategies to Implement Student-Centered Curriculum ........................................................................... 35
Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 36
Considerations for Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships ............................................................... 38
Attunement, Life Contexts, and Increasing the Success of Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships ... 38
Attuning to Classroom Environments to Build Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships ...................... 40
Strategies to Implement Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships .......................................................... 41
Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 43
Chapter Four: Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 44
Recapping and Reaffirming my Argument ............................................................................................ 45
Summary and Connections: Introduction, Review, Application .............................................................. 46
The Success of my Paper ........................................................................................................................... 47
Implications, Consequences, Solutions, and Future Research Within Education.................................. 48
Implications, Consequences, Solutions, and Future Research Beyond Education ................................ 50
Limitations of my Argument and Evidence............................................................................................... 51
Contemplations ......................................................................................................................................... 52
References .................................................................................................................................................. 55

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

5

Feeling-Function Centered Pedagogy: Using Student-Centered Curriculum and Friendly
Student-Teacher Relationships to Heal Educational Alienation, Loneliness, and
Meaninglessness
Chapter One: Introduction
My Academic Journey
The youth rode off, but looked around a stone’s throw off, and on the ground in the short
time that had elapsed, he saw his mother had collapsed beside the drawbridge, where she
lay unconscious, and in such a way it seemed to him that she had slipped and fallen dead
(de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 20).
In 2018, following the end of careers in business, tourism, and heavy equipment
operations, I went on my first journey to a college where I explored the creation of new
beginnings. The day that I stood in the admissions department of Northern Lakes College, I felt
that I was standing on an alien planet to which I did not belong. I felt that I was an outsider and a
lonely traveler without a companion. All of my insecurities, fears, and self-doubts emerged and
spoke to me through their own heinous tongues. Yet, through all my fright, I stood, signed, and
left the admissions department with a hopeful expectation of enrollment. A week later I received
an acceptance letter from Northern Lakes College and I felt the excitement, fear, and challenge
of leaving my past behind to create a new future. I did not know where I was going to end up but
I did know that every book, teacher, and classmate represented a fresh opportunity to learn
something new.
As Perceval drove his “hunter’s croup with his small switch”, I too plunged myself into
the unknown as I drove my car to my first college lecture (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 20). I
chose to carry my anxiety, panic, and fear through hallways of higher learning and as I came to
learn about my classmates and professors, I began to learn more about the world and the people

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

6

who chose to share their life experiences with me. Northern Lakes College’s university studies
program offered me the opportunity to be the young man driven “into the forest dark and grim”
(p. 20) where I could no longer lean upon the protective guise of home. I was challenged by
darkness within and without. As I shifted from that which I knew towards that which was
unknown to me regarding university, I learned to diligently study through my fear “until the day
dawned clear and bright” (p. 20) in my mind and heart.
When I received my university studies certificate from Northern Lakes College, I
immediately continued my full-time studies with Thompson Rivers University. Choosing to
major in psychology allowed me to sharpen my un-yet honed passions. However, the completion
of my final year of undergraduate school left me with a drought of feeling where I felt that I was
no longer exploring issues and questions that I loved. I completed assignments with a mechanical
force that removed the beauty from my world much akin to the foolish Perceval who while
having strong arms nonetheless ignorantly “crushed the maid in his embrace, not knowing how
to act with grace” (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 22). While I had the diligence to provide my
professors with the answers they expected of me, I was left with the violent memories of
subjecting my assignments, classmates, and my own heart to an absence of attention, creativity,
imagination, and warmth (McCracken, 1999, p. 166).
With receipt of my undergraduate degree during the fall of 2021, I immediately entered
Thompson Rivers University’s M.Ed. program. For all of the personal and academic
accomplishments that I had accrued during undergraduate school, I yet desired a more
meaningful life than the one I had built. Always a high achiever, I was also much like Perceval
who “did not care a chive for anything the king related, and in no way commiserated with his
wife, shame, or suffering” (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 31). My overdependence on rational

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

7

knowledge created a void of feeling in my heart which led me to dedicate myself to my full-time
studies within my M.Ed. program with the intention of re-humanizing my own capacity for
empathy, valuing, and feeling in order that I might help others in the future.
My collegial experiences of confronting my fears, facing the unknown, and challenging
the coolness of rationality within my M.Ed. program permitted me the deeper opportunity to
develop my own pedagogical approaches inclusive to feeling-function development. When I
enrolled in my M.Ed. program I began to ask myself questions like “what did I dislike about my
undergraduate experience?,” “which of my professors helped me to feel valued?,” and “how can
I become the educator I wish I had?” Much like Perceval who had been “trained so ill by a rough
master” (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 32), I knew I wanted to become a refined educator who
provides attentive, inventive, and imaginative curricula to students. My own experience of
academic coercion during undergraduate school and my experience of re-humanization during
my M.Ed. program led to my increased interest in healing students of their alienation, loneliness,
and meaninglessness. Continuing to study how educators and universities may create curricula
and pedagogical approaches to help heal their oft neglected students is of widespread importance
across Western post-secondary settings and beyond.
My Interests: Alienation, Loneliness, and Meaninglessness in Academia
The experience of learning how to collaborate with my peers within my M.Ed. program
helped me to develop my interest in studying alienation. My interest in healing feelings of
alienation occurred through my receipt of encouragement from my peers as they helped me to
experience feelings of inclusivity. My participation in a course of curriculum, teaching, and
learning allowed me the opportunity to share my educational interests with other students which
offered the chance to include my passions within the classroom. As my peers and I shared our
interests with one another, we learned to welcome one another’s visions, beliefs, and

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

8

speculations rather than worrying about whether we succeeded or failed. As my classmates and I
learned to collaborate with one another through written formats we learned the value of
inclusivity within an academic environment. By reinforcing the notions of service, compassion,
and love, I experienced personal transformation as my courses in diversity and curriculum
development helped to transition me from depressive alienation to an attitude of companionate
inclusivity from my classmates as they listened to my journey from a primarily Christian
worldview towards one which also included various Buddhist practices. In choosing to receive
understanding, grace, and compassion from my classmates, I learned how to take ownership of
my beliefs which led me to perceive that changing, adapting, and transforming as students and
educators involves learning to guide ourselves and others away from alienation into inclusivity
by listening, understanding, and including those we are most prone towards discriminating
against (A. Desbiens & L. Sears, personal communication, January 21-29, 2022).
Learning the value of human differences in my M.Ed. program helped me to better
understand loneliness. As my classmates and I mindfully considered one another’s interests we
came to share reciprocal visions of mutual compassion which helped us to accept our differences
as unique opportunities to nurture one another’s needs. My classmates and I learned how to
validate, respect, and accommodate one another which helped to create a sense of belongingness
which reduced our experiences of loneliness (Guo, 2012, p. 9). My study of social realities
helped me to gain a new perspective involving my acceptance of the concept that when educators
accept differences in their students, both student and educator become more engrossed in one
another’s lives which helps to increase companionship and decrease isolation and consequent
loneliness (Noddings, 2005, p. 67). My study of diversity and social realities allowed me to
experience personal transformation as I shifted from a state of undergraduate loneliness to a state

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY
of companionship within my M.Ed. program. Dr. Cope Watson offered me her expertise while
also offering her mentorship. She first provided me with relational warmth and tenderness when
she knew I was suffering from depression. She especially chose to honor my wounded capacity
for creativity. On one particular occasion, she also mailed me a book from one of my favorite
Indigenous authors. What impacted me the most was how Dr. Cope-Watson provided me with a
handwritten note expressing her gift-giving kindness and thoughtfulness towards my continued
wellbeing (personal communication, April 14, 2022). I transformed from a man who was
bewitched by the rationalism of my undergraduate education to a man engrossed in the positive
valuing of an Other who helped me to value, protect, and nurture fragility within myself and
others. Dr. Cope-Watson helped me to feel the human breath of creativity, compassion, and the
warmth of heartfelt pedagogy (Noddings, 2016).
Learning to include my own lived experiences within my study of course design helped
me to develop my interest in meaninglessness. As I learned how to connect my life experiences
to my learning tasks, I began to acknowledge how assignments and assessments applied to my
life in a highly meaningful way. I learned how to challenge my old patterns of thinking, feeling,
and living once I was able to take responsibility for how my daily choices offered me the
opportunity for adaptation, change, and re-organization (Greene, 2017, p. 152). My study of the
philosophy and history of education also helped me to gain a new perspective that meaningless
learning is a near impossibility insofar as learner and educator develop and pursue their own
interests rather than either party feeling forced to study academic subjects against their will
(Gutek, 2015, p. 117-120). My combined exploration of course design and the philosophy and
history of education helped me to discover my own interests and values that I wanted to live by.
My participation in a course of counselling theories helped me to experience my transformation

9

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

10

from a life of meaninglessness to a life of meaning. I learned that the human ego can be
effectively re-centered away from itself towards something greater than itself and thereby
manifest meaningful experiences (Corey, 2021, section 5-2d). The more that I learned to assist
my classmates and educators with their tasks and self-explorations, the more I felt that I had
contributed to something greater than myself which left me with lasting feelings of satisfaction
and purpose (Balyer, 2012, p. 587). Rather than seeking to exclusively sate my own greed for
more, I sought to respond to the needs of others to help alleviate their confusion and suffering
(Harris, 2003, p. 20). The more I realized that my life was meaningful because it could be used to
serve something greater than itself, the less I worried about satisfying my own pursuits of
“maidens, dragons, and noble deeds” (Johnson, 1993, p. 55) and instead came to value who I was
and who my classmates and professors were for their own encouragement and development
(Boerema, 2011, p. 558; Corey, 2021; Spillane et al., 2004; Wright, 2008, p. 21).
The Significance of Alienation, Loneliness, and Meaninglessness
The study of alienation, loneliness, and meaningless is significant since the overrepresentation of thinking-function focused curriculum and cold student-teacher relationships
within academia results in the proliferation of alienated, lonely, and purposeless students
(Dewey, 1897, 1963, as cited in Noddings, 2005; Eisner, 1983, Glowacki-Dudka, 2018;
Noddings, 2005). If educators cannot show their students how their lives mean more than the
lowest satisfaction of their biological or rational pursuits then it will be an impossible task to
imbue the field of academia with meaning (Boerema, 2011, p. 558; Harris, 2003, p. 20; Spillane
et al., 2004; Wright, 2008, p. 21). Besides university and college students, it is also possible for
educators to experience alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness within collegial circles
absent of caring collaborative experiences (Leithwood & Beatty, 2008, p. 60-61). According to
Shuffelton (2012), students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, and queer also

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

11

tend to experience greater incidences of alienation and that friendly student-teacher relationships
can help to reduce such experiences of alienation (p. 222). Attempts at healing alienation,
loneliness, and meaninglessness within academia will not occur so long as students and
educators are only fed a diet of rationality in absentia of their existential concerns, interrogations
of the meaning of life, and creative dreams (De Troyes & Cline, 1985; Frankl, 2006; Hyytinen et
al., 2022; Johnson, 1993, 1989; Jung, 1933, 1989; Matthews, 2009; von Franz, 2008).
Argument: Student-Centered Curricula and Warm Student-Teacher Relationships are
Central to the Care of Post-Secondary Students
I claim that shifting alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness into inclusivity,
companionship, and meaningfulness requires the application of attentive, inventive, and
imaginative student-centered curricula alongside friendly student-teacher relationships. My claim
is based on the findings that negligence of learner needs and interests decreases mutual
authenticity, compassion, understanding, creativity, and respect (Noddings, 2005). The discovery
of meaning and companionship in the lives of university students is also dependent upon the
presence of warm and friendly student-teacher relationships since exposure to cold, inattentive,
and unimaginative relationships leads to higher incidences of unproductivity, loneliness,
alienation, and meaninglessness (Noddings, 2005; Johnson, 1993, 1989). The connection
between student-centered curricula and greater expressions of creativity and meaning is based
upon research linking the lived experiences of students to pedagogy by authors such as Eisner
(1983), Dewey (1897, 1963, as cited in Noddings, 2005), Glowacki-Dudka (2018), and Noddings
(2005). The link between the experience of warm human relationships and increased
productivity, companionship, and meaningful existence is based on research connecting the
existential needs of humans to student-teacher relationships by authors such as Johnson (1993,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

12

1989), Jung (1933, 1989), Frankl (2006, 1986), de Troyes and Cline (1985), Hyytinen et al.,
(2022), von Franz (2008), and Matthews (2009).
The Path Ahead
…go straight on through this forest thick, and watch for every branch and stick which we
have knotted, which we bent with our own hands, because we meant each knotted branch
to show the way, so nobody would go astray (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 171).
Chapter one primarily concerned the explicit description of my academic journey through
undergraduate and graduate school. Chapter one also communicated my significant interests
within the realm of academia and how my argument and significance lead into my literature
review’s description of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness due to a lack of
responsiveness from my professors to my personal stressors and psychological concerns
alongside a lack of curriculum which connected to my lived experiences. My intention
throughout chapter one was to ensure that my reader was cognizant of my personal experiences
of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness. By displaying my interpersonal relationships with
my colleagues and educators, I hope my reader has recognized my desire to continue researching
potential methods of increasing classroom inclusivity, belonging, and meaningfulness.
Chapter two begins with an introduction, a research question, and a list of objectives and
intentions for the reader to follow. The literature review then provides a description of the history
of wounded feeling-function within Western academia and contains a survey of the limits of
rationality. Chapter two then proceeds through respective descriptions of how to best support
student-centered curriculum, friendly student-teacher relationships, and an engrossing classroom
environment. Context is provided for potential risks and concerns against the use of studentcentered curriculum, friendly student-teacher relationships, and mutually engrossing classroom
environments in order to provide academic balance. Brief explanation of feeling-function

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

13

focused qualities is provided in order to provide readers with better knowledge of the importance
of attentiveness, creativity, imagination, and friendship within post-secondary settings. Exploring
the qualities of attentiveness, inventiveness, imaginativeness, warmth, and tenderness allow for
better understanding of how educators can foster nurturing relationships with their students.
Chapter three concerns an exploration of practical applications of student-centered
curriculum. Exploring practical applications of student-centered curriculum and friendly studentteacher relationships within chapter three will better allow the reader to perceive how
educational theory can be effectively applied to help increase the aforementioned possibility of
mutually engrossing classroom environments. Chapter three does not include practical
suggestions for re-designing classroom environments since my paper focuses on how curriculum
and pedagogy create engrossing classroom environments themselves. Future directives are
provided in chapter four as to areas of research where educators may seek to influence their
classroom environments to best benefit their students. Exploring how life contexts and classroom
contexts influence the application of practical strategies to increase the success of studentcentered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships allows the reader to identify the
high levels of attunement that educators must practice each and every day. Chapter three
includes descriptions of simplistic means of attaching curriculum to learner lived experiences
and how best to help students to experience rapport and encouragement from their teachers.
Chapter four primarily concerns a discussion of how meaningful learning can occur in the
context of understanding personal experiences, research, and practical applications. Chapter four
provides a recap of the Arthurian romance story Perceval, or, The Story of the Grail (de Troye &
Cline, 1985) alongside a recap and reaffirmation of my argument. Providing connections
between chapter one, two, and three provides the reader with a more identifiable means of

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

14

witnessing the success of my argument while also taking into consideration the limitations and
research suggestions for the future. Chapter four concludes with my own personal
contemplations about my education journey and my research with an ultimate statement of
encouragement for future post-secondary learners and educators.
Chapter Two: Literature Review
Introduction
Alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness are expressions of wounded feeling-function
and are under studied within the discipline of education. Educational institutions have largely
failed to attune to the lived experiences of university students (Farrell, 2020, p. 1). Rather than
alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness occurring on account of a lack of rational
information, such phenomena occur due to the absence of ontological teaching (pp. 2-3). A
renewed effort is needed on behalf of universities to attune to the narratives of learners inside
and outside of the classroom in order to determine how their lived experiences connect to their
curriculum (Critchley, 2009, as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 4). Teacher-centered approaches
unfairly neglect the interests, desires, needs, and quests for meaning which students so often
strive to discover which therefore provides impetus for the implementation of both studentcentered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships (Brophy, 2006, as cited in Mpho,
2018, p. 12; Tabulawa, 2006, as cited in Mpho, 2018, p. 12; Cristillo, 2010, as cited in Mpho,
2018; Noddings, 2005, p. 64; Dewey, 1963, as cited in Noddings, 2005, p. 166).
Objectives
This literature review is guided by the following research question: What are the benefits
and risks to university students if educators shift from an attitude of disinterest, inattention, and
cold-heartedness into an attitude of interest, attention, and warm-heartedness where university
student experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness are accepted, acknowledged,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

15

and honored? This review seeks to explore studies that have employed student-centered
approaches of instruction along with a further discussion of the resulting impacts of providing
warmth and friendship to students. I will begin with a historical examination of wounded feelingfunction within the framework of pedagogy. I will then shift into a greater exploration of how
student-centered curriculum alongside warm and friendly student-teacher relationships assist
students in transitioning from feelings of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness towards
inclusion, companionship, and meaningful learning. By reviewing representative qualities of
student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships, we will be able to
effectively insight what we currently understand about pedagogy versus what we would like to
begin practicing pedagogically for the benefit of students.
Understanding the Wounded Feeling-Function of the West
With the desire to determine the benefits and risks of student-centered curriculum and
friendly student-teacher relationships with educational systems, a historical understanding of the
concept of wounded feeling-function is essential. While feeling is defined as “the capacity to
value or to give worth to something” (Johnson, 1993, p. 15), feeling-function is the expression of
feeling in practical life and the health of an individual’s feeling-function is witnessed in
proportion to the degree that the individual feels relationally attuned and warmed with others (p.
15). The study of feeling-function within academia is of significance since the more a student
attains proficiency in thought for the sake of achievement, the more likely it is that they will
experience alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness on account of their feelings being
subjugated (Johnson, 1989, p. 28).
Preference for instructional methods conducive to the rational transmission of knowledge
has resulted in the collective and individual wounding of feeling-function within 20th and 21st
century (Johnson, 1993, p. 12, 18, 21; Puk, 1996, p. 120). While preference for rational learning,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

16

discourse, and social development is effective in producing “most of the high value of our life”
and exists as “that cool faculty which brings clarity and objectivity” (Johnson, 1993, p. 15), we
lose all grace, good feeling, valuing, worth, and capacity for supplying our own value
judgements to the world (Johnson, 1993, p. 15; von Franz, 2008, p. 12). A lack of feeling and
friendly relationship with university students is also implicated as a source of mass departure of
educators from the teaching profession within the last 50 years (Manuel, 2003, as cited in
Matthews, 2009, p. 103).
While Jung (1933) promoted a holistic approach to psychological development, Husserl
(1998) promoted a dualistic approach to human development (as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 2)
which primarily focused on what humans “know about the world” rather than focusing on “what
it means to be in the world” (p. 2). Focusing on knowing about the world rather than helping
students to understand the meaning of their existence in the world thereby contributed to the 21st
century preference for dualistic thinking which tends to dissociate meaning from learning
experience (p. 2). The notion that academia’s preference for dualistic thinking tends to dissociate
meaning away from learning experiences (Husserl, 1998, as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 2) is further
supported by von Franz (2008) who argues that it is the excessive historical application of
rational thought and objectivity which effectively creates conditions necessary for the removal of
feeling, personal inclusion, companionship, and valuing within interpersonal dynamics (p. 1011). While traditional teacher-centered approaches to teaching and instruction adhere to the
belief “that learning involves rational processes to the exclusion of all else” (Miller & Seller,
1990, as cited in Puk, 1996, p. 120), such employment of rationality as the sole source of
academic profit will only lead to the progressive disrespect for students as human beings with
their own unique sets of values (von Franz, 2008, p. 11). Unless universities and educators begin

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

17

to create opportunities for honoring learner needs for inclusion, companionship, and meaning,
students will continue to feel alienated, lonely, and meaningless (p. 11). Educators and
universities are consequently misguided in their attempts at providing students with rational
solutions to existential issues which require an entirely novel way of studying and navigating the
world since rationality alone does not have the authority to holistically guide students into
meaningful existence, caring, and inclusivity (von Franz, 2008, p. 14; Farrell, 2020, p. 2-3).
Jung (1973a) hereby suggests that Western academia has become “too lopsidedly intellectual and
rational” and that educators have “forgotten that there are factors that cannot be influenced by a
one-track intellect” (as cited in von Franz, 2008, p. 14).
What has been so often forgotten in the history of education is it has always been “an
understanding heart [that] is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough”
(Jung, 1943, 1954, as cited in Matthews, 2009, p. 105). While students and educators alike look
“back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers” they ultimately look back “with gratitude to
those who touched [their] human feelings” (Jung, 1943, 1954, as cited in Matthews, 2009, p.
105). Where education has too singularly adhered to rational discourses of objectivity, perhaps
educators in the latter half of the 21st century and beyond will begin to pay attention to the
nurturance of the hearts and minds of students. Through such nurturance both student and
educator will learn something not only of one another but of the fact that they both matter (von
Franz, 2008, p. 12; Matthews, 2009, p. 104).
Summary
To better represent a holistic approach to education which promotes the well-being of
students requires educators attend to the “creative spiritual, non-materialistic view of reality as a
whole” (von Franz, 2008, p. 14). In this view, von Franz (2008) argues that students are not only
respected based on their rational assessment of achievement but also for their attunement of

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

18

feeling with one another, their teachers, and their world (p. 14). A greater provision of teachercentered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships is therefore the beginning point of
helping students to see reality for what it truly is. When students learn to feel embodied within
the world and learn to differentiate their feelings from mental abstractions they will then avoid
feeling alienated, isolated, and split from meaningful experiences (p. 10-11).
So long as rationalism dominates discourse and pedagogy, and so long as the existential
questions of students are ignored, the eradication of feeling within the West will continue to
destroy the meaningfulness of everyday life (von Franz, 2008, p. 14). It is each student’s preexisting orientation within the world, their interpretation of the world, and their contextual
histories which not only color their classroom experiences but also provides them with unique
meanings for them to realize (Heidegger, 1928, 1999, as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3). It is through
inclusive, companionate, and meaningful student-centered pedagogy and student-teacher
relationships where students are nurtured into focusing on their experiences. Students come to
accept that dishonest forms of education are those which abstract ideas away from lived
experiences and that meaningful, genuine, and holistic education concerns their capacity to live
completely as individual and collective beings who live in the world and who therefore learn
through attaching their curriculum to their life contexts and experiences (Farrell, 2020, p. 4; von
Franz, 2008, p. 15).
Supporting Student-Centered Curriculum Within Education
Educators and universities who provide curriculum attuned to the needs, interests, and
lived experiences of their students produce more consistently skilled, creative, and productive
students (Eisner, 1983, p. 130-131). Through the alignment of curriculum with student needs and
life experiences, educators will begin to heal any presence of wounded feeling-function as they

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

19

come to validate student effort in accordance with value judgements (p. 132). Reinforcing each
student’s unique aesthetic and narrative preferences consequently helps to nurture their need for
creativity and free expression (p. 132). In comparison, teacher-centered curriculum conveys the
rote memorization of course content without inclusion of student concerns which cannot satisfy
student needs to feel a companionate sense of inclusion within learning processes (p. 133).
When educators pay attention and include the life contexts of students within the
classroom, students are better provided with the freedom to make their own decisions as to what
they feel is involved within a meaningful existence (Eisner, 1983, p. 132; Heidegger, n.d., as
cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3). When students feel that they have the freedom to make their own
decisions, they live with the burden of their responsibility and how their choices influence their
life outcomes (Eisner, 1983, p. 132). Students end up feeling that their learning is more
meaningful as they discover how the events in their lives have shaped their past and present (p.
132). The more that educators provide student-centered curriculum, which is inventive and
linked to student experience, the more that educators will be able to help their students to see the
metaphoric and poetic beauty of their histories (p. 132).
When educators choose to practice attunement, students become more interested in the
content they are learning since they feel that they are seen and heard (Matthews, 2009, p. 107).
Student-centered curriculum decreases meaninglessness when educators choose to act as
mediators between curriculum and learners since learners learn to connect even traumatic life
events to their learning journey which grants them with a sense of purpose. When university
educators are in touch with their own feelings, they end up expressing love for their scholarly
disciplines which helps to inspire students to also feel passion for their interests (Dewey, 1897, p.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

20

37). It is therefore important to realize that student needs, interests, and life experiences are the
points at which the student is directed towards a life purpose greater than themselves.
Paradoxically, attunement to student needs and interests through the provision of studentcentered curriculum is intentional towards the discovery of where each student feels inspired to
lead, learn, and create. In determining the interests of a student, the educator may further guide
the student to direct their passion beyond their own egoic desires. It is when the student is
directed towards a curious exploration of their own beautiful truths where they discover their
belongingness and meaningfulness within the world (Shuffelton, 2012, p. 218). The more that
students feel that they are active participants within the world and their curriculum, the more that
they feel that they are recognized, engaged, connected, and valued as persons which ultimately
results in greater accounts of felt inclusion, belonging, and meaning (Eisner, 1983; Farrell, 2020,
p. 3; Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2017, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64; Heidegger,
n.d., as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3; Noddings, 2012b, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p.
64).
Scholarly Resistance to Student-Centered Curriculum
Koenig and Marshall (n.d.) argue that student-centered curriculum cannot be effectively
applied due to Western academia’s propensity for applying performance-based educational
models and grade scores as metrics “for student success” (as cited in Rangachari & Johnson,
2020, p. 14, 16). Boughey (2012) argues that student-centered curriculum should be resisted by
educators since it is biased towards the quantitative assessment of individual students as though
they were objects to be measured rather than seeking to determine subjective social factors which
may be impinging on their psycho-educational development (as cited in McKenna, 2013, p. 2).
Gee (2000) argues that student-centered curriculum should not be used within university settings

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

21

since higher education is already biased towards researching the “attributes of students” (as cited
in McKenna, 2014, p. 3) with neglect for the study of social contexts, institutional contexts, and
subject matter themselves (as cited in McKenna, 2013, p. 3). Not only is it argued that studentcentered curriculum has a tendency to ignore social and institutional impingements to learning,
but it also has a tendency to neglect the study of subjects, topics, themes, and disciplines for their
own sake (Gee, 2000, as cited in McKenna, 2013, p. 3; Maton, 2000a, 2000b, as cited in
McKenna, 2013, p. 2).
Supporting Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships Within Education
The provision of friendly student-teacher relationships is an essential aspect of caring for
the well-being of university students. The absence of interpersonal warmth between students and
teachers results in greater incidences of misunderstanding, disrespect, and lack of appreciation
(Shuffelton, 2012, p. 212). The formation of friendly student-teacher relationships allows for
students to absorb course content through a lens of care which metaphorically warms the
transmission of knowledge between student and teacher. When students feel warmth of
relationship and are simultaneously provided novel information, they are more likely to retain the
meaning of their course content and experience psychic growth (Dewey, 1897, p. 37). If course
content is communicated in the absence of feelings of warmth and friendship, the student is more
likely to feel that their learning endeavors are inherently meaningless (p. 37).
In assessing student-teacher relationships, it is important to ask the following question:
What does a friendly student-teacher relationship feel like? It is expected that friendly studentteacher relationships involve the sharing of passion, joy, activity, creativity, and cooperation
where the student and their teacher live with purpose towards the betterment of their mutual
pursuit of knowledge and friendship (Shuffelton, 2012, p. 214). A further question: What is a

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

22

mutually informed relationship? (p. 214). The answer is found in determining that insofar as
educators are capable of forming alliances with their students, such students will become
intrinsically motivated to pursue a shared vision alongside their teacher. The more that both
parties learn how to manage democratic interactions with one another, the more they will learn
the valuable lessons of “with whom friendship is possible, and what friendship entails, and how
to carry it off” (p. 212).
As students learn how to manage friendly alliances with their teachers they learn about
companionship and how academic friendships can be used to increase accountability,
responsibility, and the sharing of burdens. With the student’s discovery that they are responsible
for something or someone greater than themselves, they not only experience less alienation but
also experience how the bond of friendship provides meaning within a no longer isolated
existence (Johnson, 1993, p. 57-58; Shuffelton, 2012, p. 212). It is not the educational gaze
between student and teacher which is the end in itself, rather, the goal is for the student and
teacher to recognize one another and come to see the world through one another’s inquisitive
eyes in the hopes of discovering something new (Hawkins, 2002, as cited in Shuffelton, 2012, p.
221).
A major goal of student-centered curriculum and warm student-teacher relationships is to
ensure that the educator learns where each student’s interests are directing them to strive, work,
and live towards a purpose beyond where they currently are. Educators therefore have the
opportunity to help their students to interrogate how their interests and relationships are directing
them to even greater meanings and purposes than just the development of knowledge and
friendship (Hawkins, 2002, as cited in Shuffelton, 2012, p. 221). When students know that their
teachers care about their well-being they are more likely to persist through difficult moments of

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

23

learning since the relationship itself represents a unified point of strength from which the student
can anchor themselves and ask for help (Dewey, 1963, as cited in Noddings, 2005, p. 166;
Noddings, 2005, p. 64). Not only does the presence of a friendly and relationally warm studentteacher connection therefore increase the experiences of inclusion and belonging, but it also
allows for the student to meaningfully persist and face challenges. It is the presence of warm
friendships which introduce both student and teacher to what life feels like. It is warmth and the
bond of friendship which grants students meaning in the face of their trials as they learn to live
for something, even if it is only the bond of friendship which they believe is worth fighting for
(Shuffelton, 2012, p. 221).
Scholarly Resistance to Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships
Since an educator has a natural propensity for intellectual authority they are often placed
in optimal positions for exerting authority over their students which would destroy the potential
for bonds to form (Shuffelton, 2011, p. 85). It is also argued that friendly student-teacher
relationships should not be used within classrooms since it is argued that teachers who maintain
friendships with their students will naturally develop partiality which would ruin academic rigor
and equitable assessment (p. 85). Shuffelton (2012) also contends that friendly student-teacher
relationships should not be used within academic settings since it is argued that striving to
maintain friendships distracts from the pursuit of learning goals (p. 215). It is suggested by
Shuffelton (2012) that when students focus on their teachers as their primary sources of
inspiration may lead to a failure of education since students may become obsessed with their
teacher as their sole source of inspiration and thereby forget to search for their own pathways,
insights, and inspirations (p. 219).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

24

Supporting Mutually Engrossing Classroom Climates Within Education
Not only does modern academia have a propensity towards neglecting student-centered
learning and relationships but it also neglects the formation of engrossing classroom climates.
The absence of classrooms inclusive of caring, curiosity, and engagement only furthers the
destruction of learning opportunities for university students (Miller & Seller, 1990, as cited in
Puk, 1996, p. 120; Dewey, 1897, p. 35; Arpianinen et al., 2013, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et
al., 2018, p. 63). In assessing the health of classroom environments, it is important we ask
ourselves the following question: What would an engrossing classroom feel like? Matthews
(2009) states that mutually engrossing classrooms are those classrooms which are imbued with
feelings of warmth (p. 108). Engrossing classrooms are those which contain open dialogical
spaces where students feel free to express themselves to their teachers. It is therefore suggested
that educators encourage their students to express themselves in the bond of the friendly studentteacher relationship. Both student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships
are exposed to dialogic paths which help to increase collaboration and decrease conflict (p. 110).
Research conducted by Trickey and Moos (1974) discovered that classrooms which were
highly representative of mutual engrossment between teachers and students resulted in
significantly higher feelings of interdependent security and safety (as cited in Goetz et al., 2021,
p. 3). The more that students feel that their classrooms represent safety and security, the more
they will communicate their desires to their teachers which will help to increase the degree to
which teachers can respond with inclusivity, acceptance, and respect (Glowacki-Dudka, et al.,
2018, p. 65; Brookfield, 2011, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 65; Imel, 1999, as
cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 65).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

25

Mutually engrossing classrooms are those which contain educators who are fully inspired
by their subjects and who model investigative passion to their students. When students witness
their teachers and peers passion for their interests and relationships, it is more likely that such
students will behave with curiosity, invention, and imagination (Matthews, 2009, p. 108). The
consequent outcome of providing students with student-centered curriculum and friendly
student-teacher relationships is that entire university classrooms experience greater inclusivity,
belonging, companionship, and meaningfulness alongside decreased incidences of destructive
classroom behavior (Jung, 1964, as cited in Matthews, 2009, p. 107-108).
Scholarly Resistance to Mutually Engrossing Classroom Environments
Resistance to the creation and maintenance of engrossing classroom climates involves the
argument that Noddings (2005) concept of engrossment with its inclination towards nonjudgement and “non-selective receptivity” is both discriminatory and dehumanizing (p. 67;
Lorde, 1982, 1984, as cited in Hoagland, 1990, p. 111). The argument that engrossment
represents the fullness of interrelationship is countered through the contention that it is only
through a student having the capacity for separation and re-connection which allows them the
freedom to explore and return to their teacher with newfound courage and trust (Lorde, 1982,
1984, as cited in Hoagland, 1990, p. 111). Rather than attempting to keep learners entirely
engrossed all of the time through the attention and friendship within student-centered curriculum
and student-teacher relationships, learner development requires that students have the freedom to
separate since the qualities and actions of withdrawal, dignity, decency, and propriety create the
distance necessary for the student to realize how their own Otherness as well as the Otherness of
peers and teachers (Lorde, 1982, 1984, as cited in Hoagland, 1990, p. 111; Han, 2017, p. 29).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

26

Summary of Support & Counterarguments to Student-Centered Curriculum, Friendly
Student-Teacher Relationships, and Mutually Engrossing Classroom Environments
In Glowacki-Dudka et al. (2017), attention, invention, and imagination within university
classrooms promote inclusivity, belonging, and meaningful learning (as cited in GlowackiDudka et al., 2018, p. 64); in Noddings (2012b), attention, listening, and receptivity to student
needs helps students to feel valued (as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64; GlowackiDudka, et al., 2017); and in Heidegger (n.d.), the more that university student lived experiences
were tied to course content, the more students believed that their lives were meaningful (as cited
in Farrell, 2020, p. 3).
In Shuffelton (2012), friendly student-teacher relationships create a greater sense of
meaning in the lives of university students as they feel that they have a greater purpose through
the bond of friendship (p. 214); in Johnson (1993), friendly student-teacher relationships create
meaning in the lives of university students as relationships represent a purpose greater than
themselves (p. 57-58); and in Noddings (2005), Johnson (1993), Dewey (1963), and Shuffelton
(2012), friendly student-teacher relationships decrease alienation and loneliness as students learn
to anchor themselves, depend upon one another, and ask for help from their educators while also
maintaining bonds of friendship (p. 64; p. 57-58; as cited in Noddings, 2005, p. 166; p. 221).
In Matthews (2009), engrossing classroom environments create a greater sense of
interpersonal warmth which decreases alienation and loneliness through the bi-directional
exchange of care (p. 108-110); in Trickett and Moos (1974), Glowacki-Dudka, et al. (2018),
Brookfield (2011), Imel (1999), and Guzzardo et al. (2020) engrossing classroom environments
create experiences of dialogical safety which help to increase learner experiences of support and
validation for their lived experiences which assists students in accepting their educators beliefs
that their lives as students are meaningful, worthy, and valuable of receiving care, attention,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

27

respect, and investment (as cited in Goetz et al., 2021, p. 3; p. 65; as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et
al., 2018, p. 65; as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 65; p. 49; Henriksen, 2010, as cited
in Abbasi & Hadabi, 2014, p. 6).
Koenig and Marshall (n.d.) argue that student-centered curriculum cannot be
authentically applied within the Western academic world which is firmly bound to standardsbased assessments practices (as cited in Rangachari & Johnson, 2020). Boughey (2012) and Gee
(2000) argue that student-centered curriculum dangerously supports meritocracy and systems of
inequity within universities while neglecting social factors which may be negatively contributing
to the experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaningless in the lives of university students
(as cited in Mckenna, 2013, p. 2-3). Maton (2000a, 2000b) also argues that warm studentcentered pedagogies neglect the support of academic disciplines for the sake of supporting
individual students which leads to a neglect of knowledge creation for its own sake (as cited in
McKenna, 2013, p. 2). Shuffelton (2011, 2012) argues that teacher-student relationships are
dangerous due to the potential emergence of careless educators who exert power over their
students, who create impartiality within their classrooms, and who value the development of
friendship above learning process (p. 84; p. 215).
Feeling-Function Focused Pedagogy and Qualities in Education
Thus far, one of the primary intents of this literature review has been recognizing the
academic neglect of student interest, need, and meaningful experience while also seeking to
better establish how the benefits and risks of student-centered curriculum and warm studentteacher relationships influence learning environments (Eisner, 1983, pp. 130-131; Gee, 2000, as
cited in McKenna, 2013, p. 3; Han, 2017, p. 29; Hawkins, 2002, as cited in Shuffelton, 2012, p.
221; Jung, 1964, as cited in Matthews, 2009, p. 107-108; Lorde, 1982, 1984, as cited in

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

28

Hoagland, 1990, p. 111; Maton, 2000a, 2000b, as cited in McKenna, 2013, p. 2; Shuffelton,
2011, p. 85). The further determination that a “too lopsidedly intellectual and rational” approach
to education fundamentally predisposes university students toward experiences of alienation,
loneliness, and meaninglessness (Jung, n.d., as cited in von Franz, 2008, p. 14) further demands
that educators no longer exclude the life of experiences of students from curriculum (Farrell,
2020, p. 2). Learning to no longer dissociate meaning from learning experience (p. 2) is therefore
of penultimate importance for university educators. Examining the qualities of attentiveness,
creativity, imagination, and relational warmth will provide further understanding as to how
student-centered curriculum and warm student-teacher relationships reduce learner experiences
of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness.
Attentiveness
Attentiveness is described as the specific direction of attention “between a student, the
evidence they produce, and the teacher” (Mo, et al., 2021, p. 11). Attentiveness may be
demonstrated by educators who choose to help students to connect their lived experiences to
their course content through think-pair-share activities or self-reflective activities (Keller, et al.,
2020, p. 2). The greater extent to which learner life contexts are attached to course content, the
more course content becomes meaningfully internalized (p. 3). The quality of attentiveness is
especially important within student-centered curriculum since students can gain “meaningful
academic knowledge” as they feel responded to which decreases their experiences of alienation,
loneliness, and meaninglessness while simultaneously experiencing greater accounts of “trust,
respect, compassion, [and] relations of reciprocity” (del Carmen Salazar, 2013, as cited in Tan,
2022, p. 2, 4).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

29

Creativity
Creativity is defined as any behavior or outcome that is both “novel” and “appropriate”
(Miller, 2018, as cited in Brown, 1989; Runco & Jaeger, 2012, p. 88). Creativity is an important
quality of student-centered curriculum since it is course designers and instructors who in their
curricular designs and presentations can shape the creative output of their students (Miller, 2018,
p. 89). Allowing students to respond to curriculum with their own interests, lived experiences,
and creative expressions allows for students to reduce their experiences of alienation, loneliness,
and meaningless as they share their stories and ultimately “ease the suffering they feel” (Dewey,
1897, p. 36; Kellman, 2008, p. 114). Increasing the creative freedom of students therefore allows
students to avoid feeling alienated from themselves and others as they share their passions and
receive validation from their peers (Eisner, 1983, p. 133). The more that university students are
granted the freedom to share their creativity with one another, the more they will come to
appreciate themselves and their creative works which allows them to avoid coercion and
discover their own unique answers to what provides their lives with wholeness and meaning
(Noddings, 2005, p. 67, 74-76).
Imagination
Imagination is defined as the “capacity to conceive of what is not – something that, as far
as we know, does not exist; or something that may exist but we simply cannot perceive. It is the
ability to conjure new realities and possibilities” (Liu & Noppe-Brandon, 2009, p. 19). The
application of imagination in both the creation of student-centered curriculum and the
expectancy for students to respond to their curriculum with imagination is of utmost importance
since imagination itself allows students to both consider new realities while also creating anew
(p. 19). In the absence of imagination, neither students nor educators are capable of considering

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

30

new possibilities, new ideas, or actions. In the same way that students are capable of imagining
themselves in alienated, lonely, and meaningless forms of existence, it is also possible for
students to imagine themselves in situations where they may be included, welcomed, and where
they may support a purpose, meaning, or vision beyond themselves (Enlow & Popa, 2008, p. 24,
as cited in Odom, et al., 2015, p. 131; Wenger, 1998, p. 178, as cited in Odom, et al., 2015, p.
131).
Warmth & Friendship
Relational warmth and friendship within student-teacher relationships occurs through a
shared experience of openness by way of mutual attention, understanding, and self-giving
(Bordin, 1968, as cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333; Krasner, 1955, as cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333;
Raush & Bordin, 1957, as cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333; Truax & Carkhuff, 1967, as cited in
Bayes, 1972, p. 333; Johnson, 1993, p. 18, 57, 58; Shuffelton, 2012, p. 212). Jung (n.d.) argues
that while “the curriculum is so much necessary raw material” (as cited in Matthews, 2009, p.
105) it is relational warmth that “is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the
child” (p. 105). Since the occurrence of warm and friendly student-teacher relationships tend to
decline within post-secondary academic environments (Eccles & Midgley, 1989, as cited in
Freeman, et al., 2007, p. 206; Feldlaufer, Midgley, & Eccles, 1988, as cited in Freeman, et al.,
2007, p. 206; Gheen, Hruda, Middleton, & Midgley, 2000, as cited in Freeman, et al., 2007, p.
206; Midgley et al., 2002, as cited in Freeman, et al., 2007, p. 206), the inclusion of warmth and
friendship within student-teacher relationships is necessary since the more that students
experience feelings of warmth and support, the less they will experience alienation and
loneliness (Solomon, et al., 1997, as cited in Freeman, et al., 2007, p. 205).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

31

Summary
Educators who are capable of providing attention, creativity, and freedom of imagination
to their students will necessarily promote inclusivity, belonging, and meaningful learning as
student interests, personalities, and lived experiences are given value by themselves and their
teachers (Keller, et al., 2020, p. 2-3; del Carmen Salazar, 2013, as cited in Tan, 2022, p. 2, 4;
Enlow & Popa, 2008, p. 24, as cited in Odom, et al., 2015, p. 131; Wenger, 1998, p. 178, as cited
in Odom, et al., 2015, p. 131). Bonds of friendship within academia provides students with
security, resilience, and encouragement to express their passions and to overcome the daily
challenges of life alongside their peers and teachers (Johnson, 1993, p. 57-58; Shuffelton, 2012,
p. 212; Noddings, 2005, p. 64; Dewey, 1963, as cited in Noddings, 2005, p. 166). Helping
university students towards the self-realization that their interests and relationships are guiding
them towards a purpose or meaning greater than themselves better allows them to perceive how
their lives can be necessarily meaningful through the practices of self-giving, self-sacrifice,
attention, and care which their educators had modelled to them (Matthews, 2009, p. 107-108).
I am reminded of Saint Francis of Assisi whose petition was that “where there is hatred,
let [us] sow love” and as educators my hope is that “may [we] not so much seek to be consoled
as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love” for “it is in giving that
we receive” (Allen, 2022, p. 12). My hope is that in the same way that Saint Francis focused on
the Other that university educators will learn to help, care, and nurture their students towards the
acceptance of themselves and others as they pursue their passions and live in the hope of
becoming the educators they wish they had.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

32

Chapter Three: Application
Aims
Responsive teaching strategies receptive to post-secondary experiences of alienation,
loneliness, and meaninglessness are important since it is understood that if a teacher can form a
“healthy pedagogic relationship to their students” their students will be less likely to believe that
their studies are superficial while maintaining a depth of trustful learning (Matthews, 2009, p.
105). Evaluating how individual life contexts and collective classroom contexts shape the
intended implementation of student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher
relationships allows for a better consideration of simple teaching strategies which help to reduce
alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness (Farrell, 2020, p. 1). Holistic education cannot thrive
without the inclusion of attention, creativity, imagination, meaningfulness, and relational warmth
within student-centered curriculum and student-teacher relationships (Miller, 2021, p. 16). Since
human differences are inescapable, it is the university educator’s responsibility to utilize
particularities as opportunities for tailoring curriculum and student-teacher dynamics to students
(Frankl, 1986, p. 71).
This application chapter is divided into two main parts. The first half of the application
chapter covers required considerations of student-centered curriculum, how to attune to students
through student-centered curriculum, identifying life contexts which influence the success of
student-centered curriculum, and summary statements of how student-centered curriculum helps
to heal alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness. The second half of the chapter covers
required considerations of friendly student-teacher relationships, how to attune to students
through friendship, identifying life contexts which influence the formation of friendly student-

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

33

teacher relationships and summary statements of how friendly student-teacher relationships help
to heal alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness.
Considerations for Student-Centered Curriculum
Supportive curriculum allows educators to increase their dynamic, flexible, and adaptive
responses to students’ cultures, religions, social dynamics, and family contexts (Critchley, 2009,
as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 4). When due consideration is given to students’ life contexts, it is
more likely that educators will be perceptive of how to apply teaching strategies which focus on
their students’ individual needs and interests (Emes & Cleveland-Innes, 2003, p. 60). Working to
identify each individual student’s unique background helps educators to also understand how
student-centered curriculum shapes the aforementioned creation of an engrossing classroom
environment and how such curriculum within classrooms influences student’s learning since a
student’s interpretation of the classroom can affect the degree to which they are motivated to
collaborate with their peers (Mead, 1934, as cited in Emes & Cleveland-Innes, 2003, p. 51;
Glowacki-Dudka, et al., 2018, p. 65; Brookfield, 2011, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018,
p. 65; Imel, 1999, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 65). Exploring how unique student
life contexts and university classroom environments can affect the implementation of studentcentered curriculum is essential since it is assumed that one form of student-centered curriculum
is not universal to all student populations (Emes & Cleveland-Innes, 2003, p. 63).
Attunement, Life Contexts, and Increasing the Success of Student-Centered Curriculum
The process of developing individualized plans for how student-centered curriculum can
be applied within university contexts begins with attuning to the life contexts of university
students. It is important to maintain an attitude of adaptation to student diversity and interest
within equally diverse forms of curriculum design since the “heart of the teaching-learning

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

34

process” is attuning to the needs and interests of students (Pelech, 2021, p. 10; Hunt, 1976, p.
168, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 10). One of the best methods of increasing student-teacher
attunement to the life contexts of students is to employ the use of self-reflection and
summarization of course content which helps to “facilitate comprehension and knowledge”
(Dobbins, 1996, as cited Pelech, 2021, p. 24; Martin & Ertzberger, 2016, as cited in Pelech,
2021, p. 26; Dean et al., 2012, as cited in Pelech, p. 63; Fiorella & Mayer, 2015, as cited Pelech,
2021, p. 63). While a detailed discussion of self-reflective journalling is provided in a following
section, self-reflective activities help students to connect their interests to their coursework
which helps to increase intrinsic motivation as they become more motivated to direct their
energies towards the accomplishment of their own missions and goals (Ambrose et al., 2010, p.
83). When university students know how their learning activities and introductory courses
provide them with the opportunity to interdependently discover the knowledge necessary to
complete advanced coursework, they will ultimately attain the awareness of the overall relevance
of their learning tasks and how they are headed towards a life-long mission of learning (p. 84;
Frankl, 1986, p. 54).
Attuning to Classroom Environments to Utilize Student-Centered Curriculum
While attunement is a necessary quality of student-centered curriculum there is an
undoubted neglect of how school environments also shape the accountability and responsibility
of students (Van Acker & Wehby, 2000, para. 3). The most successful students are most often
those who learn to use nurturing classroom environments to their advantage rather than using
grace from an instructor as an excuse to avoid responsibility and hard work (Wang et al., 1993,
as cited in Van Acker & Wehby, 2000, para. 8; Epstein et al., 1989, as cited Van Acker &
Wehby, 2000, para. 8; Kauffman, 1997, as cited in Van Acker & Wehby, 2000, para. 8; Loeber,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

35

1990, as cited in Van Acker & Wehby, 2000, para. 8). Since classroom environments change
with demographic dynamics, it is important for university educators to direct the particularities
of curriculum to “the specific context of a specific class” without generalization or stereotype
(Ball & Cohen, 1999, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 10; Efron & Ravid, 2013, as cited Pelech,
2021, p. 10). Aligning the classroom culture to current events outside of the classroom can be
one means of showing students how classroom composition affects their learning and how their
learning within the classroom has real-world implications as they learn how that which they learn
within the classroom also applies without (Ambrose, 2010, p. 83).
Strategies to Implement Student-Centered Curriculum
Self-reflective journaling activities are shown to produce higher academic achievement
during assessments, better problem-solving, and greater self-understanding of personal feelings
for university students (Mo et al., 2021, p. 11; Keller et al., 2020, p. 2; Dobbins, 1996, as cited in
Pelech, 2021, p. 24; Martin & Ertzberger, 2016, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 26). During my
M.Ed. program I was required to complete weekly Currere activities which were specifically
designed to allow me to use my past experiences and my journals as a means of understanding
the influence of my past and present experiences on the creation of a better future (Pinar, 1994,
p. 19, 21, 24-26). The beautiful thing about my participation in my Currere activities within my
course in curriculum, teaching, and learning was how Dr. Karen Densky taught me that there is
no right or wrong only a deep practice of phenomenological, regressive, progressive, analytic,
and synthetic thinking (Pinar, 1994, p. 21-26). Self-reflective journaling activities help university
students to discover solutions to their own problems while also helping them to negotiate their
“values and instincts to understand [their] positions with respect to the world around
[themselves]” which “includes understanding such questions as the significance and meaning of

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

36

life” (Armstrong, 2018, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 52). Self-reflective journaling activities
therefore assist students with experiencing less alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness since
their combined exposure to individualized problem-solving and values formation allows them to
interrogate their own forms of mission, purpose, and companionship (Johnson, 1993, p. 12; Puk,
1996, p. 120; Armstrong, 2018, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 52).
Completed self-reflective activities can be rewarded through qualitative assessments that
align with course objectives (Ambrose, 2010, p. 84; Enlow & Popa, 2008, p. 24, as cited in
Odom et al., 2015, p. 131; Wenger, 1998, p. 178, as cited in Odom, et al., 2015, p. 131). If a
university educator values the collaborative dialogue of members within group projects, the
educator may consider including the qualities of clear communication, conflict resolution, and
inclusion of all team-member perspectives within a grading rubric so that appropriate evaluations
can be provided to students (Ambrose, 2010, p. 85). The completion of such attuned and creative
self-reflective activities allows for students to share their interests and existential concerns with
their classmates and teachers which ultimately helps to reduce alienation, loneliness, and
meaningless through the sharing of their autobiographical life narratives (Dewey, 1897, p. 36;
Eisner, 1983, p. 133; Kellman, 2008, p. 114; Noddings, 2005, p. 67, 74-76).
Summary
My own experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness throughout my
undergraduate studies inspired me to explore means of increasing inclusivity, companionship,
and meaningful learning during my M.Ed. journey. Researching the wounded feeling-function of
the West allows for educators to notice the importance of attention, creativity, invention, and
friendliness within student-centered curriculum and student-teacher relationships while also
granting such qualities the significance they deserve as healing elixirs to the university

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

37

experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness (Johnson, 1993, p. 12, 15, 18; Puk,
1996, p. 120; von Franz, 2008, p. 12). Identifying that decreased attention, creativity, and
imagination within curriculum results in greater accounts of misunderstanding, disrespect, and
hopelessness within university classrooms need encourage university educators to accept the
importance of self-reflective activities since the writing of intrapersonal narratives and the
interpersonal sharing of joys, struggles, and goals decreases alienation, loneliness, and
meaninglessness (von Franz, 2008, p. 11; Keller et al., 2020, p. 2; Mo et al., 2021, p. 11;
Armstrong, 2018, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 52; Dewey, 1897, p. 36; Eisner, 1983, p. 133;
Kellman, 2008, p. 114; Noddings, 2005, p. 67, 74-76). The application of autobiography with
curriculum therefore allows university students to consider alternative possibilities which are
hopeful, companionate, and purposive rather than remaining trapped within downwardly
spiraling rationales which are alienated, lonely, or nihilistic (Liu & Noppe-Brandon, 2009, p. 19;
Ji et al., 2022, p. 618; Dunn, 2012, as cited in Ji et al., 2022, p. 623; LeMoult & Gotlib, 2019, as
cited in Ji et al., 2022, p. 623; Winer & Salem, 2016, as cited in Ji et al., 2022, p. 623). In the
same way that universal forms of student-centered curriculum do not exist (Emes & ClevelandInnes, 2003, p. 63), the formation of friendly and warm student-teacher relationships requires
that university educators pay attention to how each of their bonds to their students carries a
demand for the uniquely tailored application of grace, good feeling, value, and worth to each
student with their respective idiosyncrasies (Johnson, 1993, p. 15; von Franz, 2008, p. 12). As a
consequence, the next section of the application chapter concerns the exploration of friendly
student-teacher relationships, how to develop them, and how various life contexts influence their
development.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

38

Considerations for Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships
As I was able to demonstrate in my literature review, strategies which support friendly
student-teacher relationships must begin with the identification that it is friendliness, warmth,
empathy, and trust within student-teacher relationships which must increase to help students
better internalize course content (Cornelius-White, 2007, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86;
Johnson, 1993, p. 15). Since students have their own pre-conceptions of how classroom
experiences should unfold, determining means of questioning students’ stereotypic beliefs of
classrooms as cold and abjectly rational requires an exposure of each student to as much warmth
and friendship as possible so that student-teacher rapport forms (Pelech, 2021, p. 91). Since
learning “doesn’t happen in a vacuum” but occurs in unique coursework and classroom contexts,
remembering the individual needs of each student helps learners to feel that they are included,
that they belong, and that they are in themselves of necessary value within the learning
environment (Ambrose, 2010, p. 180). Since the personal insights and experiences of students
can only be drawn out if educators are capable of forming bonds of warmth and trust with their
students, it is essential to explore practical means of increasing the bond of friendship,
relatedness, belonging, and warmth between university educators and their students (Toshalis,
2016, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 85; Marzano, 2017, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 85; CorneliusWhite, 2007, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86).
Attunement, Life Contexts, and Increasing the Success of Friendly Student-Teacher
Relationships
Social contexts influence the behavioral responsiveness of students towards their
curriculum (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998, as cited in Van Acker & Wehby, 2000, para. 1). It is
necessary for curriculum to be adapted to both the lived experience of students and their
classroom contexts since the “amygdala directs [information] to the reflecting, thinking brain”

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

39

when learners feel relaxed and safe in their classrooms (Pelech, 2021, p. 55; Glowacki-Dudka et
al., 2017, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64; Noddings, 2012b, as cited in GlowackiDudka et al., 2018, p. 64; Eisner, 1983; Heidegger, n.d., as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3). The more
that post-secondary students maintain friendly student-teacher relationships, the more they come
to attain their own resilient work ethics and creative expressions for their interests (Siegle et al.,
2014, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 8). It is essential for university educators to pay attention to the
finer details of students’ experiences since it is the irreplaceable “moment-to-moment”
(Claessens et al., 2017, p. 478) interactions which cannot be re-created that build the studentteacher relationships towards friendliness and warmth.
If an educator truly sees and hears the student, the educator will notice the stressors and
environmental challenges that their students are facing. Once an educator sees and hears their
students it is possible for them to provide compassion to their students so that they experience
more affiliation, friendliness, and communion with less alienation, loneliness, and
meaninglessness (Newman, 2000, as cited in Claessens et al., 2017, p. 479; Gurtman, 2009, as
cited in Claessens et al., 2017, p. 479; Andersen, 1998, as cited in Claessens et al., 2017, p. 479;
Jung, 1943, 1954, as cited in Matthews, 2009, p. 105; von Franz, 2008, p. 12; Matthews, 2009, p.
104). Student-teacher relationships consequently become more reciprocally warm and friendly
when an educator pays attention to their students’ interests and needs so that they invite their
students to receive compassion and warmth which encourages students to also express their own
encouragement towards their teachers (Claessens et al., 2017, p. 480). By attending to university
students’ needs to feel heard and seen, the student becomes more inclined towards “supporting
and collaborating in class” (p. 483) which aids in the internalization of course content (Dewey,
1897, p. 37).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

40

Attuning to Classroom Environments to Build Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships
The coloring of classroom experiences may be shaped pessimistically by students if their
pre-existing orientations within the world, their interpretation of the world, and their contextual
histories are already cynical, doubtful, and coldhearted (Heidegger, 1928, 1999, as cited Farrell,
2020, p. 3). While I was attending undergraduate school I was enrolled in a course of resilience
where my professor was unwilling to offer me redemptive opportunities for academic re-writes
during a period of my life where I was experiencing a relational breakup and severe depression.
Since my life was colored with a lens of perpetual sadness and hopelessness I was asking my
professor for grace to offer me forgiveness and understanding in the hopes of re-writing an essay
which I had completed very poorly. However, rather than receiving grace and an attitude of
second chances, I was told that I would not be given another opportunity and that I would have
to re-take the course if I wanted a chance at redemption. I therefore experienced worsening
alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness since I felt that my professor did not care about my
personal well-being as a human being seeking to feel heard and seen.
It is therefore suggested that if post-secondary educators determine that some of their
students view themselves, their professors, and their environments in a pessimistic light, it is
possible to increase hopefulness and decrease alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness by
listening and responding to each student’s concerns with attention, care, or by offering their
students compassion and understanding through the offering of academic re-writes and second
chances (Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 81; Eisner, 1983; Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2017, as cited in
Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64; Heidegger, n.d., as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3; Noddings,
2012b, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64). Considering how each university
classroom contains diverse student populations, it is necessary to further consider how

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

41

“unanticipated social and emotional dynamics” will occur and how university educators may
consider such divergencies as opportunities for friendly classroom unification (Ambrose, 2010,
p. 155).
Student dissatisfaction within the classroom is largely due to the presence of an educator
whose ignorance of learner opinions and feelings not only produces hurt feelings but academic
disengagement (Ambrose, 2010, p. 155-156). When undergraduate students experience a lack of
relational warmth within the classroom, learners are more likely to self-report how their writing,
thinking and overall comprehension of curriculum worsened (p. 173). Rather than consequently
expecting university students to “check their emotions at the door” (p. 155), it is expected that
educators need to provide their students with an emotionally inclusive classroom environment
which welcomes and cooperates with the human presence of their students. Ensuring that
classroom contexts are relationally warm and friendly involves universities and educators
validating different viewpoints, debatable positionalities, and using course examples which
“speak to both sexes” which “work across cultures, and relate to people from various
socioeconomic statuses” (p. 180-181, 193). The development of a classroom climate which is
necessarily democratic therefore helps to provide a shared vision for the classroom where all
students learn to share their experiences at both the intrapersonal and interpersonal level
ultimately helping to decrease isolation and alienation while increasing companionate
collaboration and meaningful connections between experiences and tasks (Shuffelton, 2012, p.
212; Johnson, 1993, p. 57-58).
Strategies to Implement Friendly Student-Teacher Relationships
It is necessary for student-teacher relationships to be adapted to the relationally safe
needs of students since there is a connection between learning and experiences of safety (Eisner,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

42

1983; Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2017, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64; Noddings,
2012b, as cited in Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018, p. 64). Recognizing that the absence of
relational warmth and friendliness between students and teachers produces greater incidences of
misunderstanding, disrespect, and lack of appreciation (Shuffelton, 2012, p. 212), one strategy to
create friendly student-teacher relationships is for educators to greet their students by their first
names or by having short discussions throughout the day (Pelech, 2021, p. 86). The greater the
appreciated receipt of verbal affirmation from educator to student, the more university students
will experience feelings of relational warmth and support which help to decrease their
experiences of alienation and loneliness (Solomon et al., 1997, as cited in Freeman et al,. 2007,
p. 205).
Apart from verbal and intellectual gestures of care, it is also possible to foster relationally
warm and friendly student-teacher relationships through physically friendly behaviors such as
providing post-secondary students with high-fives, smiles, or thumbs-up for their
accomplishments and collaborative activities (Marzano, 2017, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86;
Woodside et al., 1999, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86). It is also possible for post-secondary
educators to increase relational warmth and friendship through a greater practice of one-to-one
interactions where teachers make greater time for their students in-school through the application
of the flipped classroom (p. 91). The flipped-classroom model allows for students to “spend the
classroom time” on “discussing the material, debating issues, or collaborating on a project” (p.
91) which ultimately allows for university students to feel that they are free to develop their own
opinions since the bond of friendship does not enforce feelings of forced coercion which
ultimately helps both parties to view one another as unique persons (p. 91).

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

43

Summary
Academic misunderstanding, disrespect, and lack of appreciation between educators and
students occurs when there is lack of relational warmth and friendship within classroom
environments; however, student-teacher relationships can be reinforced through shared passion,
joy, creativity, and collaboration which help to lessen alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness
(Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 81; Shuffelton, 2012, p. 212, 214). The more that students feel that they
are heard and seen within “moment-to-moment” (Claessens et al., 2017, p. 478) interactions, the
more they learn to experience affiliation, friendliness, and communion thereby decreasing
alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness (Claessens et al., 2017, p. 483; Newman, 2000, as
cited in Claessens et al., 2017, p. 479; Gurtman, 2009, as cited in Claessens et al., 2017, p. 479;
Andersen, 1998, as cited in Claessens et al., 2017, p. 479; Jung, 1943, 1954, as cited in
Matthews, 2009, p. 105; von Franz, 2008, p. 12; Matthews, 2009, p. 104). Strategies such as
greeting students by their first names, smiling at students, high-fiving students, or having short
discussions with students throughout the school-day can help to increase the friendliness of
student-teacher relationships while decreasing alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness
(Pelech, 2021, p. 86; Marzano, 2017, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86; Woodside et al., 1999, as
cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86). Verbally, intellectually, and physically encouraging student-teacher
relationships and classroom interactions therefore helps students to persist in the face of
intellectual challenges while learning how the bonds of friendship and purposes beyond
themselves are worth fighting for (Pelech, 2021, p. 86, 91; Marzano, 2017, as cited in Pelech,
2021, p. 86; Woodside et al., 1999, as cited in Pelech, 2021, p. 86; Shuffelton, 2012, p. 221).
The next section of my capstone paper is my conclusion which covers my recommunication of the Arthurian romance story Perceval, or, The Story of the Grail (de Troyes &

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

44

Cline, 1985) alongside my recap and reaffirmation of my argument that alienation, loneliness,
and meaninglessness can be healed through the application of attentiveness, creative expression,
imagination, and friendship within student-centered curriculum and student-teacher relationships.
My conclusion not only shows the connections between my introduction, literature review, and
application chapters but also provides my statements of successful argumentation, limitations of
my research, and potential consequences to the successful application of student-centered
curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships. I also include directives for future research
within and beyond the field of education with my personal contemplations as an educational
researcher.
Chapter Four: Conclusion
The Arthurian romance story Perceval, or, The Story of the Grail, written by Chretien De
Troyes somewhere between 1178 and 1191 has the power to spark debate concerning the
symbolic and archetypal meanings of attaining or fighting through achievements, noble deeds,
and the meaning of life (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 22, 32, 209; Johnson, 1993, p. 55).
Throughout his journey Perceval was required to leave his mother and the lessons of home
behind (p. 20), speak ignorantly with maidens (p. 22), fight many battles (p. 35, 58, 68), learn
new skills (p. 43, 49), and determine the meaning of life (p. 89-91). Not only was Perceval
required to accept the death of his father, mother, and brothers early in his story but he was also
forced to stumble ignorantly through life while learning who he was and where he wanted to
journey (p. 14, 16, 20). For all of Perceval’s strengths and courageous endeavors his mistake on
his journey was that he failed to ask the question, “whom does the Grail serve?” (Johnson, 1993,
p. 57). One theory proposed by Johnson (1993) is that the Arthurian romance story Perceval, or,
the Story of the Grail describes Perceval’s discovery that relational experiences of inclusion,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

45

belonging, and the meaning of life are not found in the attainment of one’s own power but “in
the service of that which is greater than one’s self” (Johnson, 1993, p. 57; De Troyes & Cline,
1985, p. 174). The great lesson of the Arthurian romance story Perceval, or, The Story of the
Grail, is that life serves the psychological conceptions of the Self or a divine conception of God
or gods; the something or someone greater than us (de Troyes & Cline, p. 91, 173-174; Johnson,
1993, p. 57-58).
Recapping and Reaffirming my Argument
My capstone paper represents a clear synthesis of my personal experiences of alienation,
loneliness, and meaninglessness throughout my educational journey alongside a sharing of my
research interests in the fields of education, psychology, phenomenology, and existentialism.
Exploring practical applications of student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher
relationships has allowed me to better express the interpersonal process of relatedness and
inquisitive freedom taught to me by Dr. Cope-Watson and Dr. Karen Densky where they both
displayed to me how they chose to serve an ideal beyond themselves in seeking to listen and
respond to both my faltering humanity and my need to make decisions without condemnation
rather than merely expecting me to behave as an automaton without feelings. Being able to
effectively self-reflect and re-negotiate my past experiences throughout my undergraduate and
graduate career has afforded me a depth of analysis where I have learned of my own and others
propensity towards experiencing alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness when the so-called
meaning of educational life is only viewed through the attainment of one’s own power rather
than seeking to re-orient the human ego towards something enduring beyond our short-lived
lives (de Troyes & Cline, 1985, p. 174; Johnson, 1993, p. 57). The concluding sections of my
capstone paper therefore equally represent my literal and symbolic passage through many life

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

46

transitions and thresholds of development where I have learned to become a thoroughly guiding,
caring, and insightful educator.
As I have shown in my literature review, the application of attuned, creative, and
imaginative student-centered curriculum alongside friendly student-teacher relationships allows
for post-secondary educators to help their students transition from experiences of alienation,
loneliness, and meaninglessness into experiences of shared inclusivity, belonging, and purpose
(Noddings, 2005). The study of the post-secondary student’s search for meaning and their
struggle for feelings of inclusion, belonging, and purpose is highly significant since the absence
of attunement, creative expression, imaginative thinking, and relational warmth within academic
settings leads to higher incidences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness (Johnson, 1989,
p. 28; Jung, n.d., as cited in von Franz, 2008, p. 14). Since holistic learning is as much about
attaining wholeness of being (Johnson, 1983, p. 20; Farrell, 2020, p. 1) as it is about remaining
open to the beliefs of others it is subsequently necessary for the subject of academic
meaninglessness to be considered of great importance lest educators and universities seek to
regard their students as though their lives were without ontic potential (Farrell, 2020, p. 1-3;
Heidegger, n.d., as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3).
Summary and Connections: Introduction, Review, Application
My introduction chapter included an incorporation of de Troyes & Cline’s (1985) Grail
narrative which provided an instructive means of expressing how my personal experiences of
alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness during my undergraduate and graduate journey
inspired me to further research the human search for meaning and how to apply teaching
strategies to increase inclusivity, belonging, and meaningful learning (Dewey, 1963, as cited in
Noddings, 2005, p. 166; Frankl, 2006, 1986; Hyytinen et al., 2022; Johnson, 1993, 1989; Jung,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

47

1933, 1989; Matthews, 2009; Mpho, 2018; von Franz, 2008). My literature review and
introduction chapter are connected to one another since they communicate the personal and
historical emergence of what is known psychoanalytically as the wounded feeling-function of the
West and how undue preference for rational approaches to learning tend to decrease learner
capacity for positive valuations of human experience (Heidegger, 1928, 1999, as cited in Farrell,
2020, p. 3; Johnson, 1993, p. 15; Johnson, 1989, p. 28; Jung, 1933; Jung, 1943, 1954, as cited in
Matthews, 2009, p. 105; Matthews, 2009, p. 103; Puk, 1996, p. 120; von Franz, 2008, p. 12). My
literature review provided cogent evidence that post-secondary students are at-risk for
experiencing alienation, loneliness, and meaningless within classrooms which overtly emphasize
rational learning at the expense of their feelings (Dewey, 1897, p. 37; Eisner, 1983, p. 130-133;
Farrell, 2020, p. 4; Shuffelton, 2012, p. 212; von Franz, 2008, p. 14). My application chapter
provides best approaches to help educators transfer their knowledge of alienation, loneliness, and
meaninglessness into affirmative action. My introduction, literature review, and application
chapters are connected to one another since my personal experiences of suffering and my
research of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness demand that holistic approaches to
education become more inclusive. Throughout these chapters, I have explored how studentcentered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships help heal alienation, loneliness,
and meaninglessness by including every student’s need to self-reflect upon their existence, share
their experiences, and ultimately feel heard and seen by their teachers and peers.
The Success of my Paper
The emergence and study of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness began with a
preliminary assessment of de Troyes and Cline (1985), Johnson (1993), McCracken (1999), Guo
(2012), and Noddings (2005). A deeper analysis of wounded feeling-function and a study of the

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

48

benefits and risks of student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships
revealed attentiveness, creativity, imagination, and relational warmth as essential qualities of
feeling-function focused pedagogy (Bayes, 1972; Dewey, 1897; Eisner, 1983; Freeman et al.,
2007; Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018; Goetz et al., 2021; Han, 2017; Hoagland, 1990; Johnson,
1993; Jung, 1933; Keller et al., 2020; Kellman, 2008; Lui & Noppe-Brandon, 2009; Matthews,
2009; McKenna, 2013; Miller, 2018; Mo et al., 2021; Odom et al., 2015; Puk, 1996; Shuffelton,
2012; von Franz, 2008). Exploring simplistic means of including attentiveness, creativity,
imagination, and relational warmth within curriculum and classroom interactions resulted in the
discovery that alienation, loneliness, and meaningless can be effectively converted into
inclusivity, belongingness, and meaningfulness insofar as post-secondary educators are willing to
attune to the needs of their students while providing “moment-to-moment” (Claessens et al.,
2017, p. 478) responses which are specifically tailored to each student’s motivations, goals,
passions, and goals (Ambrose et al., 2010; Dewey, 1897; Eisner, 1983; Emes & Cleveland-Innes,
2003; Farrell, 2020; Freeman et al., 2007; Johnson, 1993; Keller et al., 2020; Kellman; 2008; Mo
et al., 2021; Noddings, 2005; Odom et al., 2015; Pelech, 2021; Puk, 1996; Van Acker & Wehby,
2000; von Franz, 2008).
Implications, Consequences, Solutions, and Future Research Within Education
My argument that there has been a historical wounding of the feeling-function of postsecondary students through a negligence of relationality within academia is highly relevant to the
study of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness within post-secondary institutions since such
phenomena are in themselves major manifestations of wounded feeling-function (Farrell, 2020;
Heidegger, 1928, 1999, as cited in Farrell, 2020, p. 3 Johnson, 1989, 1993; Matthews, 2009; von
Franz, 2008). Exploring literature which speaks to the manifestations of alienation, loneliness,

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

49

and meaninglessness within academia further implicated the need for researching how educators
and universities are responsible for providing a holistic education to their students in the hopes of
reducing their exposure to experiences of alienated, lonely, and meaningless life conditions
(Miller, 2021; Dewey; 1897; Eisner, 1983; Kellman, 2008; Noddings, 2005; Glowacki-Dudka et
al., 2017; Shuffelton, 2012; Pelech, 2021; Freeman et al., 2007; Ambrose, 2010).
The successful argumentation that wounded feeling-function within post-secondary
institutions produces greater accounts of personal and collective alienation, loneliness, and
meaninglessness results in the implication that if Western universities and educators are
unwilling to collaborate and problem-solve towards pedagogical solutions which include learner
need for feeling seen, heard, and related to as persons, then students will continue to suffer alone
with their existential problems without a guide or support to help. Since those who are lonely,
alienated, and experiencing meaninglessness within secondary and post-secondary settings
“cannot ask anyone to love [them]” (Johnson, 2016, p. 36) but have to wait for someone to help,
educators have the responsibility of not neglecting their students’ needs to feel seen, heard, and
honored as unique individuals in order to help decrease learner exposure to depressive and
suicidal symptoms (Johnson, 1983, p. 44, 48, 130; Johnson, 1993, p. 41). The solution to postsecondary experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaningless is for educators to sense the
existential dilemmas of their students and to offer them support by helping them to ground
themselves in the “lower parts of themselves” where they can safely self-reflect and discover
their humanity in the relatedness within student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher
relationships (Johnson, 2016, p. 36-37).
Since my research primarily focused on in-person educational contexts, future research
within the field of education is required to study how to practically implement the qualities of

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

50

attentiveness, creative expression, imagination, and relational warmth within online instructional
sessions (Bordin, 1968, as cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333; Johnson, 1993, p. 18; Krasner, 1955, as
cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333; Liu & Noppe-Brandon, 2009, p. 19; Miller, 2018, p. 89; Mo et al.,
2021, p. 11; Raush & Bordin, 1957, as cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333; Truax & Carkhuff, 1967, as
cited in Bayes, 1972, p. 333). While understanding the historical wounding of the feelingfunction in the West provides much of the foundation for researching the benefits and risks of
student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships, it is nonetheless expected
that educational researchers and practitioners seek their own respective solutions to their
students’ experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness. In the same way that I have
demonstrated that there is no universal form of student-centered curriculum or student-teacher
relationship, educators need to maintain a “moment-to-moment” (Claessens et al., 2017, p. 478)
perspective of psychological development based on their own and their students demographics,
social contexts, life contexts, and classroom contexts to which they interact, share, and create
knowledge (Ambrose, 2010, p. 155; Claessens et al., 2017, p. 483; Critchley, 2009, as cited in
Farrell, 2020, p. 4; Emes & Cleveland-Innes, 2003, p. 63; Johnson, 1993, p. 15; von Franz, 2008,
p. 12).
Implications, Consequences, Solutions, and Future Research Beyond Education
Future research within the field of existentialism and phenomenology is required to
explore how student-teacher relationships and student-centered curriculum operate as bidirectional exchanges of Eros where students “take a substantial step in [their] thinking” each
time they venture onto untrodden paths (Freire, 2021, p. 103; Han, 2017, p. 40; Heidegger, 2008,
as cited in Han, 2017, p. 63). It is therefore predicted that the problems of depression, loneliness,
disloyalty, and conflict within careers outside of education such as skilled trades and nursing

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

51

may be resolved through greater consideration of notions of care and how various forms of love
such as Philia, Eros, Storge, and Agape may be used to increase the loyalty and integrity of
human relationships outside of educational environments (Han, 2017, p. 40; Heidegger, 2008, p.
339; Knutsson et al., 2022; Lewis, 2017, p. 26, 48, 68, 93; Noddings, 2005, p. 67; 74-76, 195;
Roche et al., 2016). In the same way that post-secondary students are expected to make
tremendous leaps in their thinking and feeling as they seek to negotiate and build relationships
with their peers and teachers, it is also a healthy psychological perspective to believe in the
power of attunement and relational warmth to help those working in male-dominated industries
or nursing to better perceive how their relationships with their clients and patients can increase in
mutual beneficence, respect, and attention (Knutsson et al., 2022; Roche et al., 2016).
Limitations of my Argument and Evidence
My argument that the inclusion of student-centered curriculum and friendly studentteacher relationships remedies felt experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness
within academia is limited since I focused explicitly on how to shape curriculum and
relationships to build rapport and relatedness between students and teachers within in-person
classroom settings while excluding explicit guidance for virtual classroom environments or how
to engage in the process of interior design so that physical classrooms can be used as educative
ecosystems of safety, security, and relatedness (Cheryan et al., 2014; Martin, 2019; Rands &
Gansemer-Topf, 2017). My evidence that the inclusion of attentiveness, creativity, imagination,
and relational warmth within student-centered curriculum and friendly student-teacher
relationships is limited since I mainly focus on “moment-to-moment” (Claessens et al., 2017, p.
478) interactions between students and educators but fail to include evidence which would
suggest that it is the interactions between students and their peers which exists as a protective

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

52

factor against experiences of alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness (King et al., 2016).
While there is much psychological crossover in terms of all genders being capable of
experiencing wounded feeling-function as masculine lost purpose or alienation, loneliness, and
meaninglessness, I nonetheless suggest that further research be done in the realm of healing
wounded-feeling function through the more directly feminine conceptions as described within
the myth of The Handless Maiden (Johnson, 1993, p. 63) which better enunciates how male
chauvinistic attitudes can oppress some women into crying out “What can I do? I feel so useless
or second-rate and inferior in this world that puts its women on the rubbish heap when they are
through with courtship and childbearing!” (p. 67).
Contemplations
As I self-reflect upon my undergraduate and graduate experiences, I am assured that the
strictly non-relational qualities of rationality, objectivity, and intellectualization need to be reevaluated and dwelt upon to better consider whether the inclusion of such qualities are truly of
the greatest benefit to the nurturance of students’ psycho-educational development within postsecondary settings. By choosing to live for something or someone greater than their ego,
educators become capable of acknowledging the presence of alienation, loneliness, and
meaninglessness in the lives of their students while students are becoming more capable of
experiencing inclusion, belonging, purpose, and meaning as they receive attention, express
themselves, and seek to maintain bonds of service (Boerema, 2011, p. 558; De Troyes & Cline,
1985, p. 173-174; Dewey, 1897, 1963, as cited in Noddings, 2005; Eisner, 1983, p. 130-133;
Farrell, 2020, p. 1-4; Frankl, 1986, 1996; Glowacki-Dudka et al., 2018; Harris, 2003, p. 20;
Johnson, 1989, p. 28; Johnson, 1993, p. 15, 57; Jung, 1933, 1989; Leithwood & Beatty, 2008, p.
60-61; Matthews, 2009; Miller & Seller, 1990, as cited in Puk, 1996, p. 120; Noddings, 2005;

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

53

Puk, 1996, p. 120; Shuffelton, 2012, p. 222; Spillane et al., 2004; Wright, 2008, p. 21; von Franz,
2008, p. 12). Considering a greater promotion of student-centered curriculum and friendly
student-teacher relationships within post-secondary settings is significant since feeling-function
focused pedagogy should no longer be relegated to an inferior position in the world of academia.
Post-secondary administrators, course designers, program designers, and course instructors may
openly and intentionally collaborate towards the development of student-centered learning,
friendly classroom contexts, and friendly student-teacher interactions which would best balance
the qualities of attention, creativity, imagination, and friendliness while also maintaining high
passion for self-discovery and knowledge attainment.
Iterating the meaning of my personal and professional experiences, research, and
practical explorations has been a challenge as I have sought to write with veracity, honesty, and
heart-felt remembrance for all which has been poignant, painful, and healing throughout my life.
In the empty space of the ‘not-yet’ I wonder what the future of education will look like and
where feeling-function focused pedagogy will be taught, who it will be taught by, and whether
learners will learn of the meaning of their lives earlier than I had. I often sense that it has been in
my misgivings, my mistakes, my failures, and my fear of asking my most desirous questions
which ultimately led me home to the truth of my existence, my hopes, and my dreams. With so
much of academia indwelt with the valuation of human life in terms of performance and with all
of the complexity of human life, I wonder whether it has always been the simple pleasures of the
sun on my skin, a love to hold, and a book to read which brought me back to those loves which
kept me breathing through my darkest nights.
My encouragement to you is that for all of the alienation, loneliness, and meaninglessness
which I did not want to experience in my life, I have also learned of their complementary

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

54

opposites throughout my M.Ed. program and have attained a balance of opposites where I have
learned to live in the paradoxes and the unanswered questions which so used to burden me with
dread. Now, while I will continue to search for research opportunities to serve others in the
realms of inclusivity, belonging, and meaningful learning, I also wonder whether you too have
learned of researching inclusivity, belonging, and meaningfulness and of the value of studentcentered curriculum and friendly student-teacher relationships. And yet, with all the loftiness of
my own future hopes and research directives, my ultimate joy would be for me to feel that I have
helped you remember the simple things, the quiet songs of your heart, and the humming to pupils
of the songs in their hearts which they have long forgotten (Garborg, n.d., as cited in Brach,
2020, p. 197). My hope is that you would always remember the grounded things which keep
your toes in the sand, close to your friends, and even closer to your own unspoken words which
dance between your mind, heart, and your ever-so human hands.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

55

References
Abbasi, H., & Hadadi, A. (2014). The possible negative outcomes of putting learners in
spotlight. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 3–8. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.381
Allen, P. (2022). Practicing the prayer of St. Francis. Wipf & Stock.
Ambrose, S. A. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching
(1st ed.). [electronic resource]. Jossey-Bass.
Balyer, A. (2012). Transformational leadership behaviors of school principals: A qualitative
research based on teachers’ perceptions. International Online Journal of Educational
Sciences, 4(3), 581–591.
Bayes, M. A. (1972). Behavioral cues of interpersonal warmth. Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 39(2), 333–339. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1037/h0033367
Brach, T. Radical compassion: Learning to love yourself and your world with the practice of
RAIN. Penguin Books.
Boerema, A. J. (2011). Challenging and supporting new leader development. Educational
Management Administration & Leadership, 39, 554–567.
DOI:10.1177/1741143211408451
Cheryan, S., Ziegler, S. A., Plaut, V. C., Meltzoff, A. N. (2014). Designing classrooms to
maximize student achievement. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 1(1), 4–12. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1177/2372732214548677
Claessens, L. C. A., van Tartwijk, J., van der Want, A. C., Pennings, H. J. M., Verloop, N., den
Brok, P. J., & Wubbels, T. (2017). Positive teacher–student relationships go beyond the

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

56

classroom, problematic ones stay inside. Journal of Educational Research, 110(5), 478–
493. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1080/00220671.2015.1129595
Corey, G. (2021). Theory and Practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Cengage.
De Troyes, C., & Cline, R. H. (1985). Perceval, or, the story of the grail. [electronic resource].
University of Georgia Press.
Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. In D. J. Flinders, & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The
curriculum studies reader (pp. 35-40). Routledge.
Eisner, E. W. (1983). Educational objectives – help or hindrance? In D. J. Flinders, & S. J.
Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (pp. 129-135). Routledge.
Emes, C., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2003). A journey toward learner-centered
curriculum. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 33(3), 47–69.
Farrell, E. (2020). Researching lived experience in education: Misunderstood or missed
opportunity? International Journal of Qualitative
Methods, 19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920942066
Frankl, V. E. (1986). The doctor and the soul: From psychotherapy to logotherapy. Vintage
Books.
Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press.
Freeman, T. M., Anderman, L. H., & Jensen, J. M. (2007). Sense of belonging in college
freshman at the classroom and campus levels. Journal of Experimental Education, 75(3),
203–220. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.3200/JEXE.75.3.203-220
Freire, P. (2021). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury
Academic.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

57

Glowacki-Dudka, M., Mullett, C., Griswold, W., Baize-Ward, A., Vetor-Suits, C., & Londt, S.
C. (2018). Framing care for planners of education. Adult Learning, 29(2), 62–71.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1177/1045159517750664
Goetz, T., Bieleke, M., Gogol, K., van Tartwijk, J., Mainhard, T., Lipnevich, A. A., & Pekrun, R.
(2021). Getting along and feeling good: Reciprocal associations between student-teacher
relationship quality and students’ emotions. Learning and Instruction, 71. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101349
Greene, M. (n.d.). Chapter 13: Curriculum and Consciousness. In Flinders, D. & Thornton, S.
(Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (5th ed., pp. 147-158). Routledge.
Guo, Y. (2012). Exploring linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity in Canadian schools.
Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 7(1),.4-23.
Gutek, G.L. (2015). Philosophy & History of Education. Thompson Rivers University, Custom
Type: Custom Textbook ISBN: 9781269792962
Guzzardo, M. T., Khosla, N., Adams, A. L., Bussmann, J. D., Engelman, A., Ingraham, N.,
Gamba, R., Jones-Bey, A., Moore, M. D., Toosi, N. R., & Taylor, S. (2021). “The ones
that care make all the difference”: Perspectives on student-faculty
relationships. Innovative Higher Education, 46(1), 41–58. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1007/s10755-020-09522-w
Han, B. H. (2017). The agony of eros. The MIT Press.
Harris, A. (2003). The changing context of leadership: Research, theory, and practice. In A.
Harris, C. Day, D. Hopkins, M. Hadfield, A. Hargreaves, & C. Chapman,
(Eds.), Effective leadership for school improvement (pp. 9–25). London: Routledge
Falmer.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

58

Heidegger, M. (2008). Basic writings. Harper Perennial Modern Thought.
Hoagland, S. L. (1990). Some concerns about Nel Noddings’ “caring.” Hypatia, 5(1), 109–114.
Hyytinen, H., Tuononen, T., Nevgi, A., & Toom, A. (2022). The first-year students’ motives for
attending university studies and study-related burnout in relation to academic
achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 97. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1016/j.lindif.2022.102165
Ji, J. L., Murphy, F. C., Grafton, B., MacLeod, C., & Holmes, E. A. (2022). Emotional mental
imagery generation during spontaneous future thinking: Relationship with optimism and
negative mood. Psychological Research, 86(2), 617–626. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1007/s00426-021-01501-w
Johnson, R. A. (1983). We: Understanding the psychology of romantic love. Harper Collins
Canada.
Johnson, R. A. (1989). He: Understanding masculine psychology. Harper Collins.
Johnson, R. A. (1993). The fisher king and the handless maiden: Understanding the wounded
feeling-function in masculine and feminine psychology. Harper Collins.
Johnson, R. A. (2016). Inner gold: Understanding psychological projection. Chiron Publications.
Jung, C. G. (1933). Modern man in search of a soul. Harcourt Inc.
Jung, C. G. (1989). Aspects of the masculine. Princeton University Press.
Keller, A. S., Davidesco, I., & Tanner, K. D. (2020). Attention matters: How orchestrating
attention may relate to classroom learning. CBE - Life Sciences Education, 19(3).
Kellman, J. (2008). A place for healing: A hospital art class, writing, and the researcher’s task.
Journal of Aesthetic Education, 42(3), 106–121.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

59

King, A. R., Russell, T., Veith, A. C. (2016). Friendship and mental health functioning.
Psychology Faculty Publications. 21. https://commons.und.edu/psych-fac/21
Knutsson, S., Axelsson, J., & Lindqvist, G. (2022). An application of the caritative caring
approach – nursing students’ experiences of practising caring and uncaring encounters by
simulation at a clinical training centre. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on
Health and Well-Being, 17(1). https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1080/17482631.2022.2100610
Leithwood, K., & Beatty, B. (2008). Leading with teacher emotions in mind: Challenges and
opportunities for school leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin/ Sage Publishing.
Lewis, C. S. (2017). The four loves. Harper Collins.
Liu, E., & Noppe-Brandon, S. (2009). Imagination first: unlocking the power of possibility
[eBook]. Jossey-Bass.
Martin, J. (2019). Building relationships and increasing engagement in the virtual classroom:
Practical tools for the online instructor. Journal of Educators Online, 16(1).
Matthews, R. (2009). The feeling function and education: Differentiated relationships and ethics
of the teacher. Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, 3(4), 103–111. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1525/jung.2009.3.4.103
McCracken, P. (1999). The poetics of sacrifice: Allegory and myth in the grail quest. Yale
French Studies, 95, 152–168. https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.2307/3040750
Mckenna, S. (2013). The dangers of student-centered learning - A caution about blind spots in
the scholarship of teaching and learning. International Journal for the Scholarship of
Teaching & Learning, 7(2), 1–5. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.20429/ijsotl.2013.070206

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

60

Miller, A. L. (2018). The role of creative coursework in skill development for university
seniors. Global Education Review, 5(1), 88–107.
Miller, J. P. (2021). A holistic educator’s journey: Seeking wholeness in America, Canada,
Japan and Asia. Information Age Publishing.
Mo, Y., Carney, M., Cavey, L., & Totorica, T. (2021). Using think-alouds for response process
evidence of teacher attentiveness. Applied Measurement in Education, 34(1), 10–26.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1080/08957347.2020.1835910
Mpho, O. M. (2018). Teacher centered dominated approaches: Their implications for today’s
inclusive classrooms. International Journal of Psychology and Counselling, 10(2), 11-21.
Noddings, N. (2005). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education.
(2nd ed). New York: Teachers College Press.
Noddings, N. (2016). [ThePublicVoiceSalon]. (2016, February 17). Noddings on education for
caring [Video]. Streaming Service. https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=jU_2-4SR-gk
Odom, S. F., Andenoro, A. C., Sandlin, M. R., & Jones, J. L. (2015). Undergraduate leadership
students’ self-perceived level of moral imagination: An innovative foundation for
morality-based leadership curricula. Journal of Leadership Education, 14(2), 129–145.
Pelech, J. (2021). Student-centered research: Blending constructivism with action research.
Information Age Publishing.
Pinar, W. F. (1994). The Method of “Currere” (1975). Counterpoints, 2, 19–27.
Puk, T. (1996). The integration of extrarational and rational learning processes: Moving towards
the whole learner. The Journal of Educational Thought (JET) / Revue de La Pensée
Éducative, 30(2), 119–137.

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY

61

Rands, M. L., & Gansemer-Topf, A. M. (2017). The room itself is active: How classroom design
impacts student engagement. Journal of Learning Spaces, 6(1), 26–33.
Rangachari, P. K., & Johnson, R. (2020). Student-centered learning: Subversive teachers and
standardized worlds. ECampusOntario.
https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/delharnish/front-matter/a-note-to-readers/
Roche, A. M., Pidd, K., Fischer, J. A., Lee, N., Scarfe, A., & Kostadinov, V. (2016). Men, work,
and mental health: A systematic review of depression in male-dominated industries and
occupations. Safety and Health at Work, 7(4), 268–283. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1016/j.shaw.2016.04.005
Shuffelton, A. (2011). On the ethics of teacher-student friendships. Philosophy of Education
Yearbook, 81–89.
Shuffelton, A. B. (2012). “Philia” and pedagogy “side by side”: The perils and promise of
teacher-student friendships. Ethics and Education, 7(3), 211–223.
Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. B. (2004). Towards a theory of leadership practice:
A distributed perspective. J. Curriculum Studies, 36(1), 3–34.
Tan, E. (2022). ‘Heartware’ for the compassionate teacher: Humanizing the academy through
mindsight, attentive love, and storytelling. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 5(2).
https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2022.5.2.ss1
Van Acker, R., & Wehby, J. H. (2000). Exploring the social contexts influencing student success
or failure: Introduction. Preventing School Failure, 44(3), 93. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1080/10459880009599789

FEELING-FUNCTION CENTERED PEDAGOGY
von Franz, M. L. (2008). C. G. Jung’s rehabilitation of the feeling function in our civilization.
Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, 2(2), 9–20. https://doiorg.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1525/jung.2008.2.2
Wright, L. (2008). Merits and limitations of distributed leadership: Experiences and
understandings of school principals. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration
and Policy, 76(3), 3.

62