Gauging the affective : becoming attuned to its impact in education

Affect is very much an elusive phenomenon. It is difficult to pin down, not only in definitional terms as to whether it is an emotion, a feeling, a bit of both or neither, but as an object of research. How is it that something outside representation can be captured, described and analysed? Drawing on a Spinozan interpretation of affect and Stern's notion of the 'present moment', this chapter examines how researchers can become attuned to the affective dimensions of education. In particular, it considers how certain moments can be captured through an ethnographic lens as observational or interview data and made tangible to reveal much about educational practice and, at times, social relations more broadly.