The following text concerns manifestations of manipulation that occur within academic practice. Here, manipulation is understood as forms of influence grounded in a complex mechanism that underlies a covert method of influencing and controlling people. The study was situated within the interpretive-critical paradigm, and the article is based on the findings of qualitative research conducted through unstructured interviews with academic teachers. Manipulative mechanisms were conceptualized based on descriptions of academic teachers’ experiences, and analysis of the interview data identified examples of phenomena and procedures whose characteristics correspond to those of manipulation understood as a method of exerting influence on individuals. These findings are discussed from three perspectives: the macro perspective, encompassing decisions and procedures implemented within educational policy and their consequences; the meso perspective, referring to the university as an institution with hierarchical relationships based on the abuse of power; and the micro perspective, concerning interpersonal relations among academic teachers. These considerations are grounded in an understanding of the academic community that treats the autonomy and agency of all members of this community as essential conditions for the community’s authentic development and for strengthening academic teachers’ professional identity.
The aim of this article is to reconstruct the emotional experiences of academic teachers, specifically how they relate to identity and power relations. I assume that the experience of emotions is embedded in the context of socio-political needs and interests. The theoretical background consists of research from the philosophy of emotions, specifically the conceptualizations of emotional labor by Shiloh Whitney, along with studies and analyses on affective injustice, such as those by Francisco Gallegos, Katie Stockdale, Alfred Archer, and Georgina Mills. Based on these concepts, I argue that working in contemporary, neoliberally managed academia has important consequences for the development of subjectivity, both positive and constructive, as well as negative, destructive, and degrading. Emotional labor can serve as a tool for self(trans)formation and (self)reflection; at the same time, it can affectively marginalize teachers’ subjectivity and decrease their sense of agency. This provides the theoretical context for research grounded in a qualitative framework. The reconstruction of academic teachers’ experiences was based on qualitative semi-structured interviews. The research results indicate that the emotional labor of academics is a response to the emotional culture of a university governed by neoliberalism. The findings indicate that academia is an alienating and emotionally exploitative space for workers, where various manifestations of affective injustice are evident, primarily as a loss of emotional well-being and a diminishment of agency among academic teachers. By situating the emotional experiences of university staff in the context of affective injustice, the article proposes that educational research on academia should open up a space for discussion on more equitable and inclusive institutional practices in higher education.
Is there room in school-based citizenship education to shape citizenship identity as an emotional and relational experience of community membership? Given the importance of school core curricula in many European countries, this paper analyses the core curricula in Poland to identify the provisions that facilitate the recognition of the concept of lived citizenship. The data comprise two core curricula (from 2018 and 2025) for citizenship education in Polish secondary schools, which were created in different political conditions. The aim is to identify, at the curriculum level, potential opportunities to include the affective dimension and to recognise the changes in this area resulting from the curriculum reform. The results demonstrate that both curricula reveal such potential. However, the 2025 reform offers a significantly better representation of categories that appear vital to grasping the affective dimension of citizenship.
Reflecting on the concept, meaning, and properties of empowerment prompted an analysis of selected forms and areas of academic teachers’ activities. The author examines the factors that support and limit academic teacher empowerment, as well as its various dimensions. Depending on the emotional states that accompany the actions undertaken by the respondents, a sense of agency or enslavement appears. The research is situated within the interpretive paradigm, and the article is based on the findings of qualitative research conducted using unstructured interviews with academic teachers.
