To develop professional digital competence through reflection on bodily and emotional experiences

Abstract

This article asks whether bodily and emotional experiences can have impact on the development of teacher educators' professional digital competence. The data material in this self-study are reflection notes from a teacher educator's digital teaching, spring 2021 which are used to shed light on the following questions: What bodily and emotional experiences does a teacher educator make when she teaches digitally? What significance do these bodily and emotional experiences have for her choices when teaching? And, what significance can reflections on bodily and emotional experiences have for the development of teacher educators' professional digital competence? Through using Dewey's concept of experience and Fuchs’ concepts of bodily resonance and embodied interaffectivity, the analysis reveals how the body and emotions, in meeting with digital tools and digital teaching, have an impact on the choices the teacher educator makes in the moment of teaching. The conclusions show that reflection on bodily and emotional experiences over time has an impact on the teacher educators’ development of professional digital competence. The article shows a need to develop knowledge about the importance of body and emotions for teacher educators' teaching and the impact of how the embodied interaffectivity in digital teaching influence the students’ learning.