Adolescence, affectivity and philosophy

The present research deepens a fundamental aspect of the teaching-learning process in the philosophy class, namely the affective dimension. The objectives proposed for the research are to identify the feelings that public high school students express about philosophy classes and the situations that provoke these feelings. Interviews were conducted with high school students from a state school in São Paulo. The data analysis was done by thematic categories. The theoretical reference is the psychogenetic of Henri Wallon, mainly his studies about affectivity and the stages of development. The results point out the relevance of the affective dimension in the teaching-learning process in the philosophy class, present the preponderance of unpleasant feelings in relation to the philosophy class and the fact that the adolescents expect to find in philosophy the understanding of themselves and of the world where they live.