What is Emotion Work

How can academics be responsive and orientated to positive changes towards resilience? This chapter provides insight and understanding into using autoethnography and a reflexive practice approach to learn from a difficult emotional experience in response to the unexpected death of a loved one. The chapter considers how reflexive practices can enable learning from difficult emotions in a higher education context. The presentation of narratives and the discussion of findings manifest two primary issues within reflexive practices associated with difficult emotions. First, it exposes the need to provide empirical evidence of the non-linear nature of reflexive practices. Second, it discloses the overlapping parameters within the four key reflexive practices. This chapter presents the potential areas to develop within these parameters that can guide future research to develop a more detailed and in-depth investigation into reflexive learning in relation to difficult emotional experiences.