Kathryn Ecclestone

Schools in numerous countries around the world have become key sites for interventions designed to enhance the emotional well-being of children and young people, offering new forms of pedagogy and curriculum knowledge informed in ad hoc and eclectic ways by various strands of psychology, counselling and therapy.Responding to C. Wright Mills famous injunction for a sociological imagination, this unique inter-disciplinary collection of papers explores ideologies and imperatives that frame contemporary education policy and practice around emotional well-being, ideas and assumptions about the state of childhood today, and the changing nature of the curriculum subject and associated forms of knowledge. In bringing together British and American advocates of behavioural interventions in social and emotional learning alongside critics who draw on historical, philosophical and sociological perspectives, it highlights new and important debates for policy makers, the designers, implementers and evaluators of interventions and those who participate in them.This book was originally published as a special issue of Research Papers in Education.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Emotional Well-Being in Educational Policy and Practice

Dennis Hayes

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education confronts the silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the educational system and into the workplace. Controversial and compelling, Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes’ classic text uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university and the workplace, to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world. Remaining extremely topical, the chapters illuminate the powerful effects of therapeutic education, including: How therapeutic learning is taking shape, now and in the future How therapeutic ideas from popular culture have come to govern social thought and policies How the fostering of dependence and compulsory participation in therapeutic activities that encourage the disclosing of emotions, can undermine parents’ and teachers’ confidence and authority How therapeutic forms of teacher training undermine faith in the pursuit of knowledge How political initiatives in emotional literacy, emotional wellbeing and ‘positive mental health’ propagate a diminished view of human potential throughout the education system and the workplace. The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education is an eye-opening read for every teacher and leader across the field of education, and every parent and student, who is passionate about the power of knowledge to transform people’s lives. It is a call for a debate about the growing impact of therapeutic education and what it means for learning now and in the future.

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education

The silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the education system and into the workplace demands a book that serves as a wake up call to everyone. Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes' controversial and compelling book uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university, and the workplace to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world. The chapters address a variety of thought-provoking themes, including how therapeutic ideas from popular culture dominate social thought and social policies and offer a diminished view of human potential how schools undermine parental confidence and authority by fostering dependence and compulsory participation in therapeutic activities based on disclosing emotions to others how higher education has adopted therapeutic forms of teacher training because many academics have lost faith in the pursuit of knowledge how such developments are propelled by a deluge of political initiatives in areas such as emotional literacy, emotional well-being and the 'soft outcomes' of learning The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education is eye-opening reading for every teacher, student teacher and parent who retains any belief in the power of knowledge to transform people's lives. Its insistent call for a serious public debate about the emotional state of education should also be at the forefront of the minds of every agent of change in society... from parent to policy maker.

Gert Biesta

Martin Hughes

Like many ideas that inform policy, practice and research, ‘transition’ has many meanings. Children make a transition to adulthood, pupils move from primary to secondary school, and there is then a movement from school to work, training or further education. Transitions can lead to profound and positive change and be an impetus for new learning for some individuals and be unsettling, difficult and unproductive for others. Transitions have become a key concern for policy makers and the subject of numerous policy changes over the past ten years. They are also of interest to researchers and professionals working with different groups. Transitions and Learning Through the Lifecourse examines transitions across a range of education, life and work settings. It explores the claim that successful transitions are essential for educational inclusion, social achievement, and economic prosperity and that individuals and institutions need to manage them more effectively. Aimed primarily at academic researchers and students at all levels of study across a range of disciplines, including education, careers studies, sociology, feminist and cultural studies, this book is the first systematic attempt to bring together and evaluate insights about educational, life and work transitions from a range of different fields of research. Contributions include: The transition between home and school The effects of gender, class and age Transitions to further and higher education Transitions for students with disabilities Transitions into the workplace Learning within the workplace Approaches to managing transitions

Kathryn Ecclestone

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