Student Wellbeing and the Therapeutic Turn in Education

Abstract

This article considers current concerns with promoting student mental health and wellbeing against the backdrop of critiques of the ‘therapeutic turn’ in education. It begins by situating accounts of ‘therapeutic education’ within broader theorisation of therapeutic culture. In doing so, the importance of this work is acknowledged, but key assumptions are questioned. The emergence of concerns about self-esteem and wellbeing are then examined through an analysis of changing educational aims in Australia. This enables consideration of the broader context for policy reforms and emergent ideas about the importance of fostering wellbeing and attending to the social and emotional aspects of learning. Finally, the article argues for the salience of historicising both educational policy and scholarly critiques of therapeutic education in order to: (1) situate the contemporary emphasis on student wellbeing within a longer history of educational reforms aimed at supporting young people; (2) unsettle taken-for-granted ways in which mental health and wellbeing are currently foregrounded in contemporary schooling; and (3) develop new perspectives on the therapeutic turn in education.

Keywords::

• educational aims
• history
• education policy
• therapeutic culture
• mental health and wellbeing

Acknowledgments

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 2011 Australian Sociological Association conference, ‘The therapeutic school: Historicizing debate about educational policy and practice’ (TASA Refereed Paper) and the 2012 conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, ‘Educational approaches to enhancing mental health and wellbeing: Critical and historical perspectives on the therapeutic turn’ (AARE Invited Symposium). For helpful comments and feedback, the author wishes to thank Tim Corcoran and Sean Byrne.

Financial support

The following funding sources have supported research for this article: Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant (J. McLeod. & K. Wright, DP0987299: ‘Educating the adolescent: An historical study of curriculum, counselling and citizenship, 1930s–70s’); Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (ARC DECRA; K. Wright, DE140100060: ‘Childhood maltreatment and late modernity: public inquiries, social justice and education’); and a University of Melbourne Fellowship (K. Wright, ‘Wellbeing in schools’).