Educating the emotional self: the role home plays in a child's method of communicating life stories in a classroom space

Abstract

This article discusses the risks and possibilities of communicating and educating the child's emotional self in a formal classroom environment. Through designing and implementing an expressive arts curricular intervention in a Scottish primary school classroom, my research produces an example of how therapeutic notions focused upon health and wellbeing can be integrated into contemporary education. Four case studies are provided to exemplify how individual children made particular sense of emotional expression through their own lens of interactive communication with parental figures. This article argues that educators' active and ongoing awareness of boundaries, disclosure and exposure will determine the ethical nature of a child's educational experience with emotional expression.

Keywords:

• emotional expression
• whole child
• emotional education
• boundaries
• self-disclosure and exposure

Notes

1. Each case study features a pseudonym that was chosen by each child in order to protect their identity and maintain anonymity.