Theorising social and emotional wellbeing in schools: a framework for analysing educational policy

ABSTRACT

Young people are increasingly lamented as unable to cope with ‘everyday realities of life’ with educational institutions and parenting styles accelerating what some refer to as the ‘snowflake generation’. This paper addresses confusion that exists in the framing of social and emotional wellbeing, delineating three competing perspectives: (1) ‘skills and competencies’, (2) ‘morals and ethics’ and (3) ‘capital and identity’. Embedded within each perspective are distinct notions of the ‘self’ and processes of socialisation and identity formation. The competency-based perspective shifts attention towards the individual and is reliant upon universal skills. This contrasts with a morals and ethics-based perspective on social and emotional wellbeing which is seen to be contingent upon the values that guide our moral and ethical frameworks, and informs how we relate with others. A capital and identity perspective does not speak of ‘wellbeing’ per se, but rather places emphasis on the different sets of resources available to children. These perspectives offer fundamentally distinct framings of the ‘crisis of youth’ and we draw out the implications for current and future policy development they imply.

KEYWORDS:

• Social and Emotional Skills, education policy, Wellbeing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. New Labour refers to the Labour government administrations in the UK, under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (1997–2010)

2. See: https://www.careersandenterprise.co.uk/schools-colleges/gatsby-benchmarks

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ceri Brown

Ceri Brown is an Associate Professor at the University of Bath. She is interested in the impacts of education policy on children’s schooling experiences, particularly for those who experience educational binds such as living on a low income, irregular school transitions, mental health challenges, and those at risk of early school leaving.

Michael Donnelly

Michael Donnelly is an Associate Professor at University of Bath whose interests lie in the sociology and geographies of education, researching how education is interconnected with broader societal mechanisms, such as the (re)production of inequality and identity formation.