Emotional Literacy and Social Exclusion: A Psychodynamic
Critique
Terry Martin
Research and Graduate School of Education
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
UK
Tel: 44-(0)-23-8059-3481
Fax: 44-(0)-23-8059-3556
tpm@soton.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
Key Words: emotional literacy, social exclusion, self esteem, citizen, mental health, disaffection, boredom, curiosity.
Summary
This paper is set within the (UK) organisational context of schools, and rising concerns about the issue of social exclusion (Pierson, 2002). The (Labour) government set up the Social Exclusion Unit to encourage ‘joined up thinking’ to a range of complex and inter-related problems, in particular:
- the breakdown in social
cohesion through the splitting of communities along differences defined
by, for example, racial and religious identities, and
- the increasing number of people who are either failing to take up or rejecting the role of citizen.
In schools the issue of social exclusion presents itself in terms of truancy (a kind of voluntary exclusion), and challenging behaviour from pupils (Social Exclusion Unit, 1998), which often invites a retaliatory response of exclusion, temporary or permanent, from the institution. Growing external political pressure from central and local government is making this option less available, and thus schools now face increasing internal pressure to contain and challenge this behaviour and the ‘others’ that enact it.
According to Egan (1997), the modern school
is expected to serve as a significant agency in socializing the young, to teach particular forms of knowledge that will bring about a realistic and rational view of the world, and to help realize the unique potential of each child. … each of these aims is incompatible in profound ways with the other two. (p10) (my emphasis)
Schools thereby have a societal-assigned if not self-assigned impossible task (Zagier Roberts 1994). This impossible task is compounded by expectations that schools, microcosms of the wider society, have an important function in bringing about social change.
Against this background there is a growing interest in emotional education (McCarthy and Park, 1998) and emotional literacy (Sharp, 2001), particularly from those within the educational psychology support services. Related to, but not identical with the concept of emotional intelligence, (Goleman, 1995), emotional literacy has been defined by (Sharp, 2001) as follows.
People are able to recognize, understand, handle, and appropriately express their emotions. (p1)
The emotional literacy agenda includes:
- workshops on anger management,
for both teachers and pupils, (Faupel et. al., 1998), provided by psychological
services which have a predominantly cognitive-behavioural orientation,
and
- those activities (often delivered in what
is called Personal, Social and Health Education – PSHE) where schools
seek to discharge their fundamental responsibilities for providing a
curriculum which
a) promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society; and
b) prepares such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life. (Education Reform Act 1988: Section 1(2))
It is noteworthy that these two aims together with the detailed prescriptive content of the National Curriculum precisely match the three aims as expressed by Egan (1997) in the quotation above.
The emotional literacy agenda is often articulated in the discourse of mental and emotional health, (Weare, 2000). This discourse has been sharply criticised for many years by Szasz (1970,1974), on the grounds that it medicalises what are essentially difficulties and problems with living, and turns professionals into agents of coercion and control. There have been other, more recent critiques of the related concepts of self esteem, (Emler, 2001 and Smith, 2002).
I will argue that, from a psychodynamic perspective, the (psychological) concept of emotional literacy is vulnerable to a similar critique, by building upon existing analyses of educational institutions and their aims, and the processes of learning and thinking (Coren, 1997; Salzberger-Wittenberg, et. al., 1987). The (sociological) concept of social exclusion can also be enriched by insights from a psychodynamic perspective.
A psychodynamic perspective attaches importance to:
- the influence of childhood
experiences on adult behaviour, thoughts and feelings,
- the existence of an unconscious
part of the human mind which is outside direct human awareness, and
- the way in which each of us develops an interpretive stance on the world – a way of making sense of our reality (Shapiro & Carr, 1991, p5)
Recent studies (Kinder et. al. 1996) into truancy and exclusion have researched the views of pupils who are involved in these processes. An important concept is that of disaffection, and the associated emotional states of boredom, anger and fear underlying their behaviour.
Literally the negation of affect, the Oxford English Dictionary gives disloyalty and political discontent as the two meanings of the word ‘disaffection’. Boredom is not simply a negation of affect. Phillips (1993) describes it as
that state of suspended anticipation in which things are started and nothing happens, the mood which contains that most absurd and paradoxical wish, the wish for a desire. (p71)
and
as a defence against waiting, which is, at one remove, an acknowledgement of the possibility of desire. (p80)
Given the importance of curiosity as the source of our engagement with the world and each other (Shapiro& Carr, 1991), the lack of curiosity as a correlate of boredom is a challenge for educators. However it is not only a psychological or emotional challenge. There is also a need to create shared meanings and values as well as shared feelings to underpin the social bond.
My hope in presenting
this session is that it will arouse your curiosity and engagement and
be a productive time to generate new ideas and understandings.
References
Coren, A. (1997) A psychodynamic approach to education. London: Sheldon Press
Education Reform Act 1988: Section 1(2) London: HMSO
Egan, K. (1997) The educated mind: how cognitive tools shape our understanding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Emler, N. (2000) Self-esteem: The costs and causes of low self-worth. YPS for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Faupel, A. Herrick, E. & Sharp, P. (1998) Anger Management A Practical Guide. London: David Fulton Publishers
Goleman, D. (1999) Working with Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury
Kinder, K. Wakefield, A. & Wilkin, A. (2000) Talking Back-Pupil Views on Disaffection. Berkshire: NFER
McCarthy, K. and Park, J. (1998) Learning by Heart: The Role of Emotional Education in Raising School Achievement. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/Brighton: Re:membering Education
Phillips, A. (1993) On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored. London: Faber and Faber
Pierson, J. (2002) Tackling Social Exclusion. London and New York: Routledge
Salzberger-Wittenberg, I., Henry, G. & Osborne, E. (1987) The emotional experience of learning and teaching. London: Routledge
Shapiro, E. & Carr, A. (1991) Lost in Familiar Places-Creating New Connections between the Individual and Society. New Haven & London: Yale University Press
Sharp, P. (2001) Nurturing Emotional Literacy. London: David Fulton Publishers
Smith, D. (2002) ‘Self-esteem: the kindly apocalypse’ in Journal of Philosophy of Education. Vol 36 No 1 pp87-100.
Social Exclusion Unit (1998) Truancy and School Exclusion. Report by the Social Exclusion Unit. London: The Stationary Office
Szasz, T. (1974 rev.ed) The myth of mental illness: foundations of a theory of personal conduct. New York: Harper Collins (Originally published in 1962, London : Secker & Warburg)
Szasz, T. (1970/1991) Ideology and Insanity: Essays on the Psychiatric Dehumanisation of Man. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press
Weare, K. (2000) Developing Mental, Emotional and Social Health: A Whole School Approach. London: Routledge
Zagier Roberts, V. (1994) ‘The self-assigned impossible task’ in A. Obholzer & V. Zagier Roberts (eds) (1994) The Unconscious at Work: Individual and Organizational Stress in the Workplace London: Routledge
