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We need to talk about social-emotional learning.
I know a family whose child is seriously struggling right now. So I am sympathetic to amazing school efforts, and parents seeking help.
But the social-emotional learning agenda isn't entirely about helping them...
I know a family whose child is seriously struggling right now. So I am sympathetic to amazing school efforts, and parents seeking help.
But the social-emotional learning agenda isn't entirely about helping them...
The SEL movement is also animated by this cost-benefit algorithm. Your children's emotions are now economic material to be optimised. https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/SEL-Revised.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiaqKSK55TtAhVPQUEAHTnLAVoQFjACegQIBRAF&usg=AOvVaw0ZrnBTuUyo-an9Cph0lmy3
And it seemed like social-emotional learning was a switch away from international comparative tests? Nope. OECD is testing children at 10 and 15 to compare their SEL skills. http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/social-emotional-skills-study/
If you're a parent of primary school kids you've probably now got an emotion sorting program in place. Some need it. But let's not forget this is an industry. Yes teachers have agency to choose, but it's a huge and powerful sector. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2017.1394500
My schildren are experiencing a program with colour-coded emotion "cogs". But are emotions categorizable? How we think of emotions is historically situated too. "Cogs" are a new way of thinking. Emotions aren't separate from the tools used to measure them. https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/emotions/
Finally, plenty of orgs want to assess children's emotions with biometric, facial vision and other tech. Based on assumption "basic emotions" can be captured, culture-free and separable from the apparatus that assesses them.
The World Economic Forum recommends biometrics and facial analysis for assessing social-emotional learning, for example. https://www.weforum.org/reports/new-vision-for-education-fostering-social-and-emotional-learning-through-technology
So children's emotional states are a big concern. The SEL movement has much to offer. But let's not be naive. There are controversial issues regarding the science, economics, and politics involved in evaluating and treating children's emotions.
Social-emotional learning is just as much a historical artefact as the way we have come to think about human emotion itself, too.
Thinking of those we know, now in the thick of this shift in educational attention. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo26773949.html
Thinking of those we know, now in the thick of this shift in educational attention. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo26773949.html
