1. Building emotional intelligence and self-esteem in education
the implications of personalised learning

2. Outline some implications emotional dimensions in education
self-esteem
emotional intelligence and well-being
some influences/sources
personalised learning, personalised public services
therapeutic culture
some implications
diminished aspirations?
empowerment?

3. Emotional dimensions in education
emotional intelligence: self-awareness, management of emotions, empathy, expression of feelings, recognising the power of feelings
self-esteem: self-worth, confidence, self-concept
circle time in schools
personal advisers for young people, personal tutorials in colleges
diagnosis of EI and SE
new labels: ‘vulnerable’, ‘fragile’ learners, ‘fragile identities’, learners ‘at risk’
research interest: identity, biography

4. Some reasons personalised public services therapeutic culture
reaching a disaffected public through emotional engagement
concerns about social exclusion and disaffection from formal education
therapeutic culture
therapeutic interventions in all areas of life and public policy
a mindset, symbols and language that constructs a new form of subjectivity
cultural preoccupation with the ‘diminished self’

5. Therapeutic culture
cultural, social and political beliefs that life has become hard to handle
for some groups
for everyone – ‘we’re all vulnerable and damaged’
[the diminished self]...characteristically suffers from an emotional deficit and possesses a permanent consciousness of vulnerability (Furedi, 2004: 414).
distinction between legitimate, necessary therapy and therapeutic culture/ethos

6. Some implications
latest evangelical bandwagon or progressive development?
lack of theoretical and empirical evidence for ET and SE
influence of catalytic validity, ‘Hawthorne effect’, ‘evidence from practice’ and commercial interests
abandoning educational goals for personal ones
institutionalising the diminished self
essentialising particular groups
dubious and intrusive interventions
reifying an endless quest to understand and accommodate the emotional self
‘I feel therefore I am’
‘I am what my feelings are telling me’

7. Challenging the new orthodoxy
questioning the empirical and theoretical evidence
locating EI and SE in a wider cultural and political context
reinstating structural causes and effects of social exclusion and resisting emotional ones
questioning therapeutic culture:
a culture becomes therapeutic when this form of thinking expands from informing the role between the individual and therapist to shaping public perceptions about a range of issues. At that point, it ceases to be a clinical technique and becomes an instrument for the management of subjectivity (Furedi, 2004, ).
reasserting the importance of the rational