Therapization and emotions in the SEL's policy enactment in the school

Abstract

Since its introduction, emotional intelligence concept has motivated several studies aimed at demonstrating the importance of emotions and the possibility of converting them into capabilities susceptible of being developed and/or trained. This study analyzed the manner in which the professionals responsible for implementing Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) policies and initiatives in Chilean educational establishments have signified the emotional in operationalizing these processes. Through in-depth narrative interviews with 12 elementary school actors (principals, educational psychologists, coexistence managers, and head teachers), it is evidenced that meanings of the emotional are imbricated in the ways of approaching SLE policies which are based on a therapeutic-cultural ethos manifested in the therapization of educational spaces, with the purpose of educating in a particular way of talking about emotions and in an affective key, favoring the development of an introspective/affective style. We discuss the implications of understanding socioemotional development as a type of speech, as well as the problems of extending therapeutic logics to school spaces.