Vol 2 Issue 1

 

  1. Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Young People: The Challenge for Policy Makers
    Paul Cooper
    pp. 4 - 16
    This paper considers some of the policy issues associated with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) in young people. After briefly defining SEBD the paper goes on to consider some of the ways in which SEBD impinges on different areas of social policy. Emphasis is placed on the need for coherence between different policy areas. Particular attention is given to the area of education and the need for more sophisticated conceptions of the meaning of inclusive education.

  2. Sustainability of Social-Emotional Learning and related Programs: Lessons from a Field Study
    Maurice Elias
    pp. 17 - 33
    Social-emotional learning, character education, and related programs are being implemented in schools with increasing frequency and research supports their short-term effectiveness. However, there has been no empirical work to date that identifies the factors important for the long-term sustainability of programs established as excellent models of implementation. Using a series of case studies of evidence-based social-emotional learning programs implemented successfully for at least five years, this study articulates principles that characterize programs that were found to be well-sustained over time. These principles have implications for practice and serve as starting points for future research.

  3. Emotional Education as second language acquisition?
    Gale Macleod, James MacAllister, and Anne Pirrie
    pp. 34 - 48
    In this paper we argue that while emotional education intervention packages offer certain advantages, there are risks associated with their uncritical use. The main risk is that if the unwanted behaviour of some pupils is seen merely as a problem that can be dealt with through targeted intervention, then important, identity constitutive parts of their reality might become obscured. We reconsider sociological explanations of school disaffection, along with more recent sociological and philosophical attempts to explore the emotional aspect of schooling. We hypothesise that some of the challenging behaviour exhibited by young people in schools is solution seeking; that it is a functional adaptation to an essentially foreign emotional environment. We conclude that attempts to educate the emotions should aim to develop morally rich virtues rather than empty intelligences.

  4. Social and Emotional Competence: Are preventive programmes necessary in early childhood education and care?
    Valerie Sollars
    pp. 49 - 60
    Just as young children begin to develop a wide range of skills, attitudes and behaviours during the early years, the development of social and emotional competence is also rooted in early childhood. Yet, whilst some argue that this competence is nurtured through preventive programmes (Schonert-Reichl, 2004), this paper argues against the need for preventive programmes as long as the adults caring for young children are themselves experiencing positive relationships and can be role models providing a stable and positive effect on children during what must be one of their most crucial and vulnerable periods of their life. The paper juxtaposes various interpretations of quality education and care in the early years and emphasises good practice which can promote social and emotional competence without the need to resort to formal, preventive programmes. Assuming that positive and appropriate approaches to early childhood education and care are promoted within homes as well as within formal early years settings, there can be a natural development of emotional and social competence.

  5. The radical potential of student voice: Creating spaces for restless encounters
    Michael Fielding
    pp. 61 - 73
    This paper starts by sketching out some of the developments in research partnerships between adults and young people within the context of formal schooling in the last twenty years and then briefly touches on some of the critiques of such work, underlining the role of values and political perspectives. The third section argues for a particular - person-centred - standpoint resting on a relational, communal view of the self that puts certain kinds of relationships at the heart of education and schooling in general, and student voice partnerships in particular. Finally, the author argues for the importance of creating spaces for restless encounters between adults and young people in which they are able to re-see and re-engage with each other in creative, holistic and potentially transformational ways. In taking this forward, the much neglected and derided radical traditions of state education offer us an important resource.

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