Conflating religious principles with emotional literacy

Year: 2004

Author: Meadmore, Daphne

Type of paper: Refereed paper

Abstract:
This paper considers the value-addedness that notions of emotional literacy give to prestigious schools in Australia. Combining ideas of self-esteem and emotional intelligence, emotional literacy has emerged as a pedagogical project in such schools. Moreover, ideas about emotional literacy are used to sell educational packages in which they sit comfortably with religious principles. Religious principles, in turn, are often reduced to broader and less specific notions of spirituality that are more akin to progressivism than religion. This paper draws on a recent research study of school generated documents in the public domain that represent twenty elite Australian schools. In doing so, the paper considers the truth claims made in such publications as ways of adding value to the ‘best’ education on offer.

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