International Journal of Emotional Education

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Authors: Fintan O’Regan

The exclusion of children from school, either on a fixed-term or a permanent basis, is a disciplinary tool used in primary and secondary schools throughout the United Kingdom. Students with special educational needs (SEN) are more likely to be permanently excluded than pupils without SEN (Department for Children, Schools and Families 2009). In this review paper, I will examine the role of underlying behavioural difficulties in school exclusion and specifically explore the potential role of ADHD in disruptive behaviours. Finally, with a view to initiating a discussion that emphasizes early recognition and proactive management of the causes of disruptive behaviour, I will use the evidence from this review to identify areas for further consideration. The over-arching intent of this effort is to encourage continued debate among all stakeholders in this important issue that impacts children’s potential and incurs a significant societal cost.

23 - 25

Authors: Paul Bartolo

A Response to Fintan O’Regan’s Exclusion from School and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (2)

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Authors: Maria S. Poulou

The emergence of the Trait Emotional Intelligence construct shifted the interest in personality research to the investigation of the effect of global personality characteristics on behaviour. A second body of research in applied settings, the Social and Emotional Learning movement, emphasized the cultivation of emotional and social skills for positive relationships in a school environment. In this paper we investigate the role of both personality traits and social and emotional skills, in the occurrence of emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties, according to adolescent students’ self-perceptions. Five hundred and fifty-nine students from state secondary schools in Greece, aged 12-14 years old, completed The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Adolescent Short Form, The Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters, and The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. It was found that students with higher Trait Emotional Intelligence and stronger social and emotional skills were less likely to present emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and peer difficulties and more likely to present prosocial behaviour. Gender was a significant factor for emotional difficulties and grade for peer difficulties. The paper describes the underlying mechanisms of students’ emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties, and provides practical implications for educators to improve the quality of students’ lives in schools.

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Authors: Paul Cooper

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.

34 - 48

Authors: Gale Macleod, James MacAllister, and Anne Pirrie

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.

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Authors: Michael Fielding

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