Emotional education: A critical review of the voices against its implementation in schools

Abstract

The uncertainty, constant changes and growing diversity that characterize the societies in which we live have a considerable impact on people's lives. Education is no stranger to this situation and, aware of its responsibility and social function of training for life, has echoed the recommendations to promote the development of emotional skills. However, there are voices critical of this initiative considering that they respond to the interest of maintaining a neoliberal economic-social order. The purpose of this article is to deepen our knowledge of these critical positions and to present a rationale for Emotional Education that includes and contextualises them, to conclude with a reflection on the need to reconcile the different views and perspectives for the benefit of the integral personal development of individuals and society. To meet the objective of this proposal a systematic literature review was carried out in the PsycInfo, Education database, Dialnet, ERIC and Scielo databases, and 14 scientific publications in specialized journals and 3 books that responded to the objective of the study were selected. As a result of the analyses of the literature we have made a categorisation of the criticisms into six areas: political, educational, psychological, sociological, philosophical, and, to a lesser extent, linguistic. The need to reconcile different perspectives for the implementation of EE in schools and the importance of teacher training for this purpose is discussed. Finally, the implications of the criticism are pointed out as well as future lines of research.