The Psychologized Approach Reviewed

The psychological turn in higher education and the new taxonomy of attitudes and emotions: Denmark as a case study

“…Second, the idea that adversity and frustration should result in a growth and learning represents an instrumental notion of learning, in which students’ struggling is only recognized if it includes a personal learning outcome (Bengtsen et al, 2021). Thirdly, the ideal that students must meet the challenges they encounter during their studies with a positive and learning-oriented attitude may lead to the silencing critique as well as pathologization of students, who experience themselves as struggling (Bekerman and Zembylas, 2018; Brinkmann, 2014; Petersen and Sarauw, 2023; Roberts, 2015; Zembylas, 2021). Third, the figure of the desired student which is constructed in this cluster has an affinity to the idea of the ‘neo-liberal’ subject who is responsible for her own actions, can make ‘rational’ decisions independently of structures and power relations, and who continually corrects herself in relation to expectations from the surroundings.…”

“…By building the individual’s self-efficacy and positive attitude towards the surrounding world, it aims to improve human well-being and quality of life, which is done by underlining positive subjective experiences, positive individual traits and positive institutions (ibid.). Positive psychology has previously been criticized for individualizing structural problems and eliminating the language for critique (Bekerman and Zembylas, 2018; Brinkmann, 2014; Petersen and Sarauw, 2023; Zembylas, 2021). In the expert literature and policy reports behind the development of Denmark’s Study Survey (EVA/Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, 2019a, EVA/Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut, 2019b; Hailikari and Parpala, 2014; Herrmann et al, 2017), however, it is argued that there is a positive correlation between learning outcomes, well-being and having a positive attitude to constraints.…”

“…Rather than explaining the increased concern with students’ well-being as a neutral and natural development with the purpose of counteracting the effects of pandemics and diverse crises, we have outlined how the well-being agenda, and particularly the one linked to positive psychology (Baduara, 1977; Seligman, 2020), is entangled with images of the ideal student as positive-minded, self-determined, structured and goal-oriented. In this perspective, the psychological turn in higher education can be seen not only as an aftermath to neoliberal globalization, but also as a major contributor in reinforcing it by introducing the contributing to the construction of resilient, self-governing and self-correcting student subjects as defined by the neoliberal economy (Bekerman and Zembylas, 2018).…”

Peace education and peace education research: Toward a concept of poststructural violence and second-order reflexivity

“…First, the heterogeneity of PACS education and PACS lecturers challenges the limits of this monolithic position. Second, reontologizing (i.e., externalizing) what has been epistemologized (i.e., internalized) helps to trouble the presumptions that peace, like violence, is simply in the rational minds of individual scholars and students (Bekerman & Zembylas, 2017).…”