Emotions, power and the advent of mass schooling

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the relationship between emotions, power and schooling. Focusing on elementary schools during the second half of the nineteenth century, when education for the masses in Sweden emerged, the article discusses the emotionology of early mass schooling. It is argued that the abolishment of the monitorial method in the second half of the nineteenth century contributed to the development of an increasingly emotional pedagogy. It is further argued that the concept of love was important, a concept with moral connotations where children were expected to love their school, country, parents and God. Furthermore, the emotional aspects of punishment are explored, exemplifying why emotions were considered important in maintaining discipline. Finally, drawing on the concepts of emotional labour and emotional community, it is argued that the school of the late nineteenth century in Sweden was characterised by a tight relationship between labour and community.

Reinventing the Link Between Education and the Nation via Imagination and Emotions: The National Literacy of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

“…In the center of this was the feeling of love, which was described in Olander's handbook using the nouns love (kärlek) and love of the fatherland (fosterlandskärlek) as well as the verb 'to love'. This interest in the emotions of school children may in part be related to an increasingly emotional pedagogy in Swedish primary schools, where warm feelings for the school, the teacher, and the country were encouraged (Landahl, 2015). But it may also be related to a broader contemporary discussion on patriotism, where the feelings of love could be linked to those of pride and loyalty (Hoegaerts, 2020).…”

Required alienation? The monitored self in a health promotion programme in secondary schools of three Swedish municipalities

“…Considerable critique has also targeted the component of 'Life Competence Education' commonly inserted into these programmes in the last 20 years. Children are trained to adopt certain norms and behaviours preferred by authorities, politicians, and consultants but denied real participation and co-construction (Alstam and Forkby 2018;Landahl 2015;Löf 2011;von Brömssen 2013). The norms encapsulated in the programmes are not neutral, but convey a particular type of citizenship: on the one hand an inward-feeling citizenship, characterising the individual as deliberative and emotional; on the other, an outward-making citizenship, where the citizen is portrayed as entrepreneurial and willing.…”

Feeling through Practice: Subjectivity and Emotion in Children’s Writing

“…The emergence of schools meant that a new institution was created which was able to disseminate emotional ideals to a completely new degree." 32 In Britain, too, the "civilizing mission" with which elementary schools were often tasked, particularly in urban working-class areas, was motivated by a drive to shape children's emotions as well as their behavior. Examining late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century practice and pedagogy, Peter Yeandle has shown how the history stories in English elementary school readers were explicitly designed to provoke a particular emotional reaction in their young readers and thereby encourage an emotional attachment to the nation.…”