Chapter 4 - Emotion Regulation

Summary

Within the past three decades, there has been a burgeoning interest in exploring control over emotions. The discourse on emotion regulation is informed by the idea that emotions affect learning in adaptive and maladaptive ways. Students can be taught to strategically manage their emotions in order to support their adaptability to schooling contexts. The process of regulating emotions itself is entangled in neoliberal values. What was once thought to be an unmanageable and private human experience has been placed under the scientist’s microscope and dissected for the purpose of a type of self-management. Furthermore, valued emotional displays are aligned with neoliberal values. Regardless of conditions and contexts, students must remain optimistic, calm, happy, and feel safe so they can respond in adaptive ways to modern economic arrangements. There are emotion rules that align with neoliberal values for selfhood and function to make neoliberal relationships tolerable.