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Student Wellbeing and the Therapeutic Turn in Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2014

Katie Wright
Katie Wright*
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Katie Wright, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, 100 Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3010, Australia, Email: kwright@unimelb.edu.au
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Abstract

This article considers current concerns with promoting student mental health and wellbeing against the backdrop of critiques of the ‘therapeutic turn’ in education. It begins by situating accounts of ‘therapeutic education’ within broader theorisation of therapeutic culture. In doing so, the importance of this work is acknowledged, but key assumptions are questioned. The emergence of concerns about self-esteem and wellbeing are then examined through an analysis of changing educational aims in Australia. This enables consideration of the broader context for policy reforms and emergent ideas about the importance of fostering wellbeing and attending to the social and emotional aspects of learning. Finally, the article argues for the salience of historicising both educational policy and scholarly critiques of therapeutic education in order to: (1) situate the contemporary emphasis on student wellbeing within a longer history of educational reforms aimed at supporting young people; (2) unsettle taken-for-granted ways in which mental health and wellbeing are currently foregrounded in contemporary schooling; and (3) develop new perspectives on the therapeutic turn in education.

Keywords

educational aimshistoryeducation policytherapeutic culturemental health and wellbeing
Type
Articles
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , December 2014 , pp. 141 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society Ltd 2014 

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