On the Self: Discourses of Mental Health and Education

This book examines the emergence of psychologised discourses of the self in education and considers their effects on children and young people, on relationships both in and out of school and on educational practices. It undertakes a Foucauldian genealogy of the discourses of the self in education in order to scrutinise the ‘focal points of experience’ for children and young people.  Part One of the book offers a critical analysis of the discourses of the self that operate within interventions of self esteem, self concept, self efficacy and self regulation and their incursions into education. Part Two provides counter-narratives of the self, drawn principally from the arts and politics and providing alternative, and potentially radical, ways of when and how the self might speak. It also articulates how teachers may support children and young people in giving voice to these counter-narratives as they move through school. 

Julie Allan is Professor of Equity and Inclusion at the University of Birmingham, UK where she was formerly Head of the School of Education. Julie’s research focuses on inclusion, disability studies and children’s rights and encompasses both empirical and theoretical work. She has been an expert adviser on policy, practice and research to governments, NGOs and Council of Europe. Julie and Valerie co-edited, together with Clara Jørgensen, The Routledge World Yearbook in Education 2020: Schooling, governance and inequalities.

Valerie Harwood is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology of Education, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney. Valerie’s research is centred on a social and cultural analysis of participation in educational futures. This work involves learning about collaborative approaches and in-depth fieldwork on educational justice with young people, families and communities. Valerie and Julie are the authors of Psychopathology at School:Theorising Mental Disorder in Education (2014, Routledge) and Medicus Interruptus in the Behaviour of Disadvantaged Children in Scotland, in the British Journal of Sociology of Education.