Schooling Citizenship and Character in a Therapeutic Society

Schools in the UK are reportedly facing an acute mental health crisis due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent cost of living pressures, leading to a renewed focus on therapeutic education and a growing prominence for wellbeing and emotion-based initiatives. These developments form part of a longer story about the increasingly dominant influence of psychology and the therapeutic ethos in late modern societies, but one that has been subjected to various critiques in recent years. This article approaches schools as a lens through which to interrogate the evolving nature of the therapeutic ethos and how it manifests in education, through a particular focus on pedagogies of citizenship and character formation. Drawing on in-depth qualitative data from four primary schools across Britain, it explores the nature and scope of therapeutic education in the post-COVID educational context, its relationship with citizenship and character education, and the role of religion as a significant case study for understanding these processes. It is argued that psychological and therapeutic sensibilities emerge as dominant influences on the development of young selves, but in rather more complex ways than is reflected in the existing literature, resonating with recent scholarship on therapeutic cultures emphasising their hybrid, heterogenous nature. The article offers a sociological analysis of the continued rise of therapeutic education, while advancing wider theoretical debates about contemporary therapeutic cultures, the emerging relationship between religion and psychology, and the significance of schools as social institutions.