Self-Management or Social Change? Representations of Anger in Social and Emotional Learning Materials and Children's and Young Adult Literature

• In Event: From the Local to the Global: Literature and Literary Knowledge in and Across Context(s)

Abstract

Using critical comparative analysis, we examine anger and related social ideologies in texts designed to teach SEL and in selected children’s/YA literature. SEL-focused texts frame anger as an individual emotion to be managed, often related to a trivial problem (e.g., a kite that won’t fly). In contrast, children’s/YA texts portray anger as a valid response to both individual and systemic problems and show the productive role anger can play in social movements. We assert that non-didactic literature invites critical examinations of the social implications of emotions. Students can learn to read themselves, each other, and the world more critically and compassionately— ultimately gaining the skills that SEL purports as most important.

Authors

• Alyssa Chrisman, The Ohio State University

• Caroline T. Clark, The Ohio State University - Columbus