Ideals of Evil and Emotions in Finnish Pre-Primary Education

• In Event: (Re)Tracing the Contours of Educational Possibility and Imagination

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how teachers communicate educational ideals concerning evil and emotions to children in the context of Finnish pre-primary education, and how this contributes to the processes of villainification, e.g., making out-groups represent evil and/or antivillainification, e.g., contributing to complex understandings of evil. To understand this communication, we analyzed five interviews of two teachers, and two educational sessions they conducted with children. The results show that the ideals were communicated by affective technologies without direct usage of the word “evil”, and these mainly contributed to antivillainification processes. In effort to prevent polarization in society, more direct exposure of evil is needed in education, so the children can be aware of the antivillainification process they are involved in.

Authors

• Emma Kurenlahti, University of Helsinki

• Cathryn van Kessel, Texas Christian University

• Jaakko Hilppö, University of Helsinki

• Saila Poulter, University of Helsinki

• Lasse Lipponen, University of Helsinki