Promoting Emotional Literacy:
"Emotional Literacy Improves and Increases Your Life Chances"

Peter Sharp, an Educational Psychologist, explains how Daniel Goleman’s best selling book focused his interest on the idea of emotional literacy; how he found that interest was shared by Southampton’s Education Services Chief Inspector and that, as a result of this, emotional literacy became one of the Authority’s priorities. The wide range of initiatives currently taking place in Southampton are described as the broad way in which the concerns of emotional literacy are interpreted. The Southampton approach has already created interest among other LEAs and there are plans to produce supportive materials. The paper concludes by suggesting the way in which schools might start work in this area.

Introduction

Measuring what we value, instead of valuing what is easily measured, should form the basis of sustainable and ethical monitoring and review in education during the next ten years. Growing disenchantment with an over-emphasis on IQ and on cognitive skills and ability has led to reconsideration of education as an holistic enterprise.

Daniel Goleman has opened up this debate to an unprecedented number of people, his book ‘Emotional Intelligence’ has sold millions and been translated into numerous languages. He caught the zeitgeist when he asserted that: “We have gone too far in emphasising the value and import of the purely rational – what IQ measures – intelligence can come to nothing when emotions hold sway.” This had resonance for me when I read it, having trained as a psychologist firstly in Child Development at the Institute of Education and then at the Tavistock Clinic during the 1980s. The juxtaposition of cognitive psychology followed by affective psychology led me to the belief that education should take full account of all areas of child development and aim to support personal growth as well as simple attainment.

Estelle Morris said: “Developing children as rounded people and active members of the community is at the heart of what schools are about” [Speaking then as Under-Secretary of State for School Standards at SCAA Primary Curriculum Conference, June 1997]. This message is further strengthened by the government’s aims to promote social inclusion and to develop citizenship.

Developing Emotional Literacy in Southampton

By happy coincidence I read Daniel Goleman’s book at much the same time as my colleague Ian Sandbrook [Chief Inspector for Southampton Education Services] and we came to agree that emotional literacy should be an equal priority with literacy and numeracy for all children in Southampton. Educational Psychologists and Inspectors worked together to consider first their own emotional literacy, and then how we might work together to develop this initiative across the whole city. Elected members, the Executive Director and education managers are enthusiastic in their support for this work, and have shown vision in incorporating this as a top priority to help us on our central task to provide better learning for all.

Emotional Literacy is defined in our strategic education plan as “the ability to recognise, understand, handle, and appropriately express their emotions”. In 1998 we embarked on a programme to promote emotional literacy through a range of activities including:

• Seminars, presentations and publications for head teachers, teachers, governors, parents, pupils, police, colleagues in health and social services, and employers
• Publication and implementation of the Behaviour Support Plan centrally focussed on promoting emotional literacy
• Promoting Pupil Inclusion Project to reduce exclusions [Southampton have reduced exclusions by over 50% since becoming a unitary authority in 1997]
• Run training and development on Anger Management [for over 1500 teachers and parents at the time of writing]
• Run Anger Management Groups on an apprenticeship cascade model [Educational Psychologists have run over 45 groups to date each with six or so children and in collaboration with teachers in our schools.] See bibliography: ‘Clinical Counselling in Schools’ Ed. Nick Barwick.
• Delivered modular training for senior teachers on management of behaviour [over 100 teachers have now completed a six day training covering whole school policy, managing groups, managing the individual, promoting self-esteem, therapeutic intervention and project work.]
• Delivered anti-bullying training to teachers from 45 schools
• Devise strategies to combat racial harassment

Working together to make this a city-wide strategy

During the first days of our programme we were thrilled to see that nearly 90% of Southampton head teachers chose to come to voluntary seminars, and evaluations and feedback convinced us that we had struck a chord in trying to put the heart back into education. Subsequently we formed Southampton Emotional Literacy Interest Group [SELIG] and received 34 applications from head teachers to join us. In the event we have 22 members of SELIG including heads, deputy heads, senior teachers, educational psychologists, inspectors, a PSHE teacher advisor, consultant psychiatrist, governors, and a representative from Southampton University. SELIG has developed action research proposals and is currently engaged in drafting Guidelines for Promoting Emotional Literacy for publication in the autumn 2000. Within SELIG there are 12 project schools, plus a multi-agency project, and an LEA project. These projects cover a range of work, some of which include:

• Education Services: assess the emotional intelligence of education managers, then draft individual action plans to promote firstly their own emotional literacy and then their teams
• Helping parents to develop emotionally literate parenting skills [secondary school]
• Developing emotional literacy skills in students and staff using a whole school approach [secondary school]
• Developing a feelings vocabulary and to replace physical and verbal aggression with more emotionally literate ways to handle anger [primary school]
• To promote positive ethos and better behaviour at lunchtimes [two primary schools]
• Multi-agency: To promote emotionally literate communication between agencies

Prof. Edmund Sonuga-Barke and Dr. Robert Stratford are independently evaluating all the projects from Southampton University and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation funds this evaluation. We hope to begin to evaluate our hypothesis that if teachers, pupils, parents, officers, and others feel positive about themselves then they will learn more effectively. Put more succinctly:

Improving Emotional Literacy = Improving Standards

“Feel Good = Learn Good”

The guidelines for promoting emotional literacy are being produced using the headings: Policy, Pupils, Parents, Teaching & Curriculum, Staff [teachers, learning support assistants & others], Governors, and the LEA, Health and Social Services. We aim to give practical advice to schools that can help them to establish their own emotional literacy policy and incorporate this into their school development plans. It is exciting to note that we have the first Emotional Literacy Governor appointed, the first Emotional Literacy Co-ordinator appointed in a secondary school [at a senior level], and a recent development is the formation of a school cluster compact involving 190 teachers [signed-up to for 3 years] to write and implement a 4 – 16 years emotional literacy policy.

To date Southampton has been commissioned to work with 14 other LEAs to promote emotional literacy, and representatives from over 40 LEAs have received training on the Southampton Anger Management Model and on how to run Anger Management Groups. We assert that emotional literacy encompasses:

• Learning and Achievement
• Behaviour and Discipline
• Health Promotion (including mental health, drugs, substance abuse)
• PSHE
• Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural Development
• Equal Opportunities
• Citizenship
• Social Inclusion
• Crime & Disorder

Schools can begin their development work on emotional literacy by simply getting out all their paperwork on the above list and looking at how compatible, consistent, and emotionally literate their policies, procedures and practices are. However all participants in our seminars have begun by doing an experiential activity involving life mapping and personal reflection. We do this because of the conviction that starting with self and taking time to ‘stand and stare’ is an important process in understanding our own emotional literacy, so that we may better promote the emotional literacy of our children. Each school needs to agree what constitutes an emotionally literate school, teacher, pupil, and parent, then plan to make it possible or at least likely that the opportunity exists to make this a reality. LEAs need to look at what an emotionally literate LEA looks like, and how our officers and services can be emotionally literate in their principal task of raising standards for all children.

As well as the guidelines we hope to develop curriculum materials, a resource bank, and to publish examples of good practice in schools, education services and in multi-agency settings. Ultimately we hope to be able to thoroughly test our hypothesis that promoting emotional literacy does lead to improved standards. We also hope to see that some fun can be had along the way, and that the human aspects of education are invigorated and valued.

Acknowledgement

I would especially like to thank Ian Sandbrook for his encouragement and commitment to making a difference as my learning partner; it really is great to see psychologists and inspectors working well together. The members of SELIG are a lovely group of caring people who are in at the beginning of an exciting journey, and I thank them for their enthusiasm and for the support they give to promoting emotional literacy. Warm appreciation to my colleagues in and beyond Southampton for allowing me to push at an open door and to reintroduce the human aspects of the educative process. Finally, I’m amazed that Lindsey, Chloe & Poppy put up with me… without them I’d be struggling!

Useful addresses:

Antidote: Campaign for Emotional Literacy
5th Floor, 45 Beech St, Barbican, London EC2Y 8AD
Tel 020 - 7588 - 5151
Antidote@geo2poptel.org.uk

Smallwood Publishing, The Old Bakery, Charlton House, Dour Street, Dover, Kent CT16 1ED
Tel 01304 - 226800
www.smallwood.co.uk
[Simply the best catalogue of materials on emotional literacy for educators]

Forum for the Advancement of Educational Therapy and Therapeutic Teaching [FAETT]
3 Templewood, London W13 8BA
[Aims to develop the theory of educational therapy and disseminate knowledge to teachers]

Re:membering Education
66 Beaconsfield Villas, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6HE
[Network of teachers seeking to develop all children's faculties & deepen the education debate]

Bibliography

Barwick, N (Ed) (June 2000) Clinical Counselling In Schools: Chapter 9 Promoting Emotional Literacy – Peter Sharp & Elizabeth Herrick London: Routledge

Faupel, A., Herrick, E., and Sharp, P.M. (1998) Anger Management – A Practical Guide London: David Fulton

Gardner,H (1993) Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice New York: Basic Books

Goleman, D (1995) Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury Publishing

___ (1998) Working with Emotional Intelligence London: Bloomsbury Publishing

Gottman, J., (1997) The Heart of Parenting - How to raise an emotionally intelligent child London: Bloomsbury

Sharp, P.M. (scheduled for September 2000& in preparation) Nurturing Emotional Literacy London: David Fulton

Steiner, C., with Perry, P. (1997) Achieving Emotional Literacy - A personal program to increase your emotional intelligence Avon Books

Weisenger, H., (1998) Emotional Intelligence at Work Jossey-Bass

Correspondence

Peter Sharp

Principal Consultant
Mouchel

email: peter.sharp@mouchel.com

Added July 2000