Happiness as an aim of education (original) (raw)

Rethinking Schools: Education as Happiness

Arts & Education International Research Journal, 2015

The underlying assumption of any educational reform is that we can and should control measurable achievement. The entire scenario builds on a platform of causal determinism, since every effect has a cause, the causes can be tweaked to produce unique desired effects. But the targeted goals have hardly been achieved, with rote memorization and ‘textbook culture’ plaguing the system. Another striking feature of discussions around educational reform is the absence of conversation around the child’s free will and what might make a child happy. Consequently ‘school’ is being repeatedly labelled as an environment hindering a child's autonomy and creativity. The meaning and need of education goes beyond and should not be restricted to measurable learning outcomes and policies based on cause-effect rationales. The child’s happiness is a continuous component and the paramount metric of his or her education. A compatibilist attempt has been made to preserve a child’s free will within the confines of our deterministic laws. An alternative system of democratic schooling is then proposed, where the school alters itself to the child’s needs, rather than the other way round.

‘Happiness education': A pedagogical-political commitment

Policy Futures in Education, 2016

The topic of ‘happiness education' has received considerable attention in recent years in educational discourse, not just in academia but also in the public sphere. This movement understands that there is a ‘widespread incidence of psychological harm caused by damage to the child's sense of self-worth’ (Smith (2008) The long slide to happiness. Journal of Philosophy of Education 42(3–4): 560), including damage done by the educational system, and as a response to this, it seeks to make use of ‘happiness education' to repair this damage. In the light of this, some commentators, such as Smith (2008), Suissa ((2008) Lessons from a new science? On teaching happiness in schools. Journal of Philosophy of Education 42(3–4): 575–590) and Cigman (2008 ) have criticised this ‘science of happiness' as being reductionist and not taking into account the richness of life. We join these commentators in criticising this approach to ‘happiness education' and refer to Paulo Freire&...

The ambiguity of happiness education in the context of positive education: A critical analysis

Laplage em Revista (International), 2021

The article aims to analyze the place and significance of happiness in educational discourse. The analysis reveals ambivalence of happiness education, following positive education patterns. The ambivalence stems from the fact that happiness is narrowed down to the first component of the following dichotomies: Subjective/objective, active/passive, individual/social. As we explain in our article, such clipped happiness education may involve the following consequences: Necessitating ‘therapeutic education’ for students; neglecting matters of social justice; imposing ideas of happiness on a child through ideological indoctrination. Yet, we can conclude that the dual potential of positive education methods makes it possible to offset the above and other adverse consequences of the promoted idea of happiness.

Education, Happiness and Wellbeing

Social Indicators Research, 2008

Answers to the questions 'Does education influence happiness and if so, how and how much?' depend on how one defines and operationalizes 'education', 'influences' and 'happiness'. A great variety of research scenarios may be constructed from our three essential variables. What public policies one ought to adopt and implement regarding the influence of education on happiness depends minimally on which of the great variety of research scenarios one adopts and maximally on lots of other things as well. My personal preference is for a robust definition of the three terms. Because human beings are complex organisms, an adequate construction of the idea of human wellbeing must also be complex. Therefore, any discipline-driven, reductionist definition that pyschologizes, medicalizes, economizes, geneticizes, socializes or politicizes the idea should be avoided. Keywords Education Á Happiness Á Wellbeing Á Life satisfaction Á Quality of life 1 Introduction Judging from the title of the conference, it appears that we were gathered to examine the science and philosophy involved in happiness studies, and to assess its significance for making public policy. Some of the invited speakers have devoted much of their life's work The first version of this paper was written for the International Conference on 'Is happiness measurable and what do those measures mean for public policy?', at Rome, 2-3 April 2007, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', organized by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, OECD, Centre for Economic and International Studies and the Bank of Italy. I would like to thank the organizers of the conference for the invitation and the participants for helping me clarify some things.

Happiness matters: towards a pedagogy of happiness and well‐being

The Curriculum Journal, 2011

The role of the emotions in learning has long been acknowledged but is often overlooked. This article considers the impact one particular emotion, happiness, has on learning and the school curriculum. Recent reports have drawn attention to the importance of happiness (or the lack of it) by highlighting concerns about childhood well-being. At the same time, there is increasing evidence from psychology and neuroscience to suggest that periods of happiness are linked to personal growth, health and development. When we are happy it seems we are more likely to be receptive to outside stimuli than when we are sad or distressed. Happiness also makes us more disposed to engage in creative endeavour, which is itself another source of fulfilment. Positive psychologists argue that rather than being fixed, happiness, optimism and other positive traits can be learnt. We offer evidence from our own professional experience in teaching to corroborate these claims and to extend the debate about the relevance of affective neuroscience to education. In conclusion, we consider how a focus on happiness might underpin a positive approach to curriculum reform.

Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

There is a burgeoning amount of research into happiness and greatly increased popular attention, so it seems logical to add a course on happiness to the university curriculum. We encountered, in developing and running such a course, a number of dilemmas that the topic of happiness makes especially acute. Should the teacher remain separate from the class, as an authority, or participate in group activities? Is the primary goal of the class to learn content or to change the relationship of students to the world? What does a mark for learning content signify if developing happiness habits is a goal? Should one goal of the class be for the teacher to be happy and, if so, does this conflict with student learning? These dilemmas reflect larger questions about the purpose of university education. This paper reflects on those questions through our experience of formulating and delivering a new university class on happiness.

DOES EDUCATION MAKE US HAPPY: AN INVESTIGATION

If it is needed to estimate what all parents hold in common as a goal for their kids, the response will be very simple that is happiness. Everyone wants their child to be happy or to lead a good life. Therefore the point to be discussed here is; if happiness is the most universal goal of all the parents for their children, why it has been ignored? Isn’t it reasonable that it should also be a goal for education? This paper is an attempt to examine the long-held belief that a high level of education is helpful to later happiness. In addition, it also aims to explore the existing literature as well as the present scenario in this concern. An inspection of several studies carried out in various countries does not support this belief. It reveals a puzzling variety of results rather than a universally positive relation. Objectives of this study are: to study and understand the relationship between education and happiness, to explore the direct and indirect effects of education on one’s happiness and to know whether the education system is happening for the learners today. To meet the objectives Literature review and Descriptive survey research design is used and necessary information were collected from an interview which is semi structured in nature. Respondents included in this study were 40 students from different levels of education. The study reveals that the happiness is a subjective term and the relation between education and happiness depends upon how one understands or grasps the two words, in its broader sense both are associated. At last it is concluded that happiness is the ultimate desire of every human being and all else is a way to accomplish this goal.

Lessons from a New Science? On Teaching Happiness in Schools

Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 42, No 3-4, 2008

Recent media reports about new programmes for ‘happiness lessons’ in schools signal a welcome concern with children's well-being. However, as I shall argue, the presuppositions of the discourse in which many of these proposals are framed, and their orientation towards particular strands of positive psychology, involve ideas about human life that are, in an important sense, anti-educational.