Emotional Governance, Digital Compliance and the Restructuring of Professionalism in Schools
Abstract
This article argues that emotional governance has become a defining mechanism of control in English schools. By this we mean the expectation that teachers and pupils render themselves emotionally legible through digital and managerial systems. Drawing on Foucauldian and post-Foucauldian frameworks (Ball, Rose, Berlant), we show how affective norms are embedded in institutional life through platforms, biometrics, and managerial discourse. We identify three mechanisms – affective visibility, emotional calibration, and infrastructural emotional labour – through which mood and resilience are mobilised as proxies for coherence, and classify this as a form of ideological soft governance.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Global Educational Policies and Reforms
Legal Issues in Education
Digital Education and Society
Publication details
- Journal / source
- British Journal of Educational Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 311–330
- Publication date
- 8 January 2026
- Language
- EN