The relevance of emotional literacy within education

Pages: 6-8
Nalini Malhotra (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala)

Emotional literacy is universally relevant as it can benefit every individual, every organization, and every profession because it has the capacity to transform each person and his or her relationship. Emotional literacy is the ability of people to recognize, understand, handle and appropriately express their own emotions and to recognize, understand and respond appropriately to the expressed emotions of others. Emotional literacy has aspects of both thinking and behaviour with dimensions of personal and social competence. It capitalizes on three important advances in psychological science. The first pertains to shifting views about the importance of emotions. The second advance was the broadening view of what it means to be intelligent and “successful” to a diverse set of mental abilities, including emotional skills. The final advance was the growing need for schools to prevent problematic behavior and to promote prosocial behavior among students. Considerable research shows that promoting social and emotional skills would not only promote better behavior and social interaction but also academic performance and emotionally skilled children and adolescents tend to flourish. The major contribution of emotional literacy is that it redirects the attention of educators and parents to the affective, emotional science of human functioning. The present paper highlighted the relevance of emotional literacy within education and it can be considered as the essential foundation of an inclusive and democratic society. Today the need for emotional literacy is ever increasing, and is one of the best investments that we can make ourselves and our children.