This paper reports on a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the New Labour (1997–2010) discourse of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in schools, examining how it was understood and enacted by policymakers in England and Wales within the context of devolved government across the UK. Drawing on data from eight semi-structured interviews with key national-level policymakers, alongside documentary analysis of policy texts, this study employs Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model of CDA to interrogate the relationship between language, political ideology, and SEL policy formation. The findings reveal that in England, particularly during New Labour's second term, SEL—operationalised through the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) programme—was adopted as a tool of managerialism designed to shape self-managing, entrepreneurial subjects in service of the neoliberal economic model. By contrast, the Welsh Assembly Government adopted SEL as a practical and progressive instrument for developing a more equal society, rooted in normative precepts of collective community cohesion and notions of the child as a democratic citizen with agency and rights. The study concludes that the relationship between language and political ideology during the New Labour years powerfully shaped SEL policy discourse. In England, this resulted in a thin version of SEL co-opted into the service of the neoliberal marketplace; in Wales, a similar outcome occurred after a transformative version of SEL was gradually relinquished due to the invasive neoliberal forces affecting Welsh education. The research unveils implicit reified notions of childhood and children's wellbeing that were central to SEL development, and reveals the influence of national tradition, domestic power structures, and cross-societal inequities on the conceptualisation and delivery of SEL.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of the New Labour Discourse of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Across Schools in England and Wales
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References
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