The emergence of social and emotional skills in the educational field constitutes a recent phenomenon that supposed a paradigmatic shift in what education and teachers should be focused on in modern societies. The progressive interest in the Emotional Dimension of teachers and students cannot be understood without the psychological works of Goleman (1996) and Mayer, Salovey & Caruso (2000) about the popular Emotional Intelligence. This capacity has been defined as the ability to appreciate, comprehend and express those socioemotional individual characteristics that contribute to people general wellness as well as to their adaptivity to the variety of life circumstances (Goleman, 2012). Its appearance contributed to the development of a kind of education that considers systematically social and emotional human variables. Henceforth, emotional education aims at promoting socioemotional competencies, which are referred to the combination of capacities related to self-improvement (self-knowledge, self-motivation, capacity for change, decision-making, etc.) and the establishment of positive relationships (empathy, assertive communication, mediation, etc.) (Bisquerra, 2015; Oberle, Domitrovich, Meyers, & Weissberg, 2016; Greenberg, Domitrovich, Weissberg & Durlak, 2017). Additionally, this type of education is likely to meet uncovered needs at the ordinary curriculum, seeking for more humanized educational relationships, practices and basis.
Under a theoretical approach, not only has the Emotional Dimension of human beings been slightly framed by this perspective but also their educational foundations have been criticized. According to several theoretical studies, the inclusion of the emotional experience in the educational scenarios prioritizes personal and shared wellness against traditional cognitive abilities. This theoretical shift focused on the individuality of a person by considering subjective elements, such as beliefs, wishes, aspirations or emotions. As a consequence, a generalist approach of education based on rationality is likely to be sidelined. Therefore, to incorporate socioemotional components into educational practices has been questioned under an alleged psychologisation inspired by the positive individualism approach (Kristjánsson, 2012; Prieto Egido, 2018). This approach, which focuses on subjective wellness of individuals, might forget the ethical dimension of education by attaining an inaccurate therapeutic character. Furthermore, some works have shown a simplification and instrumentalization of emotional education aimed at acquiring a compilation of fixed techniques and tools that teachers and students should incorporate (Bisquerra, Pérez & García, 2015). This statement might ignore other dimensions of education, such a civic or ethical, due to an over- prioritisation of the mentioned individualism. Finally, a duality between the terms ´control´ and ´manage´, referring to emotions, has been found. While the first concept defends the avoidance or elimination of harmful feelings, the second one accepts their utility in terms of learning and human nature (Petrides, Siegling & Saklofske, 2016).
In the light of this context, the aim of the present paper is to analyse the manner in which the Emotional Dimension has been framed by Theory of Education. In concrete terms, the study of this dimension includes the theoretical evolution of social and emotional skills in the educational field (from the Platonic conception of passions to the contemporaneous theories of emotions), the relevancy of socioemotional components in Teacher Education, as well as the possible questionings and limitations that ED might encounter under this approach. In order to aim the purposes of the study, several questions arise, such as how ED has been covered by Theory of Education since its emergence; to what extent socioemotional skills have been considered relevant for future generations of teachers and students; what critical approaches have questioned the implementation of ED in education; or what pedagogical possibilities and limitations might be presented as a result of the study of the theoretical statements of Emotional Dimension.