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.     

In order to analyse the theoretical approaches of the Emotional Dimension in education, this work seeks to achieve a systematic review of the literature. Due to its nature and intentionality, this type of revision seeks to review, synthesize and analyse critically the most relevant and recent literature focused on the topic (Stevens, 2001). Specifically, the present study considers the English and Spanish literature written from 2010 to 2018 in order to explore the fundamentals, limitations and pedagogical possibilities of ED in education. It is remarkable the fact that examining the conceptual evolution of ED in the educational scenarios might involve the revision of more ancient literature. However, it is convenient to start with a more concreted and recent period of time in order to establish a starting point which may help to study the mentioned evolution afterwards. With the purpose of creating a base of data which includes the most relevant publications, a sum of six databases were selected. The databases selected for the systematic review were following: Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, ISOC, DOAJ, and EBSCO. Once the databases were selected, units of analysis as keywords were established in order to search the publications. First of all, the following keywords were inserted in the search field: Emotional Dimension, or Emotional skills, or Socioemotional skills AND/OR Education, or Teaching, or Learning, or Teacher Education, as the main descriptors. Then it was only considered the categories of “Journal articles” and “Books”. After a deep search, a total of 914 academical works were found. By reading the abstracts and titles, inclusive and exclusive criteria were applied. Inclusion criteria were related to those academical works whose content was focused on the presence of the Emotional Dimension in formal, non-formal, and informal contexts. In addition, the works must be written in Spanish or English. By combining inclusive and exclusive criteria, a total of 519 studies were gathered at this stage while 395 studies were definitely excluded. Taking the articles included, only those works framed under a theoretical or philosophical nature were considered for the analysis. The result of the classification was a sum of 112 articles in English and 149 in Spanish. Finally, a content analysis was made following a few categories defined in order to analyse the studies under the selected criteria.

What is mainly intended to explore through the present paper is the presence of the Emotional Dimension in the educational field according to the most recent and relevant theoretical studies. In concrete terms, this dimension has been traditionally forgotten in favour of cognitive skills. Rationality has been considered as the most valued capacity along the history of pedagogical thinking until the emergence of socioemotional components in education (Jover, Gonzálvez y Prieto, 2017). Furthermore, emotions were considered as harmful, passive and fixed characteristics of human personality, which people should have avoided and controlled due to its negative consequences. On the contrary, the progressive inclusion of emotions in the educational scenarios, as an essential and useful part of human beings, might be explained by the evolution of the concept of passions and the contributions of the Goleman work (1995). Emotions have an adaptive, relational and, thus, ethical role, which might justify its relevance in the educational field. In this light, this approach seems to be opposed to the individualism paradigm. Even though some statements are still in a preliminary stage of analysis, it is expected that literature highlights the importance of ED in education considering its social and ethical implications. Socioemotional skills are likely to be presented as highly relevant for future generations of teachers and students and, hence, for a society. Finally, despite of its limitations, numerous of pedagogical possibilities might be shown as a result of this study, such as how policies will be able to include the foundations of emotional education in their frameworks, whether it is possible to evaluate in some way socioemotional variables of individuals, or how teachers can be trained in order to develop their social and emotional skills.

BISQUERRA, R. (2015). Universe of Emotions. Valencia: PalauGea. BISQUERRA, R., PÉREZ, J. C. & GARCÍA, E. (2015). Inteligencia emocional en educación. Madrid: Síntesis. GOLEMAN, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. London: Bloomsbury. GOLEMAN, D. (2012). The development of Emotional Intelligence. In GOLEMAN, D. (Ed.), The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights, pp. 93-99. Florence: More Than Sound LLC. GREENBERG, M. T., DOMITROVICH, C. E., WEISSBERG, R. P., & DURLAK, J. A. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning as a Public Health Approach to Education. The Future of Children, 27 (1), 13-32. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219019 JOVER, G., GONZÁLVEZ, V. & PRIETO, M. (2017). Una Filosofía de la Educación del siglo XXI. Madrid: Síntesis. KRISTJÁNSSON, K. (2012). Positive Psychology and Positive Education: Old Wine in New Bottles? Educational Psychologist, 47 (2), 86-105. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2011.610678 MAYER, J.D., SALOVEY, P. & CARUSO, D. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R. J. STERNBERG (Ed.), Handbook of Intelligence, 396-420). New York: Cambridge. OBERLE, E., DOMITROVICH, C. E., MEYERS, D., & WEISSBERG, R. (2016). Establishing systemic social and emotional learning approaches in schools: a framework for schoolwide implementation. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46 (3), 277-297. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2015.1125450 PETRIDES, K.V, SIEGLING, A.B. & SAKLOFSKE, D.H. (2016). Theory and Measurement of Trait Emotional Intelligence. In W. Blackwell, The Wiley Handbook of Personality Assessment (285-315). Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Prieto, M. (2018). La psicologización de la educación: implicaciones pedagógicas de la inteligencia emocional y la psicología positiva. Educación XXI, 21 (1), 303-320. DOI: 10.5944/educXX1.16058 STEVENS, K. R. (2001). Systematic reviews: the heart of evidence-based practice. AACN Clin Issue,12, 529–38. DOI: 10.1097/00044067-200111000-00009