Emotions and Affects In School Settings: Regulations, Relationships and Sociological Contributions

Historically, schools have played a central role in shaping and disciplining emotions, contributing to the production of educated and productive subjects within capitalist societies. Today, this function is increasingly institutionalised across education systems, reflecting broader processes of emotionalisation of social life and the rise of singularised forms of individuation, where emotions gain renewed significance. Emotions are thus framed as forms of human capital to be enhanced, measured, and certified, while also being understood as sources of affect, resonance, and connection in relations with others and with knowledge.

Recent educational policies and regulations governing teaching practices reflect this tension by prescribing ways of feeling, managing, and expressing emotions in classrooms. In doing so, they foreground the relational dimension of education as central to pedagogy and to students’ engagement with knowledge. These developments have generated diverse approaches, shaped both by international policy agendas and by critical perspectives in education. Amid this proliferation of discourses, sociology contributes by situating emotions and affects within the social relations and power dynamics that structure everyday school life.

We invite empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions on the emotional and affective dimensions of educational processes, particularly those addressing: What meanings and practices are produced through emotional education? What affective configurations characterize school experience, and how do they shape trajectories and inequalities? What classroom atmospheres prevail, and which foster meaningful engagement with knowledge? What conceptions of subject and learning underpin international emotional education policies? What tensions emerge between top-down emotional regulations and situated affective practices of teachers and students?