Feeling school failure: the emotional politics of grade retention and the making of schooled subjects

Grade retention is used across many education systems globally. There is well-established research literature that examines the claimed effectiveness of grade retention and its reported detrimental impacts. These debates are particularly contested regarding the emotional consequences of this practice. Drawing on a post-structural, ethnographically oriented case study in Chilean primary schools, this paper approaches this field of practice, policy, research, and debate via the under-attended domain of feeling. Crucially, we ask not simply ‘how do students feel when they are retained in a grade?’, but ‘which feelings come to be attached to grade retention, how, and what are the effects of these feelings as they circulate amongst school communities?’ We attend to the ways in which feelings, as social flows and forces, are constitutive not only of individual (failed) learners but also of the school and the broader educational field. We make two key arguments: first, that emotions must be addressed as a significant productive force in education, including in relation to grade retention. Second, that debates about grade retention should move beyond the retained individual to consider how the practice is entangled in the making and remaking of competitive, individualised education.