Grit, growth mindset, creativity, emotion regulation, lifelong learning, and the whole child, which can be grouped under the label noncognitive skills, are increasingly present in education policy and research discussions. There is broad support to formalize instruction to support the development of these so-called skills, which are associated with humanistic, democratic, and economic visions of persons and purposes of schooling. Notwithstanding this appeal, noncognitive skills are entangled in neoliberally ideology and endorse a specific vision for personhood. The danger is that through these skills, eolibleral ideology can operate with unchecked influence.

The purpose of these analyses is to show the ideological entanglement of educational psychology constructs that tend to be valued, endorsed, and normalized in education policy discussions and teaching discourse. The noncognitive skills discussed in this book contribute to a vision for neoliberal selfhood and provide a roadmap for cultivating that self. This ideological entanglement is seldom acknowledged, enabling neoliberal ideology to operate unnoticed. Pointing to this alignment opens up the possibility for ethical and ideological conversations about the kind of selfhood that is endorsed and normalized in schooling discourse.