ABSTRACT
Putting life mastery into a historical, cultural, political and ideological context can help us understand why it has entered into today’s school timetables for children and young people. Life mastery can be seen as part of an increased focus in recent years on health promotion and preventive work, not least in psychology. The whole notion of life mastery can also be seen in the context of leading trends in psychology in the latter half of the 20th century – particularly the democratic ideal of giving psychology away, and ideally letting people be their own psychologists and experts on their thoughts and feelings. There also needs to be a political will, and in Norway, the Christian Democrats lead the field. Presumably this is because their concerns for the secularisation of society makes them particularly observant of today’s younger generation going astray – like the Biblical parable of Jesus likening mankind with a shepherdless flock of sheep. Life mastery is also an expression of global pedagogical trends, like the 21st Century Skills movement. Finally, life mastery can be interpreted as an expression of neoliberal rule, individualisation and responsibilisation.
