What's SEL?

According to CASEL,

"We define social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities."

To learn more about SEL: https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/

Critiques on SEL:

In addition to bridging the gaps between teachers' and students' understanding of SEL, our project investigates whether social-emotional learning adequately engages in or reflects the diversity of students, and the problems it might incur when emotion is valued as a means of success rather than as a good in itself. We conducted interviews with students at Stuyvesant School, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, and City As School High School, asking them what they need to feel “Whole” as individuals and students. The responses we received were diverse and unique as many of the students came from different cultural backgrounds and learning environments. According to Hoffman, “from a cultural perspective, the kinds of skills identified with SEL appear to draw on a model of the emotions that sees them as internal, individual states that require active managerial control to be channeled in a socially positive, healthy way” (Hoffman, 2009, 540). Students’ emotions and behaviors are influenced by “dual demands of their family and those held by broader society”( Garner, 2014, 169). As a result, navigating and bridging the disparity between two different demands, one demanded by the society and another from their culture, might be challenging for some students. We began to question if the cookie-cutter approach in the teaching of SEL is inclusive and equitable, without considering students' diverse population. By creating "The Whole You" card game, we are hoping this activity will help teachers and policymakers to be aware of students' voices and diverse backgrounds in the teaching of SEL, for it to become a more culturally responsive and student-centered learning process.

References to support our argument:

Garner, P. W., Mahatmya, D., Brown, E. L., & Vesely, C. K. (2014). Promoting Desirable Outcomes Among Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Children in Social Emotional Learning Programs: a Multilevel Heuristic Model. Educational Psychology Review, 26(1), 165–189. https://bit.ly/383gnsT

Hoffman, D. M. (2009). Reflecting on Social Emotional Learning: A Critical Perspective on Trends in the United States. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 533–556. https://bit.ly/3KIrlBe

Gregory, A., & Fergus, E. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning and Equity in School Discipline. The Future of Children, 27(1), 117–136. https://bit.ly/38Zvqnv

Jones, S. M., & Doolittle, E. J. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning: Introducing the Issue. The Future of Children, 27(1), 3–11. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219018