The beginnings of my Honors thesis focus solely on social-emotional learning (SEL), which is a topic that I did not understand or know much about at the time. I was also interested in visiting High Tech High, a charter school in San Diego, California that specializes in project-based learning that also has its own SEL curricular model. I spent the semester studying SEL and applying for a Fusion Grant, which provided the funding I needed to fly to San Diego and visit High Tech High. The goal of visiting High Tech High was to perform interviews, which would provide data that I could use to analyze the efficacy and transferability of High Tech High's SEL curricular model in a public school context.

Unfortunately, I was not able to collect data from High Tech High. Although I had developed an IRB form, High Tech High had to retract their consent for me to collect data due to a resurgence in issues resulting from the pandemic. However, they still had the ability to allow me to visit, which I was excited to accept, even if it meant that I would not be able to collect data during this trip. While visiting, I still had the opportunity to meet with the teachers and students of High Tech High, where an informal examination validated my initial hypotheses and findings concerning SEL. Although I could not use this in my thesis, it did inform my future research and questions, providing an additional insight into the next steps of my thesis.

The first semester of this process provided several lessons about educational research that I did not expect to gain. First, I learned about the semantics of research, including the IRB process and how to apply for research grants. I also learned about some of the difficulties of this form of research, particularly the reality of the changing needs of schools. Schools need to be attentive to the needs of their students and stakeholders. Assuming that an issue, such as a pandemic, impacts the environment the school, they may need to rescind prior consent that they give researchers to ensure that they meet the needs of their students and stakeholders. Thus, even though a last-minute rejection is frustrating, High Tech High demonstrated that they are an attentive and excellent school.

Moving forward with the project, I wanted to analyze the discourses that existed within the current field of SEL. Researchers who study SEL have begun to focus on equity, which they most often address through culturally-response SEL. However, I noticed that there was limited discussion concerning neurodivergent students. Much of the current information on neurodivergent students focused on the pathologization of neurodivergent students. Thus, I had a new question to explore: What is the intersection between the neurodiversity paradigm and SEL.

My thesis, Neuroqueering Education: Recontextualizing Schools and their Roles in the Neurodiversity Paradigm and the Development of SEL Curricula, explores the intersection between the neurodiversity paradigm and SEL. To do this, I switched the aim of this paper from empirical research to theoretical research. This allowed me to analyze this intersection through the philosophical basis provided by the neurodiversity paradigm as well as its corollary concept, neuroqueering. To develop this, I borrowed most of my information from autistic scholars whose work develops the neurodiversity paradigm and applies it to other institutions. I also borrowed from the exisiting scholarship on equitable SEL, which is currently focused on CRT and abolitionist teaching.

The aim of this project was not to provide the practical basis for equitable SEL for neurodivergent students. Rather, my aim was to develop the critical basis needed to begin the conversations that will eventually lead to the justice work necessary to build equitable schools and, therefore, equitable SEL curricula. I had the opportunity to have a discussion with one of the scholars who developed neuroqueering, Dr. Nick Walker, who provides some additional insight into the topic and its implications for equitable SEL. This discussion is included and analyzed in my thesis in the first portion of my "Discussion" section.

I presented this research at the 2022 Fall Honor's Symposium, which was also the first Honor's Symposium since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Although I was not able to go into too much depth concerning my basis in CRT, I was able to communicate the need for neuroqueering education and what that would look like. The link to this presentation is provided in the presentation itself.

I am proud of this thesis and excited by what I have learned from the process. I am also excited to see where this knowledge leads my future practice and scholarship as a teacher as I enter my final semester at Drury University, which is my student teaching experience.