Challenges and Opportunities in the Applied Assessment of Student Social and Emotional Learning

Interest in school-based strategies to support student social and emotional learning (SEL) is strong. Although SEL policies and programs designed to support the development of student competencies have advanced significantly, less work has been done to develop methods of assessing student social and emotional competence. This article briefly reviews developments in the field of social and emotional competence assessment and examines challenges and opportunities in their applied use, including (a) balancing the priorities of assessment developers and educators; (b) ensuring that the inferences and decisions made from SEL assessment scores are supported by evidence of the assessment’s psychometric merit; (c) establishing conditions for SEL assessment and data use that maximize benefit while mitigating risks; (d) coordinating standards, assessment, programs, and professional learning; and (e) balancing highly focused assessments that by design do not vary in content or format, and the varied cultural contexts in which they may be used.     

Advancements in the Landscape of Social and Emotional Learning and Emerging Topics on the Horizon

Around the globe, dialogs about educational reform and the integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) into policy and curriculum are proliferating. SEL is now a worldwide phenomenon and not just a passing fad, with SEL approaches and programs being implemented in countries throughout the world. Articles included in this special issue are authored by several of the SEL pioneers whose papers represent the current and emerging innovations in the field central to advancing SEL research. I offer 3 observations raised collectively in these articles: (a) social and emotional competencies predict children’s success in school and in life, (b) social and emotional competencies are malleable—they can be taught and assessed, and (c) explicit attention to context is foundational to the promotion of SEL. I also provide some additional suggestions for advancing SEL work, including (a) understanding and promoting teacher well-being, and (b) integrating SEL into teacher preparation.     

Building inclusive education on social and emotional learning: challenges and perspectives – a review

This article focuses on conceptual and empirical issues related to the links between social and emotional learning (SEL) and inclusive education. SEL can be defined as the process of socialisation and education related to personal, interpersonal and problem‐solving skills and competencies. This process takes place in formal and informal settings and is influenced by a complex interplay of individual, situational and cultural factors. Beside a person‐centred focus, effective SEL interventions are provided within supportive learning environments and are directed at enhancing the social–emotional environmental factors that influence learning. Underlying theories and models related to SEL are reviewed, completed by empirical data stemming from prevention science, and developmental psychology. The role of SEL will be investigated with respect to children with emotional–behavioural difficulties and their social and cultural context. Finally, the multifaceted role of SEL and its preventive potential in inclusive school settings through modifications of input and content, teaching strategies and processes, as well as the improvement of learning environments are outlined.     

“Practice What You Preach”: Teachers’ Perceptions of Emotional Competence and Emotionally Supportive Classroom Practices

Research Findings: The connections between parents’ emotional competence (emotion expression, regulation, and knowledge) and children’s social–emotional learning (SEL) have been well studied; however, the associations among teachers’ emotional competencies and children’s SEL remain widely understudied. In the present study, private preschool and Head Start teachers (N = 32) were observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Participating teachers from each center also participated in focus group discussions about emotional competence in preschool classrooms. For analyses, teachers were divided into Moderately and Highly Supportive groups based on observed emotional support quality. Teachers’ focus group responses were compared. Practice or Policy: Comparison groups differed with regard to their discussions of emotion regulation and emotion knowledge. These differences elucidate ways in which intervention programs and in-service training can be developed to help teachers better meet the SEL needs of children.     

The smiling philosopher: Emotional labor,gender, and harassment in conference spaces

Abstract

Conference environments enable diverse roles for academics. However, conferences are hardly entered into by participants as equals. Academics enter into and experience professional environments differently according to culture, gender, race, ethnicity, class, and more. This paper considers from a philosophical perspective entering and initiating culturally into academic conferences as a woman. It discusses theories of gender and emotional labor and emotional management, focusing on Arlie Hochschild’s foundational work, and affect in gendered social relations, considering Sara Ahmed’s theorization of the feminist killjoy and the affect alien. It applies these lenses to explore problematic experiences of women initiates at conferences. The paper proceeds with a theoretical discussion of gender, emotional labor, and affect. Then the paper discusses women academics’ experiences generally and at conferences, including educational research conferences, with reference to relevant higher education research as well as anecdotal evidence, relating these experiences to the theories. It thus aims to tie together theoretical insights, higher education scholarship, and ordinary real-life experiences of gendered social relations in conference activities.     

Using outdoor learning to augment social and emotional learning (SEL) skills in young people with social,emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD)

ABSTRACT

Under-developed social and emotional learning (SEL) skills limit educational progress and make it difficult for children and young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) to form effective relationships with peers and ADULTS. This paper focuses on an SEL intervention set within an outdoor learning context. The research was practitioner led and used an action research (AR) approach to implement and evaluate the SEL intervention. Research participants (aged 12–13 years) were recruited from a UK special school and were all considered to have SEBD. The paper provides evidence for the specific SEL skills that participation in outdoor learning can enhance. The evidence suggests that outdoor learning can be an effective approach for educators wishing to augment the SEL skills of young people with SEBD.     

Romantic expectations and harsh realities: tertiary access to the rescue

This paper examines the educational ambitions of adults from a disadvantaged area in Australia who returned to study at a further education institution as a means to access higher education. The study examines the significance and influence of romance, gender and social class on their formal learning, and the delaying influence of these factors in realising lifelong learning aspirations. It draws on written testimonies of students’ early expectations and beliefs about learning, education and life choices, their current beliefs and future tertiary and career expectations to argue that romantic conceptions of early motherhood/marriage have a negative impact on women from low socio‐economic backgrounds. The focus is on self‐reporting of the impact of early parenthood and/or the consequences of premature dissolution of a romantic relationship on educational aspirations or opportunity. We define the basic concept of romance as concerning love and ‘living happily ever after’, incorporating love and people’s social aspirations, hopes and dreams, offering the promise of a better life. We find, one, that the discourse of romance had a very powerful early gendered influence on the female students’ educational aspirations, and on their ‘enlightenment’ after romance ‘went wrong’ which contributed to their educational disadvantage; and two, that exclusion from education is a motivating factor in returning to learning as an adult and strongly influences parental aspirations for those with children.     

RULER: A Theory-Driven,Systemic Approach to Social,Emotional, and Academic Learning

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process of integrating cognition, emotion, and behavior in our lives. In school settings, it involves systemic practices to incorporate SEL into leading, teaching, learning such that adults and children build self- and social awareness, learn to manage their own and other’s emotions and behavior, make responsible decisions, and build positive relationships. Here, we describe RULER, a systemic evidence-based approach to SEL, including its Theory of Change, and key theories that are foundational to the approach. RULER’s implementation model also is described, which involves training for school leaders, educators, and staff; integrating SEL into the curriculum across grade levels; infusing SEL into schoolwide practices and policies; and engaging families and the broader community. RULER’s current and expected outcomes for children and adults are reviewed, including both proximal (e.g., more developed emotion skills and enhanced classroom climate) and distal (e.g., reduced teacher stress and burnout and greater academic performance) outcomes. RULER’s future directions also are discussed.     

Psychodata: disassembling the psychological,economic, and statistical infrastructure of ‘social-emotional learning’

ABSTRACT

Psychology and economics are powerful sources of expert knowledge in contemporary governance. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is becoming a priority in education policy in many parts of the world. Based on the enumeration of students’ ‘noncognitive’ skills, SEL consists of a ‘psycho-economic’ combination of psychometrics with economic analysis, and is producing novel forms of statistical ‘psychodata’ about students. Constituted by an expanding infrastructure of technologies, metrics, people, money and policies, SEL has travelled transnationally through the advocacy of psychologists, economists, and behavioural scientists, with support from think tank coalitions, philanthropies, software companies, investment schemes, and international organizations. The article examines the emerging SEL infrastructure, identifying how psychological and economics experts are producing policy-relevant scientific knowledge and statistical psychodata to influence the direction of SEL policies. It examines how the OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills, a large-scale computer-based assessment, makes ‘personality’ an international focus for policy intervention and ‘human capital’ formation, thereby translating measurable socio-emotional indicators into predicted socio-economic outcomes. The SEL measurement infrastructure instantiates psychological governance within education, one underpinned by a political rationality in which society is measured effectively through scientific fact-finding and subjects are managed affectively through psychological intervention.     

Establishing systemic social and emotional learning approaches in schools: a framework for schoolwide implementation

Abstract

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a fundamental part of education. Incorporating high-quality SEL programming into day-to-day classroom and school practices has emerged as a main goal for many practitioners over the past decade. The present article overviews the current state of SEL research and practice, with a particular focus on the United States. The need for a model of SEL that goes beyond the classroom is illustrated, and a systemic approach to implementing SEL school-wide is introduced. It is argued that school-wide SEL maximises the benefits of SEL programming by becoming the organising framework for fostering students’ potential as scholars, community members, and citizens. Further, a Theory of Action (ToA) developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is presented that serves as a blueprint for implementing systemic SEL in schools. Potential challenges and barriers involved in moving toward school-wide SEL implementation are considered and discussed.     

Mediating gendered performances: young people negotiating embodiment in research discussions

Gender inequalities in schools have implications for life chances, emotional well-being and educational policies and practices, but are apparently resistant to change. This paper employs Judith Butler’s conceptualisation of performativity in a study of young people and consumption to provide insights into gendered inequities. It argues that how the young people ‘do’ gender in focus groups frequently involves the discussion of young women’s bodies and clothes in ways that are ‘culturally intelligible’. The focus on young women’s bodies produced joking relationships and a taken-for-granted understanding of gender in some same-sex interactions, but sometimes created tension and divisions in mixed-gender groups. Discussions of sexualisation in single-sex and mixed-sex groups were similarly emotionally loaded. The paper argues that attention to gender inequalities requires detailed attention to the differential power relations in which boys express desires to control feminine bodies and girls police their own and other girls’ bodies. Methodologically, the paper suggests that focus group discussions constitute an ethnographic site for analysis and that researchers co-construct young people’s narratives of embodied gender practices in ways that mediate young people’s gendered performances.     

Promoting Desirable Outcomes Among Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Children in Social Emotional Learning Programs: a Multilevel Heuristic Model

The primary goal of this article is to situate the findings from evidence-based studies of social emotional learning (SEL) interventions into a broader social context by reframing the discussion to consider how aspects of sociocultural competence impact the development and delivery of programs. The limitations of current SEL intervention efforts are discussed and a multilevel heuristic model that identifies and defines the theoretical constructs that we believe are culturally bound and associated with the content, implementation, and evaluation components of SEL intervention programs is presented. We point out constraints associated with this effort and offer specific strategies and activities by which school personnel involved in these activities can be encouraged to embrace socioculturally based SEL practices in their classrooms and offer guidance for future research.     

Gendered experiences of inclusive education for children with disabilities in West and East Africa

Background. Education is a fundamental human right, yet many children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries remain deprived of educational opportunities. The movement towards quality inclusive education (IE) aims to support all children at school. Although gender and disability are key factors influencing IE, limited research explores their combined influence. Purpose. This study explored the gendered experiences of IE for children with disabilities in West and East Africa. Methods. A qualitative interpretive secondary analysis was conducted on studies from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Togo, Niger, Zambia, and Malawi. Interviews with children, community members, and policy stakeholders were thematically analysed to explore intersections among gender, disability, and education. Findings. Boys and girls with disabilities experienced similar cases of social exclusion at school. However, girls with disabilities were further hindered by societal biases against their educational potential and by sexual abuse. While boys with disabilities were stereotyped as more capable, their experiences of emotional and physical violence were often overlooked. Implications. To achieve quality IE for all, strategies should aim to foster inclusive and safe school environments for all children, empower girls with disabilities to pursue education, and challenge gendered societal attitudes that hinder educational opportunities.     

Gendered divisions on classed routes to vocational education

In this article our focus is on the persistent gendered divisions in educational routes of young people who choose a vocational path after compulsory education in Finland. We analyse how gendered subjectivities are constructed within the practices of educational and vocational guidance and within student cultures in the comprehensive school, as well as the way in which young people process understandings of themselves and their expectations during and after vocational education. In addition, we explore young people's ways to negotiate with disciplinary practices of the educational system. The paper draws on three ethnographic studies, and on feminist post-structural and materialist theories, intertwined with contextualised ethnographic perspectives. Our analysis reveals some patterns that might work as obstacles in the process towards reducing gender segregation in education and the labour market. We suggest that whilst gendered choices are sometimes taken for granted, gender dichotomy is often emphasised even if young people choose ‘differently’.     

Oatmeal facials and sock wrestling: the perils and promises of extra-curricular strategies for ‘fixing’ boys' education

Advocates for boys' education have forwarded numerous ‘fixes’ for boys' supposed educational woes, including both academic and non-academic programs and strategies. This article focuses on the lesser-discussed non-academic, extra-curricular means suggested, specifically outdoor education. Using qualitative analysis of an Australian school's outdoor education program, I demonstrate that outdoor and other non-academic sites and strategies for addressing boys' education have particular gendered dangers alongside progressive possibilities. The dangers include reproducing dominant masculinist gender regimes through social interaction, requirements for gendered self-disclosure, and philosophies of the ‘uses’ of nature. Progressive possibilities, conversely, include re-imagining outdoor education as a space for explicit resistance to gender or reimagining the uses of nature to eschew gender altogether.     

A national evaluation of the impact of the secondary social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) programme

In recent years, the English education system has reflected a worldwide interest in social and emotional learning (SEL), as evidenced by the national launch of the secondary social and emotional aspects of learning (SEAL) programme in 2007. SEAL is a whole-school approach designed to positively influence a range of pupil outcomes, including increased social and emotional skills, better behaviour and reduced mental health difficulties. The aim of the current study was to examine the impact of SEAL on such outcomes. The study utilised a quantitative, quasi-experimental design with a sample of 22 schools (approximately 2360 pupils) implementing the SEAL programme, and 19 ‘matched comparison’ schools (approximately 1991 pupils), selected on the basis of similar school-level characteristics. A cohort of pupils in these schools completed annual self-rated assessments of their social and emotional skills (using the Emotional Literacy Assessment and Intervention instrument), mental health difficulties and pro-social behaviour (using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) over a two-year period. After controlling for a range of school- and pupil-level characteristics, analysis using multi-level modelling indicated marginal, non-significant effects of the SEAL programme on pupils’ social and emotional skills and mental health difficulties, and no significant effect on their pro-social behaviour. The study findings are discussed in relation to existing evidence about the effectiveness of the SEAL programme and the broader SEL evidence base.     

Social and Emotional Learning and Teacher–Student Relationships: Preschool Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions

The study aimed to investigate how teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence, and social and emotional learning (SEL) relate to teacher–student relationships. Teachers’ perceptions of teacher–student relationships and the degree of agreement with students’ perceptions was also investigated. Preschool teachers from 92 public schools in central Greece completed the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Teacher SEL Beliefs Scale, and the Student–Teacher Relationships Scale-Short Form for 238 students aged 5–6 years old. 170 students were interviewed using the Young Children’s Appraisal of Teacher Support. Regression analysis revealed that both teachers and students emphasized the role of teachers’ perceptions of SEL in positive teacher–student relationships. However, there was no agreement between teachers and students regarding teacher–student relationships. These findings and their implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Social and emotional learning schemes as tools of cultural imperialism: a manifestation of the national and international child well-being agenda?

ABSTRACT

The need for improved well-being of children in Britain has been highlighted in a raft of reports both nationally and internationally. In this paper, I aim to explore some of the practicalities experienced by schools that, in response, have implemented social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions as a means to improve child well-being. I make the case that the discourses of emotions inherent within such schemes, and the various supranational publications, are susceptible to exploitation and manifestation. The study employed a mixed methodological approach, utilising a combination of quantitative and qualitative strategies with primary school staff members including head teachers, teachers, teaching assistants, welfare staff, other support staff, etc. Three phases of study – questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews – were administered as a means of creating an insight into the interpretation and use of SEL in these settings. The findings demonstrate a propensity for staff to conflate social and emotional aspects of self with more moralistic constructs of identity, revealing how SEL schemes have the potential to act as tools of cultural imperialism by marginalising and/or endorsing certain values, norms and behaviours. After maintaining that such realisations of these schemes may impede rather than improve the lived experiences of children, that are fundamental to their social and emotional well-being and mental health, I make the case for alternative approaches to SEL in schools.     

‘Absent fathers’, and children’s social and emotional learning: an exploration of the perceptions of ‘positive male role models’ in the primary school sector

This paper focuses on the testimonies of three male primary school staff members who utilised social and emotional learning (SEL) in their everyday practice within their respective schools. The data, collected through individual interviews, illustrate how these three men interpreted SEL, and their role in the development of children’s social, emotional and behavioural (SEB) skills, in response to their perceptions of pupils’ home-life. In particular, the sample identified the children’s fathers’ perceived ability/inability as a main cause of pupils’ SEB deficiencies. Consequently, the three male staff members maintained that in order to advocate and encourage alternative, appropriate behaviours, they should act as ‘replacement fathers’ and become ‘role models’. The findings contribute to existing debates relating to the notion of ‘positive male role models’ in primary schools and the propensity for staff to engage in parental blame. The implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions that call for a more democratic and cooperative exchange of knowledge between parents and teachers are made.