Social and Emotional Learning: Beyond Components and Outcomes

Abstract

Social emotional learning (SEL) is the current zeitgeist in education. This collaborative self-study includes a teacher educator and her former student, a high school English Language Arts teacher. Both educators, who center relationships and social justice in their teaching, reflect on what they learned and identify and analyze three tensions experienced by the K-12 teacher: concerns about coming across as too political, responding to parent and caregiver reservations about teaching SEL, and grappling with teachers’ emotions in the classroom. Main takeaways are discussed, including the value of partnership between teacher educators and their former students in the development of teaching craft.

Keywords

• Social and emotional learning; equity; social justice; collaboration