An integrative model for culturally sustaining SEL in the classroom

Abstract

In recent decades, social and emotional learning (SEL) has become widespread in classrooms across the United States and around the globe, as an ever-growing body of research links the development of social emotional skills to positive outcomes in school, work, and life. In practice, SEL in schools has also encountered challenges related to definition, implementation, and equity. In this paper, we present a model that integrates the core principles of successful SEL practice from developmental and prevention science with culturally sustaining and asset-based pedagogies. We propose that culturally sustaining SEL in the classroom rests on three core adult competencies: 1) engaging in critical reflection; 2) building caring, authentic, and reciprocal relationships; and 3) shifting the balance of power toward the developing students. These competencies are both strengthened by and enacted through the facilitative processes of co-regulation and co-construction, and are the foundation upon which culturally sustaining classroom norms, structures, and SEL practices are built. As SEL arrives at a crossroads of practice, policy, and politics, a flexible, adaptable, responsive, and co-constructed model of culturally sustaining SEL in the classroom offers a path forward that honors and sustains the diversity of our classrooms and deepens our commitment to equity in practice.