Evolving transformative social and emotional learning with an ecological perspective

Abstract

Climate change is a complex issue that needs to be more fully addressed in schools. There may be a critical role for the field of social and emotional learning (SEL) to play in helping educators and students talk about climate change and understand their role in climate action, as members of an interconnected ecosystem. We propose that for SEL to be able to serve climate education, it must build on its recent transformative evolution to be more firmly grounded in equity (Transformative SEL; tSEL) by taking an ecological perspective – a perspective that acknowledges the interconnectedness of all living things with a focus on interdependence and interbeing. The article maps the development of SEL from personal to transformative and proposes further evolving SEL to integrate an ecological perspective. Addressing the need for an ecological ontology in tSEL, and explicitly including climate justice and climate action in the transformative SEL pedagogical construct, would help ensure tSEL fulfills its intended outcome to transform systemic inequity. The article includes examples of ecological pedagogical applications that address climate justice within tSEL practices.