{"title":"“Once upon a time there was an autonomic response”: Developing a praxis for integrating polyvagal theory into early childhood education to improve children’s emotion regulation","authors":"Alice-Simone Balter , Jane Bertrand , Ellen Katz","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100127","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100127","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article aims to deepen understandings of emotion regulation by using Polyvagal Theory to situate the autonomic nervous system as the catalyst of emotional dysregulation and regulation. Early childhood educators are key socializers of emotion regulation, thus, we present a praxis to consider the polyvagal perspective and impact of responsive relationships, play environments, and mindfulness practices in early learning settings. This article puts forth a novel contribution of theoretical and implementable emotion regulation skills from a polyvagal perspective in early childhood education contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"6 ","pages":"Article 100127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144489408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social and emotional learning competencies and early grade pupils’ academic success: Educational stakeholders’ perspectives","authors":"Pambas Basil Tandika , Placidius Ndibalema , Godlove Lawrent","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100125","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100125","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The influence of social and emotional learning on student academic achievement is widely explored. However, little has been learned about how educators, caregivers and other key educational stakeholders perceive social and emotional learning competencies in relation to early academic success. A qualitative study approach was adopted and individual and focus group interviews were used as data collection tools. A total of 573 participants from Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar were involved in the study. The main participants were early grade teachers, head teachers, parents and ward educational officers. The gathered data were thematically analysed. The educational stakeholders had varied views regarding social and emotional learning competencies associated with skills that may impact children’s academic subjects. Only skills from three social and emotional learning competencies were regularly mentioned as crucial in achieving this particular role. Capacity strengthening would help educational stakeholders to further identify contextually-relevant social and emotional learning competencies related skills that shape pupils’ academic success.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"6 ","pages":"Article 100125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144479958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evolving transformative social and emotional learning with an ecological perspective","authors":"Renee Owen , Meena Srinivasan , Shannon Wanless","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100126","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100126","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"6 ","pages":"Article 100126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144330226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Osher , Kimberly Kendziora , Nicholas Yoder , Juliette Berg , Sandra Williamson , Greta Colombi
{"title":"Coordinating efforts to improve outcomes, grow social and emotional learning, and improve students’ lives: Roger Weissberg’s collaborations with the American Institutes for Research","authors":"David Osher , Kimberly Kendziora , Nicholas Yoder , Juliette Berg , Sandra Williamson , Greta Colombi","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100122","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100122","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We commemorate Roger Weissberg’s life and contributions to the field by sharing the history of his collaborations with staff at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). In the early 2000s, CASEL joined AIR and the Learning First Alliance in a partnership that aimed to (a) build understanding of the relationships among students’ social and emotional learning (SEL), safe and supportive learning communities, and academic development; (b) develop measures of SEL and safe and supportive learning communities, (c) develop policies to support use of SEL measures in schools; and (d) enhance school capacity for SEL nationwide. We show how sustained, collaborative efforts over two decades advanced progress toward each of these goals. Weissberg advised AIR’s work developing a measure of conditions for learning in schools that included a scale assessing peers’ social and emotional competence. AIR served as the independent evaluator for CASEL’s ambitious Collaborating Districts Initiative (CDI), which demonstrated that districts could make social and emotional learning a systemic part of all children’s education. Beginning with the CDI, AIR worked on SEL measurement with CASEL. Finally, Roger played an active role in multiple training and technical assistance centers that worked to build educators’ capacity to address SEL in their work.</div></div><div><h3>Impact Statement</h3><div>Roger Weissberg had an enormous influence on the field of social and emotional learning. One way his ideas and energy touched the lives of schoolchildren across the nation was through collaborating on research, measurement, and technical assistance work with the American Institutes for Research. This article shares the context and history of this work.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144196302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nanyamka M. Redmond , Jennifer Shubert , Peter C. Scales , Joanna Williams , Amy K. Syvertsen
{"title":"Unveiling potential: Culturally responsive teaching practices to catalyze social-emotional success in black youth","authors":"Nanyamka M. Redmond , Jennifer Shubert , Peter C. Scales , Joanna Williams , Amy K. Syvertsen","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100124","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100124","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated the role of culturally responsive teaching practices in promoting social-emotional outcomes in Black youth. Recognizing the importance of centering equity and justice in social-emotional learning (SEL), this study explored the associations between developmental relationships, culturally responsive teaching practices and social-emotional outcomes (stress management, resilience, and purpose). Additionally, the study examined age and experiences of discrimination as potential moderators of these associations. Developmental relationships were a robust predictor of social-emotional outcomes for Black youth, and equitable practices were also positively related to multiple outcomes. Findings around critical race and inclusive teaching practices were more nuanced, as was the finding that age and discrimination moderated some, but not all, main effects. Results underscore the need for continued theory and empirical work that considers the lived experiences of youth as a means for targeted efforts to promote the social-emotional development of Black youth.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144307039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christi Bergin , Nicole Brass , Lindsay Brockmeier , Alice Hung , Riley Rohler
{"title":"Social-emotional standards for secondary students in the United States: A systematic review and synthesis","authors":"Christi Bergin , Nicole Brass , Lindsay Brockmeier , Alice Hung , Riley Rohler","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social-emotional (SE) standards have garnered substantial attention recently, both among the research community and in public policy forums. While state-level standards in early childhood and elementary schools have been common for over a decade, standards in secondary schools have only recently emerged in some states. In phase one, we conducted a systematic review of existing state standards in the United States for secondary schools in 2022. This review included an examination of standalone SE standards and those embedded in the state’s gifted, vocational, health, physical education, and counseling standards. For each state’s standards, we identified grade level and foundational frameworks. We found that 24 states had standalone s tandards for secondary students, and 20 states had standards applicable to secondary students embedded within health, physical, gifted, career technical education, or counseling curriculum. We identified 2200 state SE standards for secondary students. In phase two, we synthesized this unwieldly list to 11 SE competencies supported by developmental science, and prioritized in the American School Counselor Association standards, Common Career Technical Core Standards, and adaptive functioning indicators in the APA’s DSM-5. Implications for practice and research are discussed regarding the development of SE standards for secondary students</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144184596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Colleen S. Conley , Lauren M. Nowakowski , Maya Hareli , Carol H. Gonzales
{"title":"Building social-emotional skills in a college career and life planning course: A preliminary investigation of the impact of skills practice on wellbeing","authors":"Colleen S. Conley , Lauren M. Nowakowski , Maya Hareli , Carol H. Gonzales","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100107","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100107","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research presents a preliminary investigation of the implementation and impact of a social-emotional (SE) skill-building curriculum woven into a college Career and Life Planning course, stemming from a research-practice partnership with student-facing university staff. Across four semesters, using a prospective quasi-experimental design, students enrolled in an “as usual” version of the course (<em>n</em> = 58) or an SE-enhanced version (<em>n</em> = 71). Within-group analyses revealed small effects within the SE-enhanced curriculum, in select aspects of social-emotional skills across the semester, adjusting for baseline levels when relevant. Additionally, students in the SE-enhanced course did not display any detriments in career outcomes, nor elevations in perceived stress over the course of the semester. Additionally, among participants in the SE-enhanced class, higher levels of out-of-class skills practice (differentially, compared to far weaker influence of initial levels of emotional intelligence, class attendance over the semester, and grade in the course) significantly predicted greater benefits for numerous social-emotional outcomes, above and beyond baseline levels when relevant. This research indicates promising avenues for programmatic, sustainable efforts to promote social-emotional skills in college students, with benefits that can improve college student access and retention, campus climate, and institutional effectiveness.</div></div><div><h3>Impact statement</h3><div>This study, exploring the impact of integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into a college Career and Life Planning course, offers valuable insights into promoting student wellbeing systemically. Students experienced modest improvements in psychosocial outcomes without sacrificing broader course-related benefits. Notably, the more students practiced social-emotional skills outside of class, the more they benefited. Filling a critical need for SEL research-practice partnerships more commonly seen in grades preK-12, this research provides practical, sustainable strategies for promoting college students’ wellbeing, with implications for improved access, retention, and institutional effectiveness. It is a valuable resource for educators, policymakers, and anyone invested in students’ success.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144263975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Joseph A. Durlak , Joseph L. Mahoney , Celene E. Domitrovich
{"title":"How Roger Weissberg accomplished his vision to help millions of schoolchildren: Our personal perspectives","authors":"Joseph A. Durlak , Joseph L. Mahoney , Celene E. Domitrovich","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100123","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Trying to help millions of schoolchildren is indeed a bold and ambitious idea. Ideas are important and have resulted in some major societal changes, but how does one go from an idea to reality? In this paper, we first describe several principles associated with SEL and offer examples of Roger P. Weissberg’s initiatives illustrating the use of these principles in action. We believe that Roger’s leadership in following these principles contributed to the growth and success of the field and achieved his vision of helping millions of schoolchildren. Second, each of us offers a few examples of our own work with Roger and our personal observations and commentary about these experiences as they relate to principles of SEL.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144203561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah K. Ura , Jessica W. DuBois , Katherine E. Fletcher , Julie A. Lorah
{"title":"Teacher competencies that promote equity: Examining the relationship between social-emotional competence and multicultural efficacy","authors":"Sarah K. Ura , Jessica W. DuBois , Katherine E. Fletcher , Julie A. Lorah","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100121","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100121","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Academic and discipline gaps in U.S. schools may be a product, at least in part, of underdeveloped multicultural efficacy and social-emotional competence in classroom teachers. Developed in separate disciplines, both constructs are thought to equip teachers with knowledge and skills to build positive interactions with students and promote an equitable classroom, but their relationship to one another is unclear. We use data from 231 teachers who completed a measure of multicultural efficacy and a measure of social-emotional competence to gain a clearer picture of how multicultural efficacy and social-emotional competence relate to one another to inform teacher preparation efforts. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to test four hypotheses about the underlying structure of constructs in relation to one another to better examine the degree to which factors, and the items comprising each factor, overlap. A 2-factor solution best fit our data, indicating related, but separate constructs; however, further study using different samples is needed to confirm. We discuss these results in the context of the potential need to embed both multicultural efficacy and social-emotional competence content within teacher preparation programs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144166688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Teacher preparation needs critical consciousness","authors":"Allison Rae Ward-Seidel , Lillian Bentley","doi":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.sel.2025.100119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Teaching is a challenging profession, let alone the additional hurdles placed on educators to overcome systemic barriers to close opportunity gaps and fill in missing education from the COVID-19 pandemic years. Teacher preparation programs are therefore tasked with upskilling future teachers with not only content knowledge and pedagogy, but also with a barrage of skills to understand and address the various needs of diverse learners. An underrepresented skill in teacher preparation programs is critical consciousness, defined as a critical awareness of systemic inequity, efficacy or agency to work for change, and taking action for social justice. From the perspective of two former classroom teachers with over 20 years of experience, this article presents the need for teacher preparation programs to incorporate critical consciousness as a crucial factor for well-equipped teachers to enter the profession. We present five key features of preservice teacher preparation and how to incorporate critical consciousness into each: (1) Developing preservice teacher’s own critical consciousness; (2) Applying critical consciousness to student teaching field experience; (3) Explicit instruction of pedagogy; (4) Applying critical consciousness to active learning methods; (5) Modeling critical consciousness through faculty mentoring. Integrating critical consciousness into these elements that we know to be best practices in teacher preparation, can support preservice teachers with a cohesive understanding and skillset to begin to address systemic inequity in schools.</div></div><div><h3>Impact Statement</h3><div>Critical consciousness (awareness and efficacy to enact change for social justice) in teacher preparation programs is essential for teachers to be prepared to teach students from diverse ethnic-racial backgrounds and to cultivate critical consciousness among all students. Much of what we know about best practices in education and teacher preparation cannot come to fruition without critically conscious educators (e.g., building supportive relationships with and among students, preparing students to think critically about real world issues). This article presents practical and concrete suggestions for integrating critical consciousness development into five key features of teacher preparation programs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101165,"journal":{"name":"Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy","volume":"5 ","pages":"Article 100119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144166228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}