Annual Conference 2015 paper ‘It’s something I do as a parent, it’s common sense to me’ – Non-teaching staff members’ perceptions of SEAL and their role in the development of children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills

Abstract

The ‘Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning’ (SEAL) initiative is a curriculum-based resource aimed at developing all children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills across England and Wales. Devised as a tool to improve such skills by enhancing levels of emotional intelligence, SEAL is a scheme that utilises whole-school work such as classroom based lessons, assemblies, small group sessions and intervention with individual children. Although subsequent studies of the initiative have identified favourable outcomes, few have captured how the scheme is being interpreted or used by schools and their staff members. Drawing on empirical data gathered during a three-year study that investigated the interpretation and use of SEAL in primary schools, I present the accounts of a range of non-teaching primary school staff members, including teaching assistants, welfare assistants, and pastoral staff, who utilise the scheme in their individual roles, within their respective schools. The views offered by these staff members illustrate how their interpretation and use of SEAL is influenced by the behaviours and skills they have gained as parents, and how these ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonzalez, Moll and Amanti 2005) have positioned them as competent social, emotional and behavioural facilitators. With reference to Hochschild’s (1983) concept of ‘emotional labour’, Osgood’s (2005) work on ‘educare’, and their links to Gee’s (2008) notion of ‘everyday knowledge’, this paper will consider the role of non-teaching, primary school staff in the development of children’s social, emotional and behavioural skills and ask if such work is, indeed, ‘common sense’.