Making sense of the underrepresentation of social-emotional learning in public elementary classrooms

Abstract

Public elementary school teachers lack supports to deliver explicit social and emotional instruction within their general education (GE) classrooms. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was to understand how public elementary school teachers perceive their experience teaching social-emotional learning (SEL), in order to directly inform school reform aimed at increasing SEL instruction beyond what is currently offered. The main question this researcher sought to answer was: How do public elementary school teachers think about teaching SEL in their GE classrooms? Data was collected through interviews of five seasoned elementary classroom teachers who shared personal stories about being elementary school students, pre-teacher college students, novice teachers and veteran teachers. Results indicated that teacher training and support for SEL at all levels are insufficient. This demonstrated a primary need to increase required SEL coursework at the pre-teacher college level. In addition, working teachers at all stages in their careers need increased SEL training in order to effectively deliver SEL instruction to their students. Results of this work also indicated that modern stressors placed on our students warrant increased SEL today more than ever, however teachers feel increased pressure by administration to spend more time on academics. They feel conflicted knowing that their students' success (academically and beyond) is reliant on social and emotional wellness. Finally, results from this work showed that the existing knowledge-base for best SEL curriculum implementation is not clearly understood, so effectiveness and fidelity are impacted. This is despite a plethora of research that is aligned with the firsthand experiences of the participants featured here. This finding demonstrates the need for research to find its way into the hands of decision-makers but also that teachers are more fully included when decisions about SEL are being made. As frontline practitioners, teachers offer valuable lenses for looking at our students' SEL needs.