"Buddies" and "Worthy Witnessing" in Educational Research: Creating Community Through a Social and Emotional Learning Measure

• In Event: Taking Collective Responsibility for the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) of Adolescents Through Classroom-Embedded, Collaboratively Developed SEL Measures

Abstract

Purpose, Perspective:
Situated in a continuation high school in a small agricultural town, the purpose of our joint project was to design and pilot a novel measure of social and emotional learning (SEL). To that end, we spent the first year interviewing students, teachers, and other key stakeholders, observing classrooms, and collaborating with teachers to co-design an SEL measure – the “Who Am I?” Buddy Reflection, a peer-mediated identity development, reflection, goal-setting, and accountability tool. A turning point in our work centered around our engagement as participants in the social process defined by the SEL measure piloted in one of the classrooms. When one of the researchers became “buddies” with a participating teacher, as a model for the interaction between “buddies”, our engagement deepened and the data we collected became more meaningful. This raised the broader question: How might researchers’ deep participation as unofficial members of a school community impact the nature of educational research, and the future potential of their work?

Methods/Data Sources:
Two researchers began formal data collection in October 2017 and made approximately two visits per month to the high school over two academic years. During site visits, researchers focused qualitative data collection on the teachers and students of two advisory classes. Interviews were conducted with two focal teachers and eight focal students 2-3 times a year, in addition to six focus group interviews with school stakeholders. Observations of classroom activities and staff meetings were video or audio-recorded. Student artifacts from the SEL measure were collected. A SEL pupil survey was administered each year, and administrative data that included student demographics and achievement were also collected. Qualitative data sources were analyzed for patterns and themes to understand stakeholders’ values and beliefs about social emotional learning, their use of the piloted SEL tool, and perceptions of the validity, instructional usefulness, and learning value of the tool.

Results/Significance:
Students and teachers found the SEL measure a valuable way to capture and nurture SEL progress, while also building trusting relationships and community within the advisory class. Offering students opportunities to interact and provide feedback to their peers on self-defined struggles and goals were perceived as the most valuable aspect of the measure. The measure’s “buddy system” offered students and teachers a means to build new relationships and access a support system important to their academic work and personal well-being in school. Teachers reported learning more deeply about their students’ SEL and physical/health needs, allowing them to build trusting relationships and better meet students’ needs. By engaging more closely as participant-researchers in classroom settings, our relationships with school staff also deepened, and the quality of our data collection and learning grew. Our experience highlighted the importance of participating as community members to form positive relationships with school partners. As interest in participatory research methods research grows, this paper hopes to contribute to those works by illuminating the power of meaningful collaborative relationships and the process of earning the right as researchers to be “worthy witnesses” (Winn & Ubiles, 2011).

Authors

• Paolo Martin, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

• Vinci Daro, Envision Learning Partners