Rethinking Social and Emotional Learning: Lessons a Teacher Educator Learned From Her Former Student

• In Event: The Emotional Lives of Teachers Roundtable

Abstract

This paper focuses on lessons a teacher educator learned from collaborating with her former student, an English Language Arts teacher. We started our partnership because we both believed that social and emotional learning matters in the classroom. After a year of talking about emotions, community, and equity in teaching, we decided to collaborate to better understand what SEL looks like in K-12. Based on notes from reflections of classroom observations and joint discussions, we identified two key lessons that the teacher educator learned about SEL: 1) it needs to fit the needs of the teacher and 2) teachers need to have a trusted space where they can unpack the emotional work involved in teaching for social justice and SEL.

Authors

• Lina Darwich, Lewis & Clark College

• Tara Slaughter