Interrogating Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in Schools: Adopting a Transformative, Abolitionist SEL Framework

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Ten
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming and Reimagining K–12 Teaching and Learning (Table 19)

Abstract

This paper interrogates the existing research on traditional social-emotional learning (SEL) and expands our conceptual processes by considering the the damage and violence caused by this white-normed, Western European-centric model on students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPoC). This paper critiques traditional SEL models and highlights school leaders’ narratives about harmful and ineffective SEL adoptions. In turn, we (re)imagine a transformative SEL based on abolitionist teaching, which engages educator and student voice. Transformative Abolitionist Social Emotional Learning (TASEL) framework is a practitioner-friendly, equity-and-justice-based alternative.

Authors

• Linsay DeMartino, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Fetman, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
  Presenting Author

• Deanne J. Tucker-White, Illinois State University
  Presenting Author

• Amanda Brown, Illinois State University
  Presenting Author