Now What Do I Say? How Social and Emotional Learning Can Guide Difficult Classroom Discussions About Racism

• In Event: Take a STAND: Advancing Student Agency, Inclusion, and Diversity in Social and Emotional Learning

Abstract

Objectives. This study presents opportunities surrounding how a widely used SEL program—RULER—can initiate conversations between educators and students about racial identity and racism while also offering a safe framework for addressing issues that occur in the classroom. Understanding how educators view their role as facilitators of this conversation can provide insight into the role of mental health providers in the school system. Theoretical Framework. Children spend most of their formative years in the classroom, learning about themselves and the world around them. While meant to be a safe, nurturing environment, for some going to school is a hardship because of the challenges they face due to prejudicial responses to their identities. Discrimination is consistently associated with detrimental mental health indicators, including increased depression and anxiety, lower happiness, lower life satisfaction, and poor self-esteem (Erwin et al., 2021; Forrest-Bank & Cuellar, 2018). Studies have shown as early as preschool, children begin to demonstrate discriminatory and prejudicial attitudes, along with a learned ability to appropriate and manipulate racist discourses (McKiernan, 2020). This is exacerbated by the incongruence of educators’ ethnicities with students’ ethnicities, along with differing opinions on the appropriateness of naming and addressing such issues in the classroom (Burris, 2020; Najarro, 2021). However, research has shown that increased cultural humility and comfortability with diversity, education on cultural socialization, and reinforcement of ethnic identity can help mitigate the impact of discrimination, microaggressions, and harassment in schools (Forrest-Bank & Cuellar, 2018; Reynolds & Gonzales-Backen, 2017; Toomey & Storlie, 2016). Methods and Data Sources. Researchers conducted grade-level focus groups with five (5) classrooms and educators, which also involved classroom observations and school visits (see Artifact 2). The first author independently reviewed the RULER online portal for strengths and areas of opportunity to improve the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) curriculum by more explicitly discussing the effects of racism in a safe environment where both students and teachers feel comfortable doing so, and additionally investigated upstream methods of enhancing teacher training on RULER to create culturally aware and confident educators. Results. Teachers had varying levels of comfort discussing difficult topics with students, specifically topics related to substance misuse, trauma, and DEI. The RULER online portal offers many opportunities to celebrate diversity and different lived experiences. There are areas that can be strengthened by having more explicit conversations about white privilege, racism, and the emotions associated with such. Scholarly Significance. There are both societal and individual barriers that impact the way SEL is discussed in the classroom. Moreover, teachers need additional support in the classroom in order to feel comfortable and confident in their ability to engage in challenging conversations. Mental health providers, including child and adolescent psychiatrists, have a unique perspective towards mental health education and may have an increased role to play in the furthering of the SEL curriculum.

Authors

• Patricia Oby Ekwueme, Yale University
  Presenting Author

• Christina Cipriano, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren Hunter Naples, Yale University
  Presenting Author