Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (tSEL) for Authentic School-Family Partnerships: Parents' Reflections From a Social and Emotional Learning Dialogue Series

• In Event: "In Service of Equity and Excellence": Implementing Transformative Social and Emotional Learning Across Contexts

Abstract

The SEL Dialogue Series emphasizes a desire for authentic school-family partnerships through conversations between parents and facilitators about the shared social and emotional growth of children and adults within their schools, homes, and community. The current series applies a Transformative SEL (tSEL) lens, which is a process whereby young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting relationships that facilitate co-learning to critically examine root causes of inequity, and to develop collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being (AUTHOR, et al., 2019). Expanding the popular SEL framework (casel.org, 2022), tSEL emphasizes the development of identity, agency, belonging, collaborative problem solving, and curiosity to help educators and caregivers create partnerships to co-design equitable learning environments for children.
During the 2021-22 school year, we partnered with a public school in a large midwestern district to engage in our SEL Dialogue Series pilot. Eight Spanish speaking, Hispanic-identified parents completed the series over 10-weeks through hybrid zoom and in-person formats. Data were collected and analyzed using a mixed-methods approach, including a pre- and post-survey, 10 weekly feedback surveys, and a parent focus group. Additionally, we conducted three interviews with the series facilitators and engaged in a data debrief conversation with the school’s principal. The pilot findings are being used to develop a second iteration of the series grounded in a parent-led process of collective inquiry with the same participants.
In our symposium paper we will share the findings from the original pilot, discuss implications for the second iteration of the pilot, and engage in a dialogue around present and future research about the role of authentic partnerships to create opportunity for racially marginalized parents to influence practice and policy decisions. In alignment with the theme of the AERA Convention, we lift parents' interrogation of educational processes and systems that perpetuate unjust treatment of them and their children.
Preliminary findings demonstrate that through coalition building parents increased awareness and criticality of their children's school, feelings of belonging amongst parent-peers, a desire of more culturally-affirming learning environments, identified opportunities for collaboration with educators, and interrogated normative practices that excluded their collaboration with educators in their children's education. A number of parents also increased their leadership capacities after participating in the SEL Dialogue Series through formal engagement in their Local School Council (LSC). The findings highlight the discrepancies in educational aspirations, goals, and perspectives between educators and parents of color in an urban school community and the potential of tSEL for developing authentic partnership.

Learning/Research Questions:
How does participation in the caregiver dialogue series contribute to the development of authentic partnerships between educators and students’ families?
How can conversations about children and adult tSEL growth among educators and caregivers help to improve student learning and growth in school, at home and in their community?
In what ways are parents and caregivers engaged in the co-design of equitable learning environments after participating in the caregiver dialogue series?
What pre-conditions are necessary for the successful implementation of the caregiver series?

Authors

• Briana Coleman, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Skoog-Hoffman, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
  Presenting Author

• Tyrone Martinez-Black, CASEL
  Non-Presenting Author