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

Fri, April 14, 2:50 to 4:20pm CDT (2:50 to 4:20pm CDT), Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, Floor: Lobby Level, Cuvee Room

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and racial reckoning of 2020, educators worked quickly to buffer negative impacts and bolster individual and systemic support for California's students. Specifically, California’s County Offices of Education (COEs), in partnership with the Department of Healthcare Services (DHCS) and a university, enacted an emergency response to support the adoption and implementation social emotional learning at every level of the education system, forming a statewide network to build COE capacity for local SEL implementation.
Whereas SEL has been connected to improved academic and behavioral outcomes (Durlak et al., 2011), one equity-centered approach, transformative SEL (T-SEL) builds on existing SEL approaches with an explicit, additional goal of interrupting the (re)production of inequity in school environments (Jagers et al., 2019). However, few studies, to date, have examined the systematic introduction and implementation of an equity-centered approach to SEL. Thus, we explore the concept of equity in its connection to SEL implementation at the outset of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded “CalHope Student Support Initiative.” Specifically, we ask: How did county representatives understand the success and barriers of SEL implementation as it relates to equity??
Using qualitative inquiry and reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021), we analyzed open-ended survey responses from county-level representatives (e.g., administrators, pupil services provider, social workers) within California’s 58 counties (N=116). During the spring of 2021, these representatives answered questions about their successes and struggles with SEL implementation. Although counties conceptualized equity in different ways, our analysis explicitly focused on transformative processes across the data. We situate our findings within categories of the EPIS implementation framework (e.g., Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment; Aarons et al., 2011). Among counties in the exploration/preparation phases of implementation, successes included increasing interest in tSEL and successful adult education events, while barriers included the broad lack of buy-in and general understanding of tSEL. Counties already implementing tSEL reported successes with highly engaged working groups and fielding school requests for continued learning. Barriers included a lack of data infrastructure and establishing county-wide alignment. Finally, counties sustaining/bolstering tSEL reported successes in “fully embedding practices” while barriers included deepening equity work. Importantly, many COE representatives named COVID-19 as a significant barrier at all stages. Findings highlight the layered, complex, and ever-evolving process of implementing systematic tSEL in practice.
Understanding successes and barriers in the early days of this statewide initiative allows research, policy, and practice to use data from where we’ve been to inform where we are going. While existing scholarship has explored SEL implementation across a variety of contexts, it is equally, if not more important to understand the realities of implementing a transformative approach if we aim to truly create a more expansive and inclusive education system which benefits all students (California Department of Education, 2021). By highlighting the role of COEs as part of systemic tSEL implementation, we hope to illuminate takeaways that allow us to “build together,” and contribute to the co-construction of equity-centered, transformative SEL practices in school and community contexts.

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