Cultivating Inner Peace in Fragile Contexts: Social-Emotional Learning as a Gender-Transformative Practice in Nepal

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 1
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Innovative Pedagogies for Peacebuilding and Global Citizenship: Comparative and Participatory Perspectives

Proposal

In a world fractured by inequality, conflict, and emotional distress, the pursuit of peace must be reimagined through more holistic and inclusive approaches. This roundtable presentation draws on findings from a mixed-method research study titled Why Social-Emotional Learning Matters: A Gender-Transformative Approach to Education in Nepal. The study critically explores how social-emotional learning (SEL) can foster both internal and collective forms of peace among adolescent girls in rural public schools in Nepal, while also enabling female teachers to act as agents of emotional resilience and social change.
Drawing on a study from of 200 adolescent girls and 15 female teachers in Bagmati Province, this research explores the everyday tensions that youth, particularly girls, face in navigating emotional expression within patriarchal, low-resource, and disaster-prone communities. Using the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework as a conceptual foundation, the study engaged participants in reflective dialogue circles, teacher focus groups, and surveys that emphasized mindfulness, empathy, agency, and narrative sharing (CASEL, 2020).
Findings suggest that SEL holds transformative potential when implemented not as a behavioral intervention but as a deeply relational and political practice (Zembylas, 2013). Girls reported greater emotional awareness and self-advocacy skills in confronting gendered expectations such as early marriage or domestic labor (Unterhalter et al., 2014). Teachers reflected on the emotional toll of their roles, while simultaneously recognizing how SEL spaces allowed them to reconnect with their purpose as educators and caregivers. Both groups emphasized that emotional safety and mutual care, often overlooked in traditional peace education, are foundational to meaningful learning and long-term community cohesion.
This presentation argues that in fragile and post-conflict societies, peace must not be limited to the absence of violence or policy-level reconciliation (Bajaj, 2008; Freier, 1970). Instead, it must include practices that attend to the emotional, embodied, and everyday experiences of those on the margins. When girls learn to express needs without fear, and teachers are empowered to create nurturing learning environments, education itself becomes an act of peacebuilding.
Framed through a feminist lens (Andreotti, 2011), the study positions SEL as a gender-transformative tool that resists dominant technocratic interpretations. Rather than importing SEL models from the Global North, this research foregrounds context-sensitive, culturally grounded approaches. It also highlights how peacebuilding must begin with internal transformation, emotional literacy, and relational justice.
The presentation invites roundtable participants to critically engage with questions such as: What does peace mean in emotionally unsafe educational contexts? Can social-emotional learning serve as a decolonial strategy for reimagining peace in education? How might we balance emotional regulation with the need to challenge structural injustices?
By centering the lived experiences of girls and teachers in Nepal, this study contributes to broader comparative education discourses on rehumanizing education, challenging gender-based oppression, and grounding peace in the emotional and interpersonal fabric of schools.

Author

• Bhawana Shrestha, Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University