BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Session Submission Summary

SEL Kernels across contexts: Adapting evidence-based strategies for use in different countries and learning environments

Sat, March 28, 11:15am to 12:30pm, Hilton, Floor: Ballroom Level - Tower 3, Continental 7

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a crucial component of education, shaping outcomes for children, educators, and communities. Yet questions remain about how to ensure its effectiveness and cultural relevance when scaled globally.

Decades of research show that children with strong social and emotional skills are more likely to have better outcomes at school and later in life, including across learning, health, and behavioral domains, and are better equipped to contribute to peaceful, cohesive societies (Jones, McGarrah, & Kahn, 2019; Jones et al., 2015; Moffitt et al., 2011). Competencies such as empathy, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, communication, cooperation, decision-making, and civic values are linked to reduced violence, stronger civic participation, and improved relationships (Harris & Morrison, 2003; Johnson & Johnson, 2005; Clarke-Habibi, 2019; Jones et al., 2015). SEL programs improve students’ SEL skills, mental health, attitudes toward school, and academic performance, while also enhancing teachers’ competence and reducing burnout (Durlak et al., 2011; Jones & Kahn, 2017; Oliveira et al., 2021; Cipriano et al., 2023).

While interest in SEL continues to rise in education settings around the world, including as a critical component of peacebuilding through education in contexts experiencing or recovering from crisis and conflict, careful consideration of which skills to prioritize and how to align them to culture and context is often not feasible. Practical constraints such as time, funding, and lack of available expertise often lead to the adoption of programs developed in one cultural context, most often the Global North, into another with minimal adaptation. A recent meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions conducted between 2008 and 2020 across 53 countries found that nearly half (47%) of the programs studied originated in the United States (Cipriano et al., 2023).

Recognizing these limitations, various countries, organizations, and researchers are spearheading local initiatives to define social and emotional competencies that reflect their communities’ unique needs and peacebuilding aspirations. National frameworks in Lebanon (Kaloustian, Shrestha, & Kotob, 2022) and Rwanda (Rwanda Basic Education Board, 2022), as well as regional projects like ALiVE in East Africa (RELI, 2022; Ariapa & Akongo, 2021; Fontana & Peverelli, 2021) illustrate this shift toward more locally-defined and culturally relevant SEL.
Within this movement, the SEL Kernels of Practice team partners with local educators and researchers to co-create SEL Kernels tailored to each context. Developed from an analysis of 50 evidence-based SEL programs to identify the “active ingredients” that most effectively foster skill development (Jones, Bailey et al., 2017; Jones, Brush et al., 2017), SEL Kernels are skill-targeted activities, games, and routines designed to be flexible and adaptable. They center teacher autonomy, offering a menu of short activities easily integrated into routines.

In addition, scaling high-quality SEL in education systems is challenging. Many initiatives struggle to maintain cultural relevance at scale, while others lose fidelity when adapted to diverse settings. The design of SEL Kernels as short, skill-targeted activities that can be adapted without dismantling their evidence-based “active ingredients” offers one potential pathway to bridging this gap between quality and reach.

Across projects in multiple countries, scaling SEL Kernels has followed a common sequence. First, local priorities and effective framing are identified through landscape research with iterative data collection and co-interpretation. Second, adaptation is undertaken in partnership with local stakeholders, including parents, teachers, school leaders, and ministry of education representatives, to align content with national priorities, language, and cultural practices through a series of co-adaptation and co-design workshops. Third, teacher training matches local professional development practices, often supplemented with coaching or peer-support networks to encourage implementation. Fourth, feedback through surveys, focus groups, and classroom observations are embedded to capture how teachers are using Kernels (including quality and fidelity), which activities resonate most, and where further contextualization is needed. When possible, evaluation research is conducted to ensure that Kernels are achieving the intended outcomes at the student, teacher, and classroom levels. Lessons learned across contexts suggest that while the core features and structure of SEL Kernels remain constant, the activities themselves, including local stories, songs, or cultural references change to reflect local norms. This balance between universality and specificity has been key to scaling SEL Kernels without losing their relevance or impact.

This panel will showcase concrete examples of contextualized SEL across four countries, highlighting both the universal principles and the local innovations that make SEL effective and sustainable, empowering teachers and students as key agents toward peacebuilding, across contexts striving for both positive and negative peace (Galtung, 1969). In the first paper, the authors will present findings from the first year of the Ukrainian national rollout of SEL Kernels, where the plan is to reach 130,000 teachers by April 2026. This study looks specifically at how the SEL Kernels are used and perceived by teachers in an active war. The second paper, historically related to Ukraine with a post-soviet past, is focused on Estonia, where the authors use the SEL Kernels landscape research and adaptation process to examine local needs and priorities in Estonia. In the third paper, the authors will present findings from a pilot study in which SEL Kernels were integrated as a unifying approach to leadership skill building across all subjects of a leadership academy, including on the sports field, serving disadvantaged children and youth in grades 4-9 in Morocco. Finally, in the fourth paper, the authors will present initial landscape research findings and pilot findings focused on adapting SEL Kernels to serve pre-school centers in high-poverty areas in Türkiye. Panelists will discuss which aspects of the SEL Kernels remained consistent across adaptations and which were modified to reflect culture, place, and practice. While the projects vary in stage of scale, the panel will share both qualitative and empirical findings, where available, related to: (a) identifying local priorities and practices, (b) documenting teachers’ and students’ perceptions and use of SEL Kernels, and (c) examining the contribution of SEL Kernels to changes in social, emotional, and related outcomes.

Sub Unit

Organizer

Chair

Individual Presentations

Discussant