Misalignment between common SEL curricula and teacher needs: Focus group findings from elementary school teachers

• In Event: 3-148 - From Brands to Strategies: Frontiers of Intervention in Social and Emotional Learning

Integrative Statement

In recent decades, many school-based and out-of-school time (OST) programs have focused not only on academic outcomes, but on an inter-related set of skills known as social and emotional learning (SEL), character education, life skills, and more. Among these approaches, SEL appears to have the largest and most rigorously evaluated evidence base. This work is especially relevant for low-income and at-risk students, as children’s social-emotional development is particularly sensitive to the negative effects of stress and trauma (Evans & Kim, 2013). However, a number of barriers undermine efforts to bring SEL programming to scale, such as implementation challenges, limited local buy-in, and lack of resources, and these barriers are likely exacerbated in low-income contexts (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). For this reason, the Kernels Project seeks to develop and test less intensive strategies that comprise an array of flexible social, emotional, and behavioral supports, particularly for children exposed to poverty-related stressors and adverse experiences.

Following an in-depth analysis of 25 widely-used, evidence-based SEL curricula, our team created a database of the strategies and activities used by programs to target specific SEL skills. From this database, we developed a set of preliminary SEL kernels. We field tested in PreK-8 schools and OST settings, and used online and paper surveys and focus groups to collect teacher feedback. In this poster, we present our main findings from field testing and teacher focus groups. We compare these findings to our analysis of widely-used SEL programs, and highlight key areas of misalignment between common strategies found in SEL curricula and teacher-identified SEL needs, challenges, and preferences.

Field testing and focus groups were conducted with 46 elementary school teachers from five schools/OST programs in a low-income urban center of the US. We conducted focus groups with 8-10 teachers at a time, lasting 25-60 minutes each. All data are teacher reported and include: (a) focus group recordings; (b) implementation surveys; and (c) strategy feedback collected via elicitation devices (such as sorting activities along different dimensions; e.g. feasibility, burdensome-ness, useful-ness). All qualitative data were transcribed and double-coded in NVivo, using a hybrid of grounded and emergent coding methods, and analyzed by multiple researchers.

Focus group data revealed various themes regarding the relevance and feasibility of common SEL curricula. Main findings include: the disconnect between existing SEL content and students’ reality (particularly relating to children exposed to trauma and those presenting behavioral challenges); a lack of parental support and misalignment between home and school; and administration’s expectations as a barrier to SEL implementation. These findings indicate the need for SEL strategies that are trauma-informed, culturally relevant, and supported by the school’s administration. Additional findings, including survey and elicitation device data, will be included in the final presentation.

We expect to utilize these findings to inform the development of SEL Kernels. In addition, we expect our findings to inform growing knowledge about the relevance and feasibility of different approaches to SEL, and teacher-identified SEL needs, challenges, and preferences.

Authors

• Christine Park, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Presenting Author

• Laura Stickle, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca Bailey, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katharine Elizabeth Brush, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie Jones, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Non-Presenting Author