Early Adolescent Black Boys' Reflections on a Multi-Year Transformative SEL Intervention

• In Event: Considering Culture and Contexts in Socio-Emotional Learning

Abstract

Researchers have posited when students participate in transformative social and emotional learning (SEL) programs that explicitly examine the causes of race-, economic-, and gender-based inequities, they are less likely to engage in dangerous behaviors (Jagers et al., 2019). However, additional information is needed to better understand how these programs impact the development of racially and ethnically diverse children and adolescents (Jagers et al., 2019). Guided by the participatory culture-specific intervention model (PC-SIM; Nastasi et al., 2004), we spent four years with the students and staff at an urban charter school in a low socioeconomic neighborhood. At the end, we conducted exit interviews with 8th grade Black boys (N = 6) who had participated in the intervention. We used thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to explore participants’ reflections on their experiences with same-sex peer group discussions with mostly same-sex adult facilitators. Framed by Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST, Spencer et al., 1997), themes related to all five tenets of PVEST emerged from our analysis (see Tables 1 and 2). For example, boys’ perceptions of vulnerability were evident in the first theme, "Racial profiling, police brutality, gender equality. Stuff like that," when they discussed identity-based structural inequities, including race, gender, and sexuality. Their approach to stress engagement was evident in the second theme, “It depends…,” when they discussed various ways they would address conflict based on their perceived advantages and disadvantages. Reactive coping methods were evident in the third theme, “Think about it before you act,” when they discussed thinking within interpersonal interactions and about making decisions. Emerging identities were evident in the fourth theme, “I don't look to see myself as just…” when they discussed themselves and the Black community in nuanced, multi-dimensional, and humanizing ways. Finally, life-stage outcomes were evident in the last two themes, “We talked about a lotta man things” and “They need to know that.” In the first of the two themes related to life-stage outcomes, the boys discussed their experiences with others in the groups; the ways they matured because of their participation in the intervention; what they learned; and how they applied their learning. “They need to know that” included the boys’ discussion about their enhanced understanding of sexual harassment, how they enacted change, and their unanswered questions. Importantly, themes related to all five PVEST tenets also emerged from our analysis of the girls’ reflections, which we report on separately. However, differences also emerged, pointing to intersectional aspects of the ways Black adolescents experience vulnerability, stress engagement, reactive coping methods, emergent identities, and life-stage outcomes. To meet the needs of adolescent boys and girls, these findings reveal the need for sensitivity to intersectionality within culture-specific interventions and transformative SEL.

Authors

• Rebekah Pollock, Georgia State University
  Presenting Author

• Calvin Smith, Georgia State University

• Taylor McGee, Georgia State University

• Michelle Tobar, Georgia State University

• Ann Cale Kruger, Georgia State University