What’s context got to do with it? Cases of SEL programming

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

We have proposed two thematically-related panels with a total of seven cases of SEL (social and emotional learning) in diverse, mostly non-Western school settings. These cases illustrate important variations in the understanding of SEL in different settings and the dispositions and skills SEL refers to. While ultimately, we would like to embed these variations in a broader analytical framework and point to areas that deserve further exploration and research, these cases contribute to a growing body of literature on non-Western approaches to SEL. Most of these cases were highlighted in the 3rd volume of the Global Briefs prepared by NISSEM (Networking to Integrate SDG Target 4.7 and SEL Skills and SEL Skills into Educational Materials Networking), who sponsored the panel.

The proposed panel addresses Sub-Theme III: School Systems and Educators to Improve Learning and Teaching in Formal or Informal Settings and speaks to the affective dimensions of teaching and learning in social and cultural context. Studies of the meaning and practice of SEL in diverse classrooms and cultures go to the heart of how to build (lifelong) learning opportunities that are socially and ethically just, environmentally conscious, and globally orientd.

It is increasingly recognized that much thinking about SEL is based on conceptions of individuality and social relations as understood in Western, educated, industrialized, high income and relatively “democratic” societies. The case studies in this panel highlight the distinctive ways in which SEL is understood and practiced in diverse cultural and learning locales. They also provide a basis for articulating more common and idiosyncratic dimensions of SEL in different contexts.

Perhaps the best known framework for exploring SEL is that developed by CASEL. It identifies five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. While these competencies are important in most if not all cultural contexts, their meaning and enactment in classrooms and schools are known to vary. For example, relationship skills are, in the abstract, universal. And yet in reality, what makes a ‘good relationship’ varies from community to community and from one context to another. Social contexts are steeped in deeper cultural assumptions – for example, about the character traits of a ‘good’ or ‘ethical’ human being, about values and skills, and, in some sense, the implicit social and emotional competences that education should foster. Is the ideal student one who thinks for her/himself, or one who knows and respects the wisdom s/he has received?

Some of the dimensions along which cultures vary have implications for SEL. These may include, for example, whether morality is seen to lie on a continuum of individual rights and/or harmonious social order; or the relative value a culture places on cooperation and competition; or the extent to which hierarchy is considered a part of the natural order versus the notion that hierarchies are best minimized. So, while many cultures value self-management, the meaning of a ‘well-managed self’ differs from context to context. And as the cases in this panel demonstrate, these culturally informed variations impact approaches to pedagogy and the measurement of self-management. Each paper in the panel will note specific cultural dimensions influencing SEL and the meaning assigned to core competencies.

The second panel draws on cases from Lebanon, East Africa, the Philippines, and Afghanistan, the panelists examine: embedding of psychosocial well-being, social and emotional content into its (Ana Aqra Association’s) education programs in Lebanon based on MEHE’s Psychosocial and Social and Emotional Learning framework; contextualized life skills assessments to raise awareness of the importance of values and life skills in East African education systems; development of self-instructional materials for children in isolated settings in the Philippines that, additionally to the cognitive competencies being taught, motivate children, helping them engage, and support their reflective practices; and tensions between different conceptions of curriculum in the current context of Afghanistan.

Teachers, not to speak of parents, students, curriculum developers and textbook writers who are presented with new policy frameworks that introduce social and emotional learning, life skills frameworks, or 21st century skills will be hesitant to pay these policies more than lip service unless the underlying concepts are contextually derived and locally meaningful. NISSEM seeks to create space for national professionals to work together developing education materials that embody these competencies and apply them to addressing national priorities in equitable and sustainable development.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Aaron Benavot, University at Albany-State University of New York

Individual Presentations

• How can students be supported to learn independently? Acknowledging intersections of social-emotional with cognitive skills, made explicit in times of trouble - Esther Care, University of Melbourne

• Afghanistan's competency based curriculum framework: A reflection from social and emotional learning in the context of the Taliban - Jordan Naidoo Perumal Naidoo, IIEP-UNESCO

Discussant

• Andy Smart, NISSEM.org