Why this is important

• Schools are places where students learn subject-specific content and skills, and they also have an important role in helping with social-emotional development and helping young people to reach their life goals.
• Students spend many hours at school and, as a result, learn a great deal about social and emotional functioning in the school setting. Much of this learning is implicit, meaning that students observe and model those around them.

What is social-emotional learning

Social-emotional development is a lifelong process that follows predictable stages and can be enhanced through interaction and support. It is nurtured at home, school and in the community.

• Social-emotional skills help individuals and groups to achieve their goals, build trusting relationships, and cultivate identity and resilience (e.g., skills for problem-solving, building friendships, coping with disappointment, etc.).

• Social-emotional competencies are broad areas of skill development that help to organize social-emotional instruction and learning for students at school. There are many existing frameworks to categorize social-emotional competencies (e.g., Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Mindsets, Essential Skills, and Habits (MESH), OECD Big Five Domains). More recent approaches seek to integrate SEL and equity explicitly, centring the unique strengths and diversities in every student (e.g., Anchor Competencies Framework, California T-SEL Competencies).

• Social-emotional learning (SEL) is developmentally appropriate classroom instruction and practice related to social-emotional skill-building. It is designed to help students to develop the intra- and interpersonal competencies they need to flourish throughout their life. It can be woven into daily instruction from K-12, using small everyday mental health strategies (e.g., deep breathing or muscle relaxation before a test) or curriculum-linked materials (e.g., stress management lessons linked in Wayfinder). SEL does not require a specific manualized program to be effective! There are small and inexpensive ways to support social-emotional development as part of daily practice.

Six social-emotional competencies in Ontario

In Ontario the Ministry of Education has identified six social-emotional learning competencies as essential for the academic and personal growth and success of students. These six competencies group social-emotional skills for instruction. While these competencies are currently integrated into the Health and Physical Education, and Mathematics curriculum, the Ministry of Education notes that there are also opportunities for students to develop their social–emotional learning competencies across all K-12 curriculum to enhance students’ mental health literacy and overall well-being. No competency is more important than the others, so staff can prioritize the skills explored based on student strengths, needs and interests.

The six competencies identified for instruction in Ontario schools by the Ministry of Education include:

Students will learn skills to:	So that they can:
identify and manage emotions	express their feelings and understand the feelings of others
recognize sources of stress and cope with challenges	develop personal resilience
maintain positive motivation and perseverance	foster a sense of optimism and hope
build relationships and communicate effectively	support healthy relationships and respect diversity
develop self-awareness and self-confidence	develop a sense of identity and belonging
think critically and creatively	make informed decisions and solve problems

Benefits associated with social-emotional learning

Educators have supported child development as part of good teaching practice for decades. In 2020, the Ontario Ministry of Education updated the curriculum to include social-emotional learning as a distinct component, and in 2023, social-emotional learning was included as one of 11 requirements for student mental health in PPM 169: Student Mental Health.

• SEL helps to place an explicit focus on developing students’ social and emotional skills, formalizing the learning so that it is more likely to have a positive and sustained impact ₂.
• With ₂ escalating concerns about child and youth mental health challenges, schools have become an important venue for helping young people develop the knowledge and skills to understand and support their own mental wellness.
• SEL provides  an opportunity for young people to develop agency, through practicing skills that can help them to manage stress, solve problems, help others, and amplify their voices.
• SEL is associated with a range of positive outcomes, as determined by research globally. Young people who engage with high-quality social-emotional learning have better mental health and academic outcomes than matched students who do not ₁.

Important cautions about social-emotional learning

While building skills in SEL at school can yield important benefits related to mental health, well-being, and academic achievement, significant and serious concerns ₅ have been raised about the impact of social-emotional learning on students who are racialized and/or marginalized, when  SEL is delivered without attention to identity and wellness.

For instance:

• SEL has been used incorrectly by some school staff as a behaviour management tool, leading to a sense that there is one right way to behave and that all other expressions of emotion, ways of being, or perspectives will be punished or discouraged.
• SEL can inadvertently pathologize or problematize normal reactions in daily life, if instruction connotes a need for disproportionate coping in response to minor events. Those who experience greater hardship and trauma may feel at odds with instruction that places focus on managing relatively small stressors.
• Similarly, SEL can leave students feeling unsupported if their appropriate responses to oppressive situations are not validated, with adult assistance provided. Students should never be left to draw on their personal social-emotional skills to cope with circumstances of bullying, racism, homophobia, violence, etc.
• Approaches to SEL that do not centre the identity of students or that have not created mentally healthy learning environments can perpetuate larger systemic issues, including racism and oppression, that operate within school systems ₅.
• SEL approaches can be individualistic in nature and rooted in personal skill development, which may be incompatible with worldviews that prioritize collective and community forms of care. An exclusive focus on personal skill development also ignores other contextual realities for students that may be influencing their thoughts, emotions, and actions at school (e.g., socioeconomic considerations, learning challenges, experiences of bullying, homophobia, racism, etc.).
• Education systems have been rooted in Eurocentric ideologies and perspectives, so staff may not immediately recognize deep-rooted biases towards Western ways of knowing and being that are embedded in school culture, policies, practices and procedures. A focus only on skill-building from this perspective can leave racialized and marginalized students feeling misunderstood, undervalued, and questioning core strengths and values that should be celebrated rather than ignored ₆ .

Students who do not see themselves reflected in the teaching of SEL, and who experience oppression and racism will not benefit. As a result the Ministry of Education has directed that educators are not to evaluate or report on social-emotional learning skills because of the negative impact this can have on particular groups of students.

SEL done well.

SEL is done well when it is built upon strong foundations – (1) mentally healthy school and classroom conditions, (2) time for preparation, capacity-building, and differentiation of materials for the students served – and (3) highlights social-emotional competencies that are relevant, responsive and strength-based. This is very much the way that the field of SEL is moving – away from programmatic manualized approaches to more flexible and differentiated ways of engaging students in instruction. Centring students, and their unique cultures, backgrounds, strengths, and identities in SEL, while retaining key ingredients of effective programming (Sequenced, Active, Focused, and Explicit (SAFE) methods), optimizes the reach and potential of SEL to truly equip young people for a flourishing future.

SEL done well is focused, developmentally appropriate teaching and practice of individual and group social-emotional skill-building that centres students and their cultures, identities, lived experiences, and collective well-being.

Through co-learning and amplifying the strengths and resources of students, social-emotional learning can offer a range of meaningful strategies for flourishing in school and throughout life when:

• we see students through an asset lens that affirms who they are and the experiences they bring to school
• we recognize a diversity of worldviews and approaches to social-emotional development
• we acknowledge the deep impacts of racism, oppression, marginalization, and colonization on student wellness
• we respond with a focus on reconciliation, equity, human rights, social justice, and liberation as cornerstones for social-emotional learning instruction we prioritize student voices, leadership, and agency

Key considerations for SEL done well

To truly reach its potential for every student and to avoid harm, SEL must be delivered  with explicit and caring attention. To do so there are aspects of this work to consider in how we support staff, the learning environment, resources used, and during instruction.

Build capacity and support school staff:

• Foster staff well-being as it’s interconnected with the well-being of students.
• Build capacity through ongoing supportive professional learning. Staff must be not only well-versed in social-emotional learning, but also aware of ways in which these practices can unintentionally harm students.
• Support and encourage staff to reflect on their positionality, privilege, and unexamined biases ₇ to ensure that social-emotional learning is not used in ways that place additional responsibilities on students who are racialized oppressed and marginalized.
• Share culturally relevant and responsive teaching practices, as well as teaching practices that are anti-oppressive, anti-racist, and trauma-informed

Help staff to build strong social and emotional competencies so that they have more positive relationships with students, demonstrate higher levels of patience and empathy, and are less likely to experience professional burnout.

Create conditions for mentally health school and learning environments:

• Sustain anti-racist and anti-oppressive school and classroom conditions for learning.
• Name and address contextual factors ₇ that perpetuate racism, oppression, and marginalization and lift these burdens from students so they may meaningfully participate in learning.
• Build asset-based mindsets in staff and students
• Recognize and shift when SEL is inadvertently used as a behaviour management tool

Select SEL resources that optimize the strengths and diversities of students served:

• Ensure the use of programming and materials are reflective of the cultures and identities of the students served, and that uplift student strengths, perspectives, and ways of knowing.
• Help staff to consider differentiated approaches ₇ to SEL that take into account various lived experiences and worldviews, community caring, and culture.

Weave SEL Instruction into daily practice:

• Incorporate SEL into everyday instructional practice; through interactions with students and by modelling these behaviours and habits.
• Provide explicit instruction taught independently or through a series of lessons.

References

₁Clarke, A., Sorgenfrei, M., Mulcahy, J., Davie, P., Friedrich, C. & McBride, T. (2021). Adolescent mental health: A systematic review on the effectiveness of school-based interventions. Early Intervention Foundation.

₂Darling-Hammond, L., & Cook-Harvey, C. M. (2018). Educating the whole child: Improving school climate to support student success. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/145.655

₃Gregory, A., & Fergus, E. (2017). Social and emotional learning and equity in school discipline. The Future of Children, 117-136.

₄Jagers, R. (2016). Framing social and emotional learning among African-American youth: Toward an integrity-based approach. Human Development, 59(1), 1–3

₅Madda, M. J. (2020, June 1). Dena Simmons: Without Context, Social-Emotional Learning Can Backfire – EdSurge News. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-05-15-dena-simmons-without-context-social-emotionallearning-can-backfire

₆Simmons, D. (2019). Why we can’t afford whitewashed social-emotional learning. Education Update, 61(4). https://ascd.org/el/articles/why-we-cant-afford-whitewashed-social-emotional-learning

₇The Education Trust. (2020, August). Social, emotional, and academic development through an equity lens.