Learn to become a unique interrelated person: An alternative of social-emotional learning drawing on Confucianism and Daoism

Abstract

While social-emotional learning as a specific education concept originated from North America, the thoughts on emotions and associated pedagogical practices have developed across cultures. Drawing on Confucian and Daoist perspectives, this paper aims to reconfigure an alternative of social-emotional learning, beyond the dominant framework rooted in Western liberalism. It argues that the Confucian and Daoist notions of self are ontologically interrelated and in this interrelatedness the uniqueness of all things is constructed and embedded, which expects one to be authentic and appropriate in her/his emotional interactions with others. As elucidated by three selected pedagogical examples, the proposed alternative of social-emotional learning can be elaborated as cultivating a sense of interrelatedness which nurtures one’s unique emotional bonds with others and enabling one to authentically experience the emotional interrelatedness and appropriately respond to the fulfillment of others’ emotional life. This alternative may also inspire us to go beyond the social-focus as indicated in the current concept and achieve social-ecological wellbeing and harmonization, echoing many other indigenous worldviews.

Keywords:

• Social emotional learning
• Confucianism
• Daoism
• self

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deep gratefulness to all the members of the ‘After Asia as Method’ workshop and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the earlier draft of this paper. Special thanks to WISE EDU PLUS (慧育家) and teachers who participated in the SEL training program in the summer of 2021. This paper was also supported by the Innovation and Research Center for Chinese Education Discourse System (East China Normal University). Any omissions or errors are my responsibility alone.

Notes

1 It is noteworthy that challenges to the dominance of humanist liberal thinking have also emerged within the West. As I argue at the end of this paper, these Western resources should be embraced to commonly form better future education.

2 I and my colleagues have conducted a research project in two Shanghai kindergartens that have adopted SEL curriculum. In our fieldwork mainly in late 2019 and early 2021, we observed and filmed seven classes and interviewed eight teachers.

3 As a lecturer, I did a training program with 30 Chinese SEL teachers in the summer of 2021.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the China’s National Social Sciences (Education) Fund under Grant BAA200018.

Notes on contributors

Yun You

Dr. Yun You is associate professor and Director of International Programme of Education Policy and School Reform (http://www.dedu.ecnu.edu.cn/19/99/c6129a334233/page.htm) at East China Normal University, Shanghai. Her research interests include deconstructing the Western dominant construction, representation and referencing of East Asian education, and moving further, elaborating Chinese educational ideas and practices from sui generis onto-epistemo-cosmological lenses.