“It’s because of community meeting:” toward a responsive reconceptualization of social emotional learning

ABSTRACT

Exclusionary discipline disproportionally impacts low-income students of Color. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) offers a promising framework for reducing the use of suspensions in school. Prominent SEL literature and praxis, however, seem to assume a colorblind stance that neglects to respond to the sociocultural and political realities low-income students of Color experience. This action research inquiry evaluates the impact of an SEL program implemented in the third grade of a low-income, urban school serving children of Color. Students and teachers co-created a program grounded in critical and culturally relevant pedagogies, Black ethic of care, Freirean radical love, and restorative justice practices. This inquiry offers policy implications that might enable educators to further expand the development and enactment of similar responsive SEL programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Social emotional learning
• culturally relevant pedagogy
• critical pedagogy
• restorative justice
• school discipline
• urban education and at-risk youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Notes

1. Names are pseudonyms.

2. Knight-Diop (2010) uses term verbatim; Ladson-Billings (1995a) describes concept without naming it explicitly.