EDN 556 - Identity, Culture and Social Emotional Learning: Convergences and Conflicts

Frameworks of social emotional learning (SEL) that do not openly acknowledge and address issues of identity development and cultural influence are rarely effective in achieving their outcomes and can actually be harmful for school climate, community engagement, and student self-knowledge, purpose, self-efficacy/growth mindset, and self-esteem. Teachers interested in SEL must learn to navigate their identities and understand how their identities may enable or disadvantage their ability to address all students in their classrooms. This course is designed to expand the scope of traditional SEL curricula and begins to acquaint students with the robust critiques of SEL in schools including the relationships between narrowly behaviorist approaches and the school to prison pipeline; cross-cultural misunderstandings of behavior; and intersectional approaches to understanding racialized disability.

(Cr: 3