SEL and Equity for MLs: The Kids Are Not Broken

by Margie Kirstein, Ed.D

A hand-written note that reads “Thank you Ms. Kirstein for everything, at the beginning of the year I hated everyone but then I started to liked your class because I saw how much you cared for me, So I can learned something from you. Thank you.”


Introduction

The new school year of 2021 could be called the year of SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Students have been through the trauma of a pandemic and a year of virtual learning. In a 2020 report, the organization CIVIC found that majorities of both parents and teachers wanted schools to develop social-emotional skills as much as academic ones. Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools, one of the country’s richest school systems, earmarked $23.3 million toward "SEL (Wellness) Intervention" and Montgomery County (Maryland) Public schools planned to integrate SEL into the day for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Yet for many multilingual learners (MLs), the mainstream “wellness” model might not address their particular experiences and needs. In this post I will discuss the shifts teachers of MLs can make in the SEL framework and suggest easily implemented strategies to promote SEL in a way that can serve students from the broadest range of cultural, linguistic, and academic backgrounds. 

Mindset Shifts

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identifies broad areas of SEL competence and recommends they be integrated into academic curriculum, to support learners in reaching their highest potential. However, seeing SEL as an instrument of academic achievement can exclude some learners. 

Three basic shifts in mindset and practice—focusing on equity, equanimity, and empowerment—can transform SEL into an instrument of inclusion. The following table shows the shifts that can strengthen SEL for MLs (see The CASEL 5):

Mainstream SEL Competencies lead to Shifts to SEL for Equity. Self-Awareness and Self-Management lead to a focus on equity. Social Awareness and Relationship Skills lead to developing equanimity. Decision-Making leads to teaching ‘critical wellness.’

Shift 1: Equity 

The primary shift in offering SEL to MLs is a focus on equity. Equity requires that we recognize how differences impact students’ access and opportunities, and adjust accordingly. In addition to emotions like fear and anxiety, many MLs have suffered from racism, poverty, and exclusion. To provide SEL in an equitable way for MLs, we must acknowledge how social injustices affect students’ well-being and their ability to learn in schools. When we provide SEL in a way that addresses these impacts, students feel heard, accepted, and valued. A focus on equity can transform SEL into an instrument of compassion and healing for all students. 

How students express and develop social and emotional skills is shaped by their life experiences and background, including gender, race, culture, and class.

Mindset shifts:

  • Prioritize student well being over academic achievement, so all students are included and valued. 

  • Stress students’ strengths and assets as members of the classroom community.

  • Recognize the challenges students may face from ongoing sources of stress that are beyond their control.

  • Don’t think of SEL as a way to “fix” kids because “kids are not broken” (Venet 2021). Think instead of fixing the systems that harm them.

Strategy: 

Voice and choice allows students opportunities for self expression and choices in how they learn. Activities like journaling can be therapeutic when they are student-directed and private. The strategy of Voice and Choice can implemented in any classroom independently of content area:

  • Provide regular opportunities for creative self expression and reflection through activities like drawing and journaling. These are not graded and don’t have to be shared with the teacher unless the student wishes it (grade for completion).

  • If students want to share their stories, be available and listen without judgement.

  • Give students choices of how to respond to assignments, including options for students with emergent literacy and English proficiency. 

  • Allow time for students to reflect after a lesson, identifying which parts they found engaging or helped them to learn. 

Shift 2: Develop equanimity 

Mindset shifts:

In her book Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, the author explains that standardization and depersonalization are dehumanizing, and dehumanization causes trauma. As teachers of MLs, we know the importance of relationships in our classrooms--teacher to student, and student to student. In addition, we know our students may experience challenging interpersonal experiences outside the classroom, often in situations where they have little control. The major shift here is communicating to students that we value them first as people, regardless of their individual characteristics or achievements. We can also teach students to develop an attitude of fairness towards others, including those with different points of view. 

Strategy:

Equanimity refers to being calm and composed, and able to experience unpleasant thoughts or emotions without repressing or overreacting to them. For MLs, this can mean recognizing injustices or difficulties they experience in daily life and choosing to respond to them in a healthy way. 

  • Use cooperative activities like Reciprocal Teaching to teach students they all have a role to play

  • Allow students to discuss their diverse perspectives while learning to support each other even if they have different views. Provide discussion stems to model respectful disagreement:

    • I believe ___ because ___

    • I agree that __________ is correct because my experience is _________.

    • I see it another way because of __________.

    • I can see that; however, I disagree because of __________.

    • I don’t agree with ___________ because__________.

    • I disagree with the statement that _________ because ___________.

    • I think ___________ is mistaken because of ___________.

  • Teach that equanimity doesn’t mean ignoring issues; rather it is being aware of them and responding to them skillfully. 

Shift 3: Empowerment 

Mindset shifts:

Many SEL programs include “mindfulness” activities. SEL can help students become more self-aware and manage emotions. The shift here is from seeing the self alone as the location of difficulties to a taking a “critical wellness” stance that acknowledges how society also must change. Students can learn that the strengths they develop from facing adversity can empower them to take action.

Strategy: 

Add the dimension of Empowerment to any “mindfulness” activities you teach. 

  • Patricia Broderick, author of a mindfulness curriculum, uses the acronym BREATHE:

    • B--Listen to your Body

    • R--Reflections (thoughts) are just thoughts

    • E--Surf the waves of your Emotions

    • A--Attend to the inside and the outside

    • T--Try Tenderness--Take it as it is

    • H--Practice Healthy Habits of mind

    • E--Gain the Inner Edge. Be Empowered!

(The last step is the most important, as it teaches that inner strength can empower students to take an active, problem-solving approach to social issues.) 

  • Project-Based Learning can help students explore real-world problems and challenges and generate solutions. Implementing it can also seem overwhelming. Edutopia has helpful resources to help you make the shift. 

As educators of MLs, we are certainly aware of the role SEL can play in helping students readjust to school and manage stress and anxiety. For teachers of MLs, teaching about self-awareness and self-management must also acknowledge that social inequities impact students, and that students can use their increased awareness to address these issues. Using a “critical wellness” approach, educators can deliver SEL in a way that supports MLs “without placing these issues within a deficit-laden framework that blames children, families, and communities for their circumstances.” For MLs, reinforcing students’ strengths and assets and imparting their sense of empowerment must be the goals of SEL.  

A hand-written note that reads “Thank you Ms. Kirstein for everything, at the beginning of the year I hated everyone but then I started to liked your class because I saw how much you cared for me, So I can learned something from you. Thank you.”

To Further Your Learning

Journal Prompts

Organizations

Books

  • Patricia C. Broderick (2013). Learning to Breathe; A Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents. New Harbinger Publications.

  • Tyrone C. Howard (2019). All Students Must Thrive. International Center for Leadership in Education. 

  • Alex Shevrin Venet (2021). Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education. Norton Professional Books.

Family Student Engagement, Leading for Equity, Curriculum and Instruction, Anti-Bias EducationConfianza: For Educators of Language Learners1c, 5b