The Role of Race and Class in Promoting Students' Social Emotional Development: Findings from a Multidisciplinary Pre-Service SEL Training

Background and Purpose: One’s race and class is often ignored as a core component of social and emotional functioning. Social emotional learning (SEL) is critical in supporting youth's overall development. SEL abilities are linked to children’s academic success. Children who do not meet the developmental milestones of social emotional abilities are at risk for having poor school performance and developing mental health problems, including disruptive behavior. Pervasive racial inequalities negatively impact SEL. For example, CPS suspended 32 of every 100 African American students, compared to 5 of every 100 White students, during 2012-13. School social workers and teachers may be key personnel to reduce these inequities while facilitating SEL in schools. To deliver a comprehensive approach to SEL, collaborative efforts among teachers and school social workers are necessary to support students’ positive social and emotional development. The researchers developed and implemented a collaborative multidisciplinary pre-service training curriculum for these personnel that addresses how to support SEL while integrating race and class. A main goal of the study was to investigate if and how participants learn to collaborate and facilitate meaningful activities that support SEL and positive racial identity.

Methods: Utilizing purposive sampling, interns in the urban elementary education (UEE), and school social work (SSW) programs were recruited through classroom flyers and program listservs. Inclusion criteria included: enrollment in either program between 2012-2013, and interning within a K-12 school setting. Participants were accepted on a first come, first serve basis. Nine participants included 66% White females, and a fairly even representation of SSW and UEE interns. Over a 2-month period, the researchers facilitated six, 2-hour SEL training sessions that infused issues of race and class through structured activities. Three months after the last session, two doctoral students facilitated a post-training focus group. To control for biases, one doctoral student from each respective program conducted the post-training focus group. The training sessions and focus group were audio/ video recorded. One graduate RA transcribed all recordings, and coded data through a content analysis method. Supporting inter-rater reliability, both researchers collaborated on content analysis of all transcripts.

Findings: Participants were disconnected from how their students’ minority/ cultural status impacted their school and life experiences, and therefore did not know how to integrate diversity into SEL strategies. Both the SSW and UEE interns believed in the value of supporting their students’ SEL abilities, however, the participants struggled with how to deliver SEL in schools and balance that with their other professional demands. Although participants began learning the necessary collaboration skills, the 6 training sessions were inadequate for them to adopt a fully collaborative approach to addressing SEL, race and class with their counterparts.

Conclusion and Implications: Pre-service SEL training that integrates race and class should be delivered as a full multidisciplinary course, promoting concurrent joint field placements. Also, the curriculum should emphasize an interrogation of privilege and its impact on working with youth culturally different from self. Further, the impact of such training should be explored through the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of youth outcomes.