How Social-Emotional Learning Can Unify Your School Community: 7 Timely Tips

In the months ahead, we will see new faces in political positions from the Oval Office to local school boards. The outcomes of our recent national, state, and local elections will be accompanied by increased sensitivities and tensions. There is no way to isolate our schools—elementary, middle, or high—from the direct or indirect impact of these turnovers.

Looking at schools across the country, I see continued challenges to the mental health and well-being of many students and school staff, exacerbated by educators’ worries about “saying the wrong thing” or using the “wrong” materials. These conditions have a chilling effect on intellectual inquiry and genuine academic achievement.

It does not have to be this way.

My colleagues and I at the Social Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States (SEL4US, a grassroots organization comprised of 24 state alliances dedicated to sharing SEL best practices) have witnessed how leaders can derive great benefit from prioritizing social and emotional learning in the culture of their schools. As school climate improves and social-emotional and character development increases, schools can become the truly welcoming and inclusive places students need to learn best.

There continue to be disagreements and polarization within and across many school communities on a range of issues, from abortion rights to immigration to energy policy to the study of history. Yet, we have seen how schools can reconcile community differences to continue the essential task of education.

Here is a set of recommendations for school leaders to ensure that staff and students successfully manage these stressors and keep focused on learning. Based on the best practices identified by SEL4US through research and practice, these steps can help school communities improve mutual understanding and respect despite political divisions.

1. Remind your staff that the classroom is not always the appropriate place to present their personal views. It may seem as if this need not be said, but your explicit statement will help take the pressure off staff who are feeling compelled to take a position on political issues such as transgender rights, banning of books, and access to the vote. Our mission is to help students learn how to best consider issues, not to have them arrive at the same positions as their teachers.
2. Make the case for social-emotional learning competencies. Many teachers and parents may not understand how essential these competencies are for college, career, and future success. Explain to your school community how helping students learn to listen to their peers and others, clarify different points of view, deal with strong feelings during conflict, understand with empathy, and problem-solve to arrive at effective, consensual solutions will serve them well. (Consider using issue briefs that offer short, practical introductions to social-emotional and character development.)
3. Incorporate mindfulness into the school day. Begin each school day with schoolwide mindfulness activities and consider integrating mindfulness opportunities throughout the course of the day at specified times. These activities will reduce stress levels for staff and students and enable everyone to approach the day’s learning opportunities with greater optimism and likelihood of success.
4. Model social-emotional competencies as a staff. Even students who do not appear to be paying attention are actually highly attuned to the words and actions of their teachers and other staff members. Therefore, it is especially vital to demonstrate how adults can treat their peers in the same constructive ways they are encouraging students to treat theirs.
5. Create shared staff agreements for faculty meetings rooted in SEL competencies. By establishing a common vision for school-based staff meetings, leaders can encourage a caring, supportive, and safe environment in which opinions can be expressed without harassment, intimidation, or bullying.
6. Encourage all teachers to create shared classroom agreements, too. Research is clear that positive, mutually supportive, safe, caring, kind classroom environments are most conducive to on-time attendance, academic engagement, and reduction of off-task behavior and disciplinary incidents in classes. Consider having each classroom develop a “declaration of interdependence” and a “constitution.” The declaration should articulate a set of core values that everyone in the classroom agrees to follow and is respectful of different cultures and perspectives. The constitution should set specific, age- and context-appropriate expectations for classroom and school behavior. Like our United States Constitution, classroom constitutions are living documents, open to review and amendment.
7. Assess and improve your own social-emotional competencies. Reflect on your ability to recognize and manage your emotions, identify sources of stress and manage stress, be empathetic, form and maintain positive relationships, and problem-solve. Think about how you use your strengths in these areas to be an effective educator and form positive conditions for student learning.

Creating a positive environment during the upcoming political transitions will only happen through intention and planning. This is not only essential to maximize student learning—it is the best way to strengthen students’ mental health and staff wellness.

Let’s learn from experience and not rely on improvisation. Our students need as much positive learning time as we can provide.