We need to talk about socio-emotional learning (SEL).
SEL is supposed to be about teaching students how to manage their emotions, persevere, and how to have healthy emotional lives. Sounds pretty harmless, right?
But here’s the problem.
Popular and common approaches to SEL are flawed. In fact,theresearch showsthat SEL is biased against Black students.
Knowingly employingan evaluation method that is vulnerable to bias, one thatprivileges particular groups over others,andone that has the potential to shape future opportunities and pathways for students, echoes racist and eugenic ideologies.
There have been manystudiesthat demonstrate teachers assign negative behaviour traits to Black students even where no misbehaviour exists.
When SEL is included as a formal part of assessment and evaluation, a teacher’s subjective interpretationof a student’s emotionalskills can impact their grades.
Teachers already have too muchdiscretionin assigning grades to students. We see the result of this in academicoutcomes for Blackand Indigenous students.
Until Black and Indigenous familiescan be assured that anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous racism are being meaningfully addressed in schools, with full accountability and capacity to address systemic barriers, SEL should not be a formal part of any school curriculum.
