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It is not too soon for educators to turn their attention to the reopening of school in the Fall of 2024. We can and should anticipate that this will be a time of polarization on both domestic and foreign fronts...'
Returning To Polarized Schools in 2024: Recommendations For Educators
Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D. and the Social-Emotional Learning Alliance for the United States (SEL4US.org)
Note: We learned a lot in preparation for return to school after COVID that will be important to our return to school in Fall 2024. The time to get this information in front of educators is now, before schools are out of session. This blog is an adaptation of advice created by a national group of researchers and practitioners in social-emotional and character development from around the United States in which I participated, led by Prof. Patricia Heindel of Saint Elizabeth University and SEL4NJ.
It is not too soon for educators to turn their attention to the reopening of school in the Fall of 2024. We can and should anticipate that this will be a time of polarization on both domestic and foreign fronts. National, state, and local elections will be accompanied by increased sensitivities and tensions.
Here is what we know: for reasons of academic achievement and mental health and wellness for students and for staff, it is critical that the priority be on attending to social-emotional and character development (SECD) and the culture and climate of our schools. Here is a set of recommendations to ensure that all staff and students successfully manage these predictable tensions and create learning moments to improve mutual understanding and respectful interaction despite differences.
For School Leaders At the School Building Level
- Communicate to all staff that individuals can hold their own personal view on a variety ot topics, but the classroom is not the place to present them. Their mission is to help students learn how to think about and consider issues, not to have them arrive at staff positions.
- Create communications that inform the school community about how social-emotional learning strategies can help students learn how to listen to their peers and others, clarify different points of view, deal with strong feelings during conflict, understand with empathy, and problem solving non-violently to arrive at solutions.
- Begin each school day with school-wide mindfulness activities and consider integrating mindfulnes opportunities throughout the school day (https://www.edutopia.org/article/8-activities-students-and-teachers-create-mindful-classroom/)
- Create shared staff agreements to facilitate creating a caring, supportive, and safe environment in which opinions can be expressed without harassment, intimidation, or bullying. Creating-Shared-Agreements.docx
- Model social-emotional (SEL) competencies as a staff to provide examples of how adults can treat one-another in the ways they are encouraging students to treat one-another.
https://schoolguide.casel.org/resource/modeling-sel-as-a-staff/
For Educators At the Classroom Level
The highest priority is to create a climate in each classroom that helps students develop social-emotional competence and character, manage stress, engage in respectful disagreement and dialogue, and feel connected to each other and to you. SECD research gives specific guidance with regard to essential practices in this area based on these fundamental assumptions:
- •People– adults and children-- need to be “seen” and “heard”
- •People need to be in a place of sharing, mutual helping and support—a climate of comfort and respect
- •People need to contribute
- •People need to be reassured and have optimistic future mindedness
- •People need to receive-- and to give-- caring, kindness, help, appreciation; these must be hallmarks of each of our classrooms, with no exceptions, alibis, or excuses
- •People need to be understood with empathy and compassion—to realize that we are in trauma, beset by strong emotions and worries, and we are seeking the best outcomes based on what we know, the resources we have, and the situation as we understand it.
Here are some strategies based on these assumptions::
- Create shared classroom agreements to facilitate creating a positive, mutually supportive, safe, caring, kind classroom environments. Consider having each classroom develop a Declaration of Interdependence and a Constitution. The Declaration will set expectations for classroom and school culture. The Constitution will set expectations for classroom climate, core values and code of behavior. Creating-Shared-Agreements.docx
- Use SEL practices to create conditions for safe, inclusive, and collaborative classrooms. CASEL SEL 3 Signature Practices for the Classroom
- Reach out to students individually and communicate that you value their contributions. (https://sel4nj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2021/08/SEL4NJ-Series-Emphasizing-Student-Relationships-and-Support-Final.pdf)
- Follow up with students on topics that are important to them to show them they are known and cared for.
- Facilitate class meetings, morning meetings, morning classroom conversations, circle times, and other community-building activities to cultivate a culture of personal connection, regular participation, and belonging.
- Create learning activities and projects link to students’ lived experiences, frames of reference, and teach them problem solving strategies to analyze issues that are important to them, as well as to addressing issues/questions/controversies related to your subject matter, historically or in the present. [https://www.ascd.org/blogs/5-strategies-to-integrate-civil-discourse-and-civic-action-in-schools]
- Integrate opportunities into learning activities for students to express self- and social awareness by asking them to identify feelings, reflect on their experiences, and talk through topics with peers.
- Design learning activities that affirm students’ diverse identities and cultures, and students have opportunities to share and learn about each other’s lives. (https://sel4nj.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2021/08/SEL4NJ-Series-Creating-Classrooms-That-Celebrate-Who-Students-Are-1-Final.pdf)
- 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. Think about how you use your strengths in these areas to be an effective educator and form positive conditions for student learning. Self-Assessing Social and Emotional Instruction and Competencies: A tool for teachers is a helpful guide to use for this reflection. (https://gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/SelfAssessmentSEL.pdf )
Creating a positive environment as we enter the next school year must 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 plan for what is so likely to happen. Our students cannot afford to lose any more time.
Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, Director, Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab (SECDLab.org), Co-Director of the Academy for SEL in Schools and SEL4US.org, blogs for Edutopia (www.edutopia.org/profile/maurice-j-elias), and is co-author of Nurturing Students' Character: Everyday Teaching Activities for Social-Emotional Learning. He can be reached at Maurice.Elias@rutgers.edu.
