Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has been a hot topic lately, but what is SEL and how can educators use these practices to enable better learning and create a more welcoming and safe environment for all students? On this episode, Dr. Bloodine Barthelus, Director of Practice Innovation at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) gives us an SEL primer.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Barthelus (00:03):
It's not for just students, it's absolutely for everyone. It's for the adults, it's for our caregivers, it's for our families, it's our communities. If you're a walking, living, breathing human being, social-emotional learning is something that we should be engaging in.
Natieka (00:18):
Hello and welcome to School Me, the National Education Association's podcast dedicated to helping educators thrive at every stage of their careers. I'm your host, Natieka Samuels. Social-Emotional Learning or SEL has been a hot topic lately, especially as students and educators have returned to school buildings after the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, but what is SEL and how can educators use these practices to better enable learning and create a more welcoming and safe environment for all students?
(00:45):
To give us a primer on SEL, we've invited Dr. Bloodine Barthelus to the show today. She is currently the Director of Practice Innovation at the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning or CASEL. There she uses her experience of integrating social and emotional learning and equity to help support CASEL's partners and bring about more equitable outcomes for students. Thanks for joining us today, Dr. Barthelus.
Dr. Barthelus (01:07):
Thank you for having me.
Natieka (01:08):
All right. So let's talk about you. Can you tell us a little bit about how your career path led you to your current position?
Dr. Barthelus (01:16):
Yes, absolutely. I will say I kind of fell into education, did not plan on actually heading in this direction. Started a Master's program in counseling and realized while I was there that I really didn't want to go the clinical route, and I found someone who told me something about school counseling. So I got into school counseling and that was my first entry into education. I was a school counselor for eight years, and during that time, what became quickly clear to me is that I wasn't just the counselor for students, but I was actually the counselor literally for the school.
(01:51):
So there was assistance that the administrator needed, the teachers needed, that families needed. And it just speaks to the fact that there are needs across the continuum that are there simply because we're human beings. So after being a school counselor, I went into Central Office as a specialist doing work around student discipline and school climate, which was very different to go into student discipline from counseling.
(02:16):
But that role really helped me to see the significant role that environment and relationships play on behavior and the role that adults and the power that we hold to shift and really affect change in schools. By the time I left Central office, I was in D.C. Public Schools. I was the Director of SEL and School Climate. In that position, I really had the opportunity to double down on climate, on intentional connections with students, the customer service, the connections that we make with caregivers, with families, with communities, and that really allowed me to kind of have my first entry to CASEL. CASEL came and did an assessment around our district. I was the one that actually put the whole assessment together and supported them in understanding what we were doing in the district at the time. But that really became the way that I was introduced to CASEL and moved into the work that I do now.
(03:10):
I've been at CASEL for four years. I started off as a Senior District Advisor supporting SEL leads in other districts doing the exact same work I was doing in D.C. And so that kind of became the way that I am kind of in my position now. One thing I also like to add when I talk about career path is that it's not just the positions that I'm in, but it's me as an individual. I consider myself a life-long educator. I'm also a parent, I'm a sister, I'm an auntie, I'm a first generation daughter of Haitian immigrants, all of which pull on the social and emotional competencies that we talk about when we say SEL, and I'm a human being, so this work is deeply personal and important to me. C
Natieka (03:50):
Can we talk a little bit about CASEL and the work of the organization?
Dr. Barthelus (03:55):
CASEL stands for the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning, and we've been in place for over 25 years and we've contributed over 25 years of service to the field. Our vision is that all children and adults are self-aware, they're caring, responsible, engaged, they're life-long learners who work together to achieve their goals and create a more inclusive, just and equitable world.
(04:20):
I want to say that we are a non-profit, we're a non-partisan organization. We're deeply committed to being a part of creating an educational process that values and supports all students and prepares them not just for the stresses and the challenges of life, but also the beauty of life that they face now and that they'll continue to face in the future.
Natieka (04:40):
Let's set the scene in terms of actually explaining SEL. So given everything that's happened in the past few years, obviously COVID-19 has been a huge factor in all of our lives. How would you describe where educators are right now in terms of wellness and support from their districts?
Dr. Barthelus (05:01):
That's a great question, and I think this is something that everyone is managing right now. Before the pandemics, before we even... And I say pandemics because we've had many colliding pandemics at the same time. Before that even happened, educators were already burnt out. They were already in a situation where the ask was too heavy and the load was too much for them as individuals. Teachers already had to decide between, do I invest more in my work or do I give it to my family? They already felt like they couldn't do both. So we were already in a difficult situation before these pandemics showed up.
(05:40):
Now we're at a critical state. Now we're looking at retirings and resignations happening, not at the end of the year. Mid-year, people are deciding, "I can't do this anymore," and they're leaving. We're having a mass exodus of educators and we don't have enough individuals who are interested in coming to fill those spots currently. So we've got an educator shortage, we've got burnout. Even those that are staying in those spaces and continuing to contribute to this mission and to this calling are not well. They don't have the time to take care of self. And the demands that these pandemics have added to what teachers and educators are required to do with students is that much more. So we're looking at instructional loss that we're trying to make up for. We're wanting to move students from where they were to where they need to be. That all lands in the classroom, lands in schools as additional demands.
(06:33):
And so even though we have leaders who want to prioritize the wellness of adults and want to prioritize the wellness of educators, they're faced with trying to understand, "How do I do both? How do I continue to push and get students what they need that maybe they haven't gotten in the past few years and support the wellness and the well-being of educators?" And sometimes when a choice has to be made, it always goes on the end of the student. As a result, we're looking at a workforce that isn't quite as well as they need to be to do and to respond to the demands that we have right now.
Natieka (07:07):
Let's get into the nuts and bolts of SEL. In a nutshell, what is social-emotional learning or as we're talking about it, SEL, and why are we hearing so much about SEL these days?
Dr. Barthelus (07:20):
Social-emotional learning is... We call it an integral part of education and human development. It's a process in which young people and adults are acquiring and applying the knowledge, the skills, the attitudes that they need to be healthy, to be well, to manage emotions that come up, whether they're great emotions that we love to feel, whether they're the emotions that are hard to carry. It's those skills and attitudes that allow us and support us in achieving our personal and collective goals to feel and show empathy for others. And we have a lot of space where empathy can be shown now, and we'll always have that.
(07:59):
And it also is that space that allows individuals to know how to establish supportive relationships, but not just establish them, but to keep them, to maintain them because relationships are challenging and hard, and if we know the skills and we know the attitudes, we know the disposition that we need to have to be able to maintain those relationships, we have a stronger collective overall. And then it's the piece of being able to make the responsible and caring decisions that contribute to our own personal well-being, but also contributes to the society and the community around us.
(08:33):
The other piece about social-emotional learning that we like to say is that it should advance educational equity and excellence. And the way that it should do that is through having partnerships with schools, with families, with communities, having conversations and partnering with them in a way that allows us to have bidirectional expertise sharing that really allows us to create the kinds of environments and experiences that support students where they are. That's what we mean when we say social-emotional learning.
(09:02):
Oftentimes it's seen as mental health, and that's probably why we're hearing a lot about it all of a sudden, is because we are in what many people are calling a mental health crisis. We are in a space where young people emotionally need additional support, socially need additional support. We're in a crisis where adults, everyone has gone through this pandemic together and everyone needs additional support. Some are needing more than others, thus the mental health crisis. Some just need just that ongoing touch that we all need as human beings.
(09:40):
And so as a result, social-emotional learning is being called at the forefront to really be able to respond to some of these needs that we're seeing that are increasingly evident. Before we could kind of talk about them, but let's get back to the business of academics and making sure students are learning, but now it's so in our faces that we can't ignore it anymore. So I think that's one of the reasons why everyone is kind of calling on it and asking for it. I don't know that we all define it the same way, but it's the major reason why everyone is prioritizing it in this way right now.
Natieka (10:13):
And you got a little bit into this, but I'll ask more explicitly, why does SEL matter for schools?
Dr. Barthelus (10:19):
One thing that we say a lot at CASEL is all learning is social and emotional. Whether we acknowledge it or not, there isn't learning that happens in a vacuum. It requires social interaction. It requires emotional involvement for us to take in information, to persevere when information becomes challenging, to manage conflict when we're asked to do group projects, to collaboratively problem-solve challenges when we are put in situations where we're asked to learn about different events in our context, in our society, and figure those out at the classroom level, even as adults with the colleagues that we work with, with the differing perspectives that we bring. None of this learning happens outside of us as social beings and outside of us bringing a level of emotion to this process.
(11:10):
So I think we are at the point where whether we want to focus on it or not, it's in the space, it's in the room. And for those of us who are having a particular social or emotional challenge in the moment, it becomes rather evident that we can't get to the academics if we don't address it. The other piece is that students are constantly evolving developmentally, and part of those developmental milestones are social and emotional as well. So if we're not lining those up with the academic milestones as well, we're not supporting students to be able to be well positioned to make the growth academically that they need to be able to make so that they're successful later on.
Natieka (11:53):
We're talking a lot about SEL in terms of students. So is SEL just for the students within a school or is it for the adults, everyone who's touching any part of the academic process?
Dr. Barthelus (12:08):
It's for everyone. We also like to say, if you're a human being, you're still doing social-emotional learning. So it's not simply the skills, but it is the skills that we're able to acquire that allows us to do life better. It allows us to engage with one another better. And we all know that students go the extra distance for teachers that they feel care about them, for teachers that create spaces that prioritize them as individuals. They will go the extra distance. They'll push through a challenge for that teacher, but when there is an individual in front of them who does not seem to see them as the individuals that they are, who isn't intentional about creating the space of belonging for all young people, students can check out because they've got a lot that they're carrying. We have to almost kind of give them a reason to continue to push into this academic space that is equally as challenging as some of the challenges that they are facing as well.
(13:05):
It's not for just students, it's absolutely for everyone. It's for the adults, it's for our caregivers, it's for our families, it's our communities. If you're a walking, living, breathing human being, social-emotional learning is something that we should be engaging in.
Natieka (13:18):
Thanks for listening to School Me, and a quick thank you to all of the NEA members listening. If you're not an NEA member yet, visit nea.org/whyjoin to learn more about member benefits. And you've talked about equity here a little bit. So why or how is SEL an equity issue?
Dr. Barthelus (13:38):
Well, first, let's define who we are talking about and what we mean when we say equity because there's oftentimes, when we bring up the word equity, people immediately think of equity equals race. And it can and it does, but it also equals the many different ways that students are sitting in educational spaces and not getting what they need. So it could be students with disabilities, it could be students from different class, it could be students of differing citizenship. It could be all sorts of differing ways of looking at equity. And when we say social-emotional learning is an equity issue, it can be a lever that is used to really create the space and to create the relationships where students get what they need to be able to feel as if they belong, to be able to acquire the knowledge, the skills that they need to be able to maneuver through the context that they're in.
(14:38):
It creates the space for all students to have voice and to have a way of knowing that they can self-direct what happens to them to some extent because people are listening to the ideas and the perspectives that they bring into the spaces that they're in. So at times, only some students have that opportunity. And it's really important that through the educational process that every single student that walks through that door has an opportunity to feel seen, to feel heard, has opportunities to grow in their agency, has opportunities to see themselves as collaborators and solving problems that impact them and their communities.
(15:18):
And the way that we get to that is by creating these spaces where we're consistently thinking about one another as human beings that can develop and grow in ways that connect to our overall society and community.
Natieka (15:30):
CASEL has an SEL framework that breaks down the core competencies and practice areas of SEL. So can you break that down for us?
Dr. Barthelus (15:39):
And if folks don't know where to find this, you can also go to our website casel.org and you'll see the wheel. We call it the CASEL wheel, but we have within this wheel five core competencies of social-emotional learning. There are the intra-related competencies, and those are self-awareness and self-management. Those are the competencies that speak to the personal work that we do as it relates to social-emotional learning. So with self-awareness, we think about the accuracy by which we know ourselves, the understanding that we have regarding our own personal goals, our own ideas, our own perspectives. It supports a healthy attitude about who we are as individuals. It allows us to dig deep into our own personal identities and how we move about the world with the identities that we carry.
(16:31):
So self-awareness is really the foundation of all of it, because the better we know ourselves, the better we can navigate the ups and downs of life, the better we can navigate the relationships we step into or step out of. It really does require us to truly embody us as individuals that we know fully. Self-management is how do you take all of this accurate knowing of self? And this is an ongoing process because we're never not learning about who we are, but how do we take all of this understanding and apply it in a way that allows us to move through this world in a way that benefits us and that benefits the world around us? How do we manage our emotions in a situation that allows us to continue to move towards our personal goals?
(17:16):
Notice I didn't say how do we control our emotions? How do we control who we are as individuals? Oftentimes, people think about SEL simply as emotion regulation or simply as control yourself enough to get through this lesson. And what we would like to say is that know self first, know yourself first, know what you are committed to, and then when you add to that layer, the need to actually manage your emotions, you're adding it because you know that to acquire the thing that you say is important to you, there's a management that's needed that will allow you to get there.
(17:51):
So self-management really speaks to the way that you show up, the way in which you mitigate and manage the ways that you are feeling, sensing about this world. It allows you to really push into the goals that you have, develop the discipline that you need to be able to engage in work in a way that's supportive to you. And so those are just the intra-personal pieces. The interpersonal pieces are social awareness and relationship skills, and those are the competencies that we need to really be able to understand and engage with the world around us, the people around us, the different perspectives that show up. It shows us, it speaks to the empathy that we have and the space that we create to resolve conflict in a way that's conducive and supportive to the other people around us as well.
(18:43):
When we talk about responsible decision-making, this really is kind of the competency that sits within each of the other competencies because as you're learning more about yourself, you're making different decisions for yourself. When you're learning more about the discipline that you have to have to be able to reach a goal, you are making the right decisions to be able to push into that goal. When you're looking at the relationships that you're a part of that are challenging, and you need to actually be able to push into a very difficult conversation that you would rather avoid, making that responsible decision allows you to push into that conversation so that you get to that eventual goal for both sides in a way that really speaks to you. So these are interrelated competencies. You can't pull one and say that I've done social-emotional learning. They are connected in a way that cannot be disconnected. Once you lean into one, you're automatically starting to lean into another as well.
(19:37):
When we talk about where this all happens, this is the rings around the wheel, and so we have it happening in the classrooms. And so the learning that happens, the rich, explicit learning about SEL skills is something that tends to happen in the classrooms. It also happens at home as well, so we don't want to overstep that. But in the classrooms, we're also talking about what is the kind of environment that students are sitting in. It's one thing to teach students how to take perspective, but if we don't create a space where it's safe for them to be able to practice that skill, then we've missed part of this process as well.
(20:14):
In the schools, we're thinking about the culture that we're creating, the practices, the policies that allow us to embody these competencies, not just talk about them, but live them. When we talk about families and caregivers, we're really talking about the way that we partner with our families in a way that gives them equal voice and not in a way that's unilateral, where we're just telling them, "This is what we see about your child. This is what you should come and see that we're doing at school." But really creating this space for us to learn in a bidirectional way from our families and care rivers that oftentimes know our students much better than we know them.
(20:51):
And then the last ring is the community piece. That community piece is where we can create aligned learning opportunities because our communities are where our students sit, where they live. Our community organizations sometimes know our students really well. They love them deeply. And so by creating these partnerships, even in the communities that our students sit in, we create kind of a richer and more robust conversation about what it really means to create this space for students to learn holistically.
Natieka (21:24):
Now, these practices sound pretty substantial for a person to take on in addition to any subject matter work if they're a math teacher in addition to that, and I couldn't even imagine someone saying that this is asking educators to become counselors or therapists themselves. So how can educators work SEL and these practices into their lives without adding a lot of additional stress to what's already a stressful job?
Dr. Barthelus (21:53):
That's a great question. We get that question all the time. One of the pieces that I would want to offer here is start with the first SEL lesson that students see every single day. They walk into a building and that's you. That's the teacher, that's the school leader. Whenever students are with you, they are watching you. And so work it being the best version that you can pull together at this time. What that requires is that you take time for self and I know I'm saying this right after I just said that teachers and educators don't have time, but I think at certain points, we have to recognize that the world is not going to give us opportunities sometimes to reflect. It's not going to give us opportunities sometimes to build some silence into our space or to give us an opportunity to kind of think for just a moment.
(22:45):
We kind of have to find those ourselves, and that's sometimes enacting our own agency to say, "Look, this is what I need to have a bit of wellness in my life." So maybe you wake up five minutes earlier, stay in the shower about five minutes longer, but just take that space to really think through how do you want your day go? How do I want to show up today? And being committed to that throughout the day. I think that's one of the biggest pieces that we could do for young people.
(23:13):
Oftentimes, we think about what is the strategy? What's the skill, what's the lesson? And all the time, students are watching us and not really paying as much attention to the lesson because if there's a discrepancy between what we're saying and what they're seeing, they will go with what they're seeing. There's a James Baldwin quote that says, "Children have never been good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." And I think we have to really think about the power of what it is that we bring into the space on a regular basis.
(23:49):
So now I'm going to move into kind of practical. If you really want to think about what are some practical ways that I can add some of this into this process, on our website, our school guide, schoolguide.casel.org, there's an SEL reflection tool. It takes like five minutes to take it. Take the SEL reflection tool, look at the areas where you are already strong. Those are areas where students can benefit significantly from what you have to offer. Lean into those just a little bit more. You're already strong in those areas. Lean into those a little bit more.
(24:25):
Then make a little note of what are the areas that my students may not be getting enough of from me? And if you feel like you have the bandwidth, add just one little piece of that into your repertoire, into your process, your routine. Just do that. So I can rattle off tons of different skills and strategies, but if you can just be better at being you, it is the greatest gift that you can give a young person that's standing in front of you and then connect with them more, connect with them more, listen to students, invite them into some class decisions, create practical opportunities for them to collaborate. Young people want to talk to one another, so if we can create more opportunities to build it into the engagements that they have at school, you'll have students that are more connected to content, more connected to each other because we're giving them what they need and allowing them to learn in a way that makes more sense for them.
Natieka (25:21):
Can you give us some examples or some practices, ways that educators can use the competencies and strategies that we've been referring to, to rehumanize their classrooms, their relationships, their communities, and find more fulfillment in their life and in their work.
Dr. Barthelus (25:39):
I'll give a few ways. The way that we set up our classrooms and our schools has a significant impact. And so if we're thinking about teachers in the classroom, we want to think about ways in which students can help to co-design the classroom with you as a teacher. So think about the agreements, the rules that you have in your classroom, and ask yourself in what ways were students involved in the process of creating rules, agreements, a contract within our classroom? If as you're thinking about that, you're identifying, "Wait, I pretty much set up these rules. I set up the parameters for my classroom. I set up the agreements in my classroom." Then you're looking at an area where students are being told what to do and they're not giving much of an opportunity to be a part of the space that's being created for them.
(26:32):
So an easy thing is to ask students, and right now we're in the middle of the school year, but ask students when they come back, "Are these agreements working for us as a team, as a classroom, as a community? What is one thing..." And you don't have to disrupt the entire process that you have, "But if we could add one more agreement as a class that can help us to function together and really see one another better, what is one agreement that we can actually add to this process?"
(26:59):
So ask students, come up with a way of maybe, and this is like a morning meeting. This could be part of a morning meeting or an initial conversation. If you're on the high school level, do it as a do now, as soon as they sit down, maybe it's the one thing. "What's an agreement that we can have?" Have everybody write something down, have a conversation. We want to remind students that they are human beings with opinions and ideas that matter. And if we kind of take a step back and bring those opinions and ideas into the classroom, we'll find that the classroom begins to feel a little bit more like community and less like this contract of transactional relationships.
(27:38):
So I think that's one thing that adults can do. If you have an explicit SEL instruction curriculum in your school, definitely lean into those. Usually those curriculum or program have actual guidance on how to teach students different specific skills around conflict resolution, around perspective taking, around empathy. But if you don't have that, I think they're starting with agreements and thinking about ways to build a community with your students is something that could be really helpful.
(28:09):
The other piece I would say that you can add is really thinking about when challenges happen in the classroom. I know that we have a lot of challenges with student discipline and behavior and all of those pieces. When those come up, really think about ways in which discipline can seek to build instructional bridges for young people. If problems are continuing to show up, asking students about some of the reasons that actually are contributing to some of these challenges that you're seeing, and having them being a part of the resolution, instead of us trying to figure out how do we actually stop this behavior list? Let's look at more how do we get to the root cause of the behavior with the student? And identify ways that we can begin to think through different modes or responses that students can have as a whole.
(28:59):
The last piece I would add in is the types of environments that we create for one another as adults is something that really has an impact on how we show up for students. So when you have staff meetings and when you have grade level team meetings, start it off with an opportunity to connect as human beings, asking one another how they're doing, "How was your weekend?" We do that sometimes on a one-off, but I think being more intentional about it so that we're not just about the work, but that we're about one another is something that helps us to build a sense of belonging and community as adults, which will funnel and filter into the ways in which we build community and belonging for young people as well.
Natieka (29:41):
Along those lines, if someone is listening to this podcast right now and they're feeling really inspired to put some SEL practices into place for themselves, but let's say there's not much movement around them at their school or at the district level, what should they or what can they do to get the ball rolling either on a personal level or dreaming even bigger?
Dr. Barthelus (30:04):
I think there are two things that you can do. First, start with yourself. Identify what are the areas that I do well that I should continue to double down on and bring into these spaces with the young people that I support? Continue to do those. And then what are the areas that I can start to lean into a little bit more that maybe I've overlooked in the past? And so the SEL reflection tool on our school guide can really support you and kind of just taking a quick snapshot look around how you can begin to look at your own competencies in a different way. This isn't a research base validated tool. It's just a quick questionnaire that kind of helps you to get the juices flowing in your head regarding where I want to begin to push in differently.
(30:46):
The other thing is create more opportunity for students to give you feedback. Ask them if there's something that you're wondering about, is it working for my students? Should I try something different? Involve them In that reflection that you're having, in that conversation that you're having around, what is it that I can do to really support my students' social and emotional wellbeing? Ask them. I think they have a lot to contribute. Students are really profound. Sometimes when we finally put them on stage and we allow them to speak, we're usually moved by what they say, but every single one of them are profound. They just are not given the same opportunities to speak and to really share the ideas and perspectives that they've been holding onto for quite some time. So I think create more space to hear from young people, create space to hear from their caregivers, from their families that might be able to shed light and help you to understand the students in front of you in a way that you may not understand.
(31:45):
Those are a couple of ways. The other piece is there are probably other people in your school or in your district that are just as interested in these practices as you are. So put a call-out, find out who might be interested in moving into this space with you. We always say that it's easier to work with to build it through the coalition of the willing. So find the like-minded teachers, educators, school leaders who really think about education in this holistic way and begin to partner with them and bounce ideas off of one another. Go on our website, pull up some strategies, identify a few that you want to try, and then bring it back to one another. Hold each other accountable. Talk about how well it went. What were some of the challenges? Build your own coalition until the school or the district catches up to what you're actually doing.
(32:37):
And I can say that as you're beginning to build, I think people will take notice because students will begin to feel different. You'll likely begin to feel different in the work that you're doing, and it will start to send a message about what's possible when we begin to lean into these practices in a way that really makes a difference for young people.
Natieka (32:56):
Excellent. Well, that is all so great, and I really hope that anybody who's listening today is feeling inspired and has a lot of amazing ideas about how to move forward. I just want to thank you for talking to us today, Bloodine.
Dr. Barthelus (33:13):
Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to be able to talk about this very important topic, and I am super excited that you're prioritizing that from the NEA lens.
Natieka (33:22):
Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of School Me, and take a minute to rate the show and leave a review. It really helps us out and it makes it easier for more educators to find us. For more tips to help you bring the best to your students text POD to 487-44.