Muddy sensemaking: Making sense of socio-emotional skills amidst a vague policy context

Abstract

Education laws and policies have moved toward promoting socio-emotional (SEL) skills, adopting numerous terminologies in their standards. However, the incremental change has left compensatory education practitioners who are committed to promoting SEL opportunities with little guidance when the programs’ governing policies do not include language acknowledging the importance of SEL to student success. Additionally, the ongoing debate in the SEL field about which taxonomies might best capture the skills and the lack of conceptual clarity offers these practitioners little additional guidance. Drawing on sensemaking theory, this case study examined how practitioners in a compensatory education program made sense of SEL skills through their practice. The study used a case-based design with multiple methods, namely, document review, observations, and pre- and post-program semi-structured interviews. The study employed sensemaking theory and CASEL’s SEL framework in the thematic analysis of the documents, observations, and interviews to understand how practitioners made sense of the concept of SEL. The findings indicate three key aspects important in the practitioners’ sensemaking process: the local environment established by the federal policy and the leaders’ policy interpretation, which emphasized the importance of SEL skills; their articulation of their conceptualization of SEL skills at the beginning of the program; and the usefulness of an SEL skills conceptual framework. I discuss the policy and equity implications at the federal and local level.

Social Emotional Learning in Schools: The Importance of Educator Competence

“…An equity-oriented lens is however acutely important given the continued indignation of racial disparities in the United States. Research conducted by Muñiz (2020), illustrated the importance of cultural capital and the role of trauma in relation to the five core competencies. Additionally, their research supported previously identified issues such as lack of clarity for practitioners to promote the five core competencies when faced with issues of race or trauma.…”

“…Educators have started to thoroughly examine the benefits of SEL, including its impact on academics, behavior, and potential contributions to our society and economy (Belfield et al, 2015; CASEL, 2019a; Durlak et al, 2017; Jennings & Frank, 2017; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Mahfouz et al, 2019; Mart et al, 2017; Muñiz, 2020; Patti et al, 2017; Schonert-Reichl, Hanson-Peterson, et al, 2017). Federal and state government involvement with SEL implementation began with recognition of the financial value of comprehensive programming in addition to academics.…”

Commitment and training: professionalization narratives in the implementation of social and emotional learning policies in Chilean schools

“…Studies focused on educational actors are still emergent (see Collie et al, 2011;Muñiz, 2020;Sorondo, 2023), seeking to analyze internal school factors crucial to the successful implementation of SEL programs. Some of these studies highlight the importance of commitment to SEL (see Collie et al, 2015;Nielsen et al, 2019) and the training provided to professionals (see Esen-Aygun and Sahin-Taskin, 2017; Barnes and McCallops, 2019) as factors leading to adequate SEL program implementation.…”