Past Program

Children and youth cannot learn – let alone thrive – if their basic needs are not met. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this especially clear. Without safe, predictable, caring, welcoming and inclusive spaces, children can suffer stress that will impact not only their social and emotional behaviors but also their physiology. We need to educate the whole child – and all children.

This online program looked at the intersection of Social and Emotional Learning (for example developing skills for self-regulation, emotional regulation, empathy, compassion, critical enquiry) and Social Justice (addressing inequalities and inequities), through the lenses of SEL and inclusive pedagogies, and SEL and assessment.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Children learn better in safe, caring settings, where they feel welcome, that they belong and where the environment is predictable. Exclusion creates a stressful environment for children, at its most extreme or over a very long time stress can impact physiology. Children (and adults) who are exposed to high level of stress will struggle with social and emotional behaviors. Evidence from many parts of the world shows how changes to curricula and assessment can improve academic outcomes as well having all sorts of positive social and emotional behavioral consequences, for example around self-belief or self-efficacy.

This program – the first in an online series for Education for Tomorrow’s World – examined the intersection of Social and Emotional Learning with Social Justice, specifically looking at this intersection through the lenses of inclusive pedagogical approaches and separately assessment.

Social justice is fundamentally about addressing inequality and in an education context about educating all children. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) (for example developing skills for self-regulation, emotional regulation, empathy, compassion, critical enquiry) is essential for making sense of the world. SEL has always been about educating the whole child. Children and youth cannot learn, let alone thrive if their basic needs are not met.  The COVID-19 pandemic has made this particularly clear.

As schools either start to return to the classroom or embrace a form of hybrid at-home/in-school learning, we need to ensure that we are not only educating the whole child, but also all children.

This program was also part of Karanga’s Autumn Festival of SEL, which ran October 5 to 9, 2020. Across the Karanga Festival there were programs that revisit topics and themes from Karanga’s June conference. There were two discussions on SEL and social justice at the June event and links to the recordings of those sessions are available here (SEL and social justice begins at begins at 52 mins) and here (SEL and social justice begins at 45 minutes).