Abstract
This teaching case study illustrates the increasing need for school leaders to offer and foster adult social emotional learning (SEL) in schools, particularly in the context of crises. This scenario takes place in an urban high school that is representative of many other American schools. In particular, I examine the challenges educational leaders commonly face when they do not take SEL for adults into consideration prior to implementing SEL for students. This teaching case study aims at encouraging meaningful conversations about adult SEL, equity, and leadership in times of crisis. The hope is to better understand how school leaders can lead and embrace adult SEL during crises. I also pose questions designed to prepare prospective and current educational leaders for similar situations.
Keywords
Introduction
Teaching is one of the most stressful occupations in the United States (Gallup, 2014). Stress affects teachers’ health and well-being, job satisfaction, job turnover, and student outcomes. Possessing and using social and emotional skills is necessary to regulate stress, maintain healthy personal and professional lives, and thrive as teachers and leaders (Jennings, 2015; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). Social emotional learning (SEL) is key to human development because it is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. (Collaborative for Academic Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], n.d., p. 1)
SEL includes emotional intelligence (IQ) which is the “ability to recognize and understand emotions in self and others and to use this awareness to manage one’s behavior and relationships” (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009, p. 17). SEL and IQ both focus on becoming aware of emotions and emphasize building strong relationships. SEL, however, is a holistic process that centers around the whole person in relation to others. As a result, SEL can help foster equity by empowering students and adults co-create flourishing and safe schools for everyone (CASEL, n.d.). SEL also offers a way for adults to reflect on how their own social and emotional competencies impact policies and practices. In this way, SEL can promote the creation of equitable and socially just schools and educational systems.
This teaching case study takes place during the COVID-19 global pandemic at a time when schools were suddenly mandated to deliver instruction remotely and many teachers were excessively stressed trying to juggle their professional, familial, and personal responsibilities. This scenario is also situated in the face of on-going racial inequities and police brutalities, also known as racial pandemic, that plagued the United States during COVID-19.
This teaching case study aims to demonstrate the importance of SEL for adults and the role school leaders play in creating cultures in which adult SEL is valued and prioritized to support teachers while also promoting equity. Following the analogy, one hears before a plane takes off: “Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose before assisting others,” this teaching case study is relevant to all prospective and current school leaders who seek to assist their teachers’ growth and social emotional well-being so that in turn they can help their students. When leaders go beyond IQ and focus on the social emotional skills of their adults, they build resilient educators and school communities who are able to face adverse conditions, including health, economic, and racial pandemics.
The first section of this teaching case study presents relevant background information. Subsequent sections focus on the case itself and the teaching notes. The last part provides some reflective activities.
Background Information
To describe the school district and the school itself, the author used pseudonyms. This teaching case study is based on perspectives collected through multiple interviews with teachers and leaders in the Spring, Summer, and Fall 2020 during the racial and COVID-19 pandemics.
Cornerstone School District
Cornerstone school district (CSD) is an urban district serving over 51,000 students in 109 schools. There are 20 preschools, 40 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, 15 high schools, and five vocational schools. The district employs over 4,200 teachers and 2,000 staff members. In Cornerstone schools, the average teacher–student ratio is 18:1. The Superintendent, Dr. Nixon, is a dynamic leader whose focus has been equity. She created an equity committee early in her tenure and invited teachers to participate. As part of her equity mission, she believed that it was her responsibility to ensure that students were well taken care of socially and emotionally. As a result, she provided numerous professional learning for teachers and leaders focused on the implementation of SEL in classrooms. Teachers generally appreciated the emphasis on SEL because the majority believed that education is more than standardized testing and that “Maslow comes before Bloom.” On March 17th, 2020, Dr. Nixon asked all schools to move to remote instruction due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. During the spring 2020, she often wrote to her leadership teams and teachers asking them to ensure the well-being of the students before tackling any academics.
Pinecrest High School
Pinecrest High School (PHS) is a large high school, serving more than 2000 students from 9th to 12th grade. It is located in the East side of the city in an area where many people live in what is considered poverty. The school is known for its quality and highly motivated teachers. Most of these teachers are in their early 30’s, have a few years of experience, and have chosen to work at PHS. In the school, 24% of the teaching staff is African American. The school is 100% free and reduced lunch. PHS is under the leadership of Principal Maxley. Mrs. Maxley is white, in her 50’s, and is an experienced educator. Prior to being an administrator, she was a Mathematics teacher at PHS. The principal believes in Dr. Nixon’s focus on SEL. She was particularly aware of this need during COVID-19 when a few of her students threatened to commit suicide. Because of the focus on SEL for students and the pressure she felt to keep the students safe, she was anxious when students did not log in for their remote learning. In the Fall semester when the global pandemic persisted to spread and racial incidents continued, Mrs. Maxley grew increasingly frustrated and overwhelmed because she noticed that her teachers’ morale was down and many of them were unable to perform their tasks. The following case presents Mrs. Maxley’s conundrum and a scenario that illustrates the negative effects the lack of adult SEL can have on teachers and school communities.
The Case
This teaching case study is based on various teachers’ experiences. Samy, Marc, Jack, and Alice are dynamic teachers who loved their jobs and students at PHS. They were known in the school for inspiring, helping, and informally coaching their less-experienced colleagues. At the beginning of the Spring 2020 semester, Samy, a teacher on special assignment who served students who were at risk, confessed being frustrated with the way schools’ closures happened. In the beginning of COVID-19, she recalled feeling empty, confused, and anxious because she never had a chance to say goodbye to her students before the summer break. She also recalled that there were already talks of the virus in the district in January 2020 but felt that there was no proactiveness on the part of Mrs. Maxley. As a result, teachers had to switch to remote learning without time to prepare students and themselves appropriately. She explained that there was a lack of communication and transparency for a long time that made her feel “unvalued, excluded, and cranky.” While she remembered that the district nurse sent out a survey to ask about the teachers’ health needs, the survey asked one question only: “Do you feel you are in need of more mental health support?” If teachers answered yes, the nurse would schedule a Google meet to provide support. Samy answered yes, met with the nurse, and continued to feel isolated and depressed during the first 4 weeks of the pandemic. She did not feel that the session with the nurse was beneficial. Samy explained: “The meeting felt more like a compliance meeting, there was no empathy, no genuine interest in my feelings, my work-load, and my needs. The nurse also did not provide any new resources.”
Similar to many of her colleagues, Samy juggled being a teacher to her own children and her students while also trying to maintain healthy habits for herself and her family. She had to make an office space in her small home while caring for three young children, and a husband who was an essential worker. Her family and her husband’s family were out of state and her mother who typically helped her was undergoing chemotherapy for an advanced lung cancer. As a result, Samy had no support and her stress level kept on rising. In addition, to all her duties at home and school, Samy had started her principal licensure course early 2020 and was still taking online courses throughout the spring and summer semesters. It was during some of her leadership courses that she realized how poorly she had been led during these times of crisis. She was grateful to learn from Mrs. Maxley’s mistakes and made a commitment to be a principal who will be more “in tune with all her staff needs.” She also aspired to become a leader who promotes and models SEL for adults.
Samy recalled Mrs. Maxley being frazzled all the time. She understood that crisis times were demanding for leaders but also noted that Mrs. Maxley did not have children at home and often talked about having a retired husband who was doing everything in the household so that she could assume her professional responsibilities. The principal often said: “I am so grateful for John because he does it all for me, so I can focus on the students.” Samy and her colleagues often talked about leadership and how a leader might be stressed but should model collaboration, calm, composure, and good listening skills. Unfortunately for them, Mrs. Maxley had never been this kind of leader and the crisis did not bring the best out of her. She was angry at the crisis situation, worried that the students were not logging in, and she was never available to listen to her teachers’ needs. As a result, she asked her already overburdened teachers to make 10 calls a day to students who did not log in, drive to their homes if needed, and expected the teachers to attend all her online meetings. The principal also sent numerous unnecessary emails daily.
Samy felt as if she was drowning. She could not keep up with Mrs. Maxley’s expectations, could not make 10 calls a day while also teaching her three young children, two of them having special needs and being on individual educational plans that included speech therapy and occupational therapy twice a week. She considered leaving the profession to focus on her family. Samy felt angry that the principal would not recognize the social and emotional load the teachers carried. She spoke with Mrs. Maxley several times, but the principal answers were always, “we need to make sure the students sign in so we can check on them.” Samy often felt “who is checking on me?” She could not believe that she would have to choose between her family and her profession. As she loved her job, Samy pushed through, and she and her colleagues “barely made it to the summer break.” She recalled being exhausted, annoyed at the leadership, on edge, and socially and emotionally drained.
Samy, Marc, Jack, and Alice offered to be part of the summer working committee that Mrs. Maxley had put together. The committee aimed at re-imagining the re-opening of the school. None of the four colleagues were chosen. Samy often wondered if they were not chosen because they were vocal about the lack of communication and high expectations in the early days of COVID-19. The school re-opened early September face-to-face. The superintendent and her leadership team had made this decision based on the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases in most of the district. None of the teachers were consulted. While Mrs. Maxley was regularly in touch with her teachers on academic matters, she continued to focus on the student’s health and needs exclusively.
Marc, an African American English teacher, was particularly upset when he was diagnosed with Shingles and asked the principal to skip a meeting so he could go to the doctor. Mrs. Maxley asked him to leave early if needed but to attend the meeting. Alice, an African American English teacher was also puzzled by Mrs. Maxley’s lack of compassion. The principal never once checked on her teachers during the racial pandemic. Marc and Alice considered themselves as equity advocates for the school and had been commanded by the superintendent for their passion and work on promoting equity in their school. They loudly expressed their struggles with the recent racial events and police brutality at weekly faculty meetings, yet those struggles were never addressed by Mrs. Maxley. Marc expressed his frustration to his colleagues: Every time I say something in meetings, she dismisses me, but will listen to anybody else who does not bring issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I feel that she is dismissive when I tell her, for example, that I lost a good friend to police brutalities. Because I am part of the equity committee led by the Superintendent, she tolerates me but does not seem to value me or support me. I often feel that my race impacts her relationship with me. I could lead workshops on equity for the school, but she never takes me on my offers. So, teachers are depressed, particularly teachers of color. We continue to feel excluded, unheard, and isolated.
Alice agreed with Marc. She was particularly concerned by the principal’s lack of care for her teachers.
Our leader does not see how much we struggle and juggle, how much we give, how much we are stretched. She does not provide any support for our social and emotional health. If teachers are not well, we cannot help our students and community. We are asked to help our students but once again who helps us? In addition, in the face of the racial pandemic, Mrs. Maxley acts as if the system of systemic oppression has no adverse effects on her teachers and her silence and lack of support sends a very powerful message that she is perpetuating that oppression. She forgets that she is working with a number of people of color who look to their leader for support, compassion, and equity. All I see is that she supports a limited number of white teachers who have worked with her for years.
Despite several conversations with Mrs. Maxley, most teachers increasingly felt physically, socially, and emotionally exhausted. They also felt unvalued and unheard. As a faculty, they decided to contact the union representative so that she could speak with Mrs. Maxley. The union representative then contacted the superintendent. The goal of this impromptu meeting was to brainstorm some ways in which Mrs. Maxley and other principals could support the social emotional health of their teachers and staff members. The superintendent invited few elementary school principals as they had put in place some creative SEL practices to support their teachers and staff.
Among other ideas that were brought up, these were retained as feasible and impactful.
(a) Principal could come in classes to release the teachers when they needed a sanity break; (b) principals could set appreciation stations in the school where there would be some free food, beverages, gift cards, words of encouragement, and such; (c) they would create a “how do you feel today board?”; (d) they would offer workshops and resources on how to take care of self; and (e) they would create a survey of needs and analyze that data. This list was deemed to be a starting point and all stakeholders were encouraged to continue researching and brainstorming ways to assist teachers. The superintendent later met with Mrs. Maxley and asked her to implement these strategies, learn about SEL for adults, and report her progress and action steps. Based on this conversation, the superintendent concluded that she also needed to focus on the social emotional needs of her principals and staff as well as her own. Upon reflection, she realized that she had not been modeling a culture of care among her team.
Mrs. Maxley has an opportunity to create a school culture where SEL for adults is valued and prioritized. The next section provides teaching notes that include information about SEL for adults. SEL for adults is important in all times but is particularly important in times of crisis. This information is useful for current and prospective school leaders.
Teaching Notes
Leadership training on SEL has assisted leaders with the implementation of SEL knowledge in their schools. As a result, more and more schools teach SEL to students as part of or in addition to their curriculum. Scholars and practitioners such as Aguilar (2018) and Newman (2020) suggest that SEL for children begins with SEL for adults because adults foster an environment of growth. These teaching notes are evidence of best practices that current and prospective leaders can use in their schools to actualize SEL for adults.
The Pressing Need for SEL for Adults
Research in the field of SEL for students has grown in recent years and has demonstrated that when students’ social and emotional competence (SEC) increases, their academic achievement improves as well (Durlak et al., 2011). Teachers are the engine that drives SEL programs and practices in schools and classrooms. Yet until recently, SEL for adults has received little attention even though the SEC and well-being of teachers and leaders strongly influence their students’ (Schonert-Reichl, 2017). The existent literature provides four main reasons as to why social and emotional skills are vital for educators (Brackett et al., 2019; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Stickle et al., 2019; Zinsser et al., 2014). First, the social and emotional skills of teachers influence students’ learning because SEL-focused adults provide a healthy and safe classroom environment (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Zinsser et al., 2014). Second, teachers and leaders need to satisfy their own socio-emotional needs to adequately implement SEL methods within their own classrooms (Berg, 2018). Third, SEL can be used to minimize the level of stress teachers and leaders experience in the workplace. When educators are less stressed, they have less discipline issues in their classrooms (Zinsser et al., 2019). Finally, using SEL methods that focus on building the SEC of teachers causes teachers to be more likely to have emotion-focused interactions with students (Rivers et al., 2013).
Teachers are at risk for poor social–emotional well-being. Research shows that teaching is one of the most stressful occupations. In a Gallup Poll on occupational stress, 46% of teachers reported high daily stress (Gallup, 2014). High stress levels harm teachers’ physical health and well-being. For example, when people are highly stressed, the quantity and quality of their sleep is severely compromised. A study of high school teachers found that 46% suffered excessive daytime sleepiness, and 51% had poor sleep quality (Souza et al., 2012). Sleep deprivation produces a cascade of negative effects, including increased risk for infectious disease and depression and susceptibility to illnesses such as heart disease and cancer (Irwin et al., 2016). Over the years, research has demonstrated that stress is contagious and that stressed teachers in turn stress students (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Jones et al., 2013; Merritt et al., 2012). Teachers who reported higher levels of stress had more students in their classrooms with mental health problems (Milkie & Warner, 2011).
A lack of attention to SEL for adults also affects teacher attrition. According to a 2007 report from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, teacher turnover costs the United States up to seven billion dollars a year, and the highest turnover occurs in low-performing, high-poverty schools with a high percentage of minority students (Barnes et al., 2007). Stress and poor emotion management are the primary reasons that teachers become dissatisfied and leave their positions (Darling-Hammond, 2001). In this scenario, Samy contemplated leaving the profession because Mrs. Maxley’s did not support her social emotional needs.
Educational leaders need to optimize teachers’ classroom performance and their ability to promote SEL in their students by helping the teachers build their own SEC (Marzano et al., 2003). If educational leaders understand how to promote SEL among adults, there will be less teacher attrition, teachers’ self-efficacy will be boosted, students will perform better, and schools will become more equitable. When educators are aware of their emotions and are SEL minded, they understand that their emotions drive their actions and reactions, and that these actions and reactions impact policies and practices. Social emotional skills are always crucial, but they become vital during crises when educators experience higher levels of stress than usual. SEL-focused leaders build resilient educators and school communities who are able to face adverse conditions, such as health, economic, and racial pandemics.
The Role of School Leaders in Promoting SEL for Adults
Seminal scholars assert that educational leaders play a crucial role in the education of children because they influence teacher morale, retention, and student learning (Ingersoll, 2001; Marzano et al., 2005). Leithwood and Jantzi (2008) suggest that educational leaders empower the more effective teachers and that it is through them that they improve student learning. In terms of SEL, CASEL (n.d.) suggests that leaders:
Create opportunities for staff to learn about and strengthen SEL professional skills and their own SEC.
Create structures that foster trust and collaboration among staff.
Identify ways to explicitly model SEL in their interactions with staff, families, and students.
School leaders should focus on their adults’ social and emotional learning (Jones et al., 2013). CASEL (n.d.) proposes a model (Table 1) that aims to promote SEL among adults. The model focuses on learning, collaborating, and modeling and aspires to create a supportive staff environment that cultivates adult social and emotional competencies. In relating CASEL’s model to Mrs. Maxley’s leadership, it becomes clear that the principal did not focus on SEL for her adults. Mrs. Maxley did not provide any professional learning on SEL for her adults. There were no teaching and learning on how to take care of self in the midst of several pandemics. There was no dedicated time to learn about SEL for adults or collaborate with peers and mentors on adult SEL. In addition, Mrs. Maxley was not modeling social emotional skills.
SEL for Adults.
Source. CASEL (n.d.).
Note. SEL = social emotional learning.
School leaders with strong social and emotional competencies are better able to build and maintain positive and trusting relationships, a critical component of creating, supportive and effective school cultures (Purkey & Novak, 1988). SEL-minded leaders are culturally aware. They understand that culture affects one’s actions and reactions. These leaders also comprehend that others’ perspectives may differ from their own, thus they seek to find positive solutions to conflicts. For example, SEL-minded leaders may choose to use restorative justice strategies rather than punitive ones. In addition, by consistently modeling SEL and intentionally working to build relationships with all school staff, administrators foster equity because SEL offers a way for adults to examine their own practices, including how their own social and emotional competencies impact policies and practices. Discipline is an area that is often affected by educators’ levels of fatigue, stress, and cultural competency. In certain culture, students speak loudly or get up without permission to help their peers. Without understanding existing cultural differences, a stressed and fatigued teacher may immediately refer students to detention without seeking to understand that the student’s collectivistic culture is going to prompt him/her to help others. A lack of cultural proficiency may also prevent teachers and leaders from realizing that certain cultural groups speak louder than others because they are passionate and not out of disrespect. SEL-focused educators reflect on their own identities, assets, and biases, and engage in culturally relevant practices and conversations around equity. School teams examine disaggregated data, analyze root causes of disparities, and engage various stakeholders to co-develop policies and practices that support equity. Moreover, Jennings and Greenberg (2009) affirm that teachers and leaders with high SEC are self-aware. They are able to use their emotions positively to motivate others to learn, and they understand their own capacities and emotional strengths and weaknesses particularly well (Jennings, 2015).
Successful SEL implementation depends on how well staff work together. In this case, Mrs. Maxley did not have the social emotional capacity to reflect on her identity and biases. As a result, she remained silent to overt and covert racial inequities that affected the emotional health of her teachers. By staying silent, she perpetuated the racial pandemic. Going back to the analogy, one hears before a plane takes off: “Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose before assisting others,” Mrs. Maxley did not understand the importance of ensuring that her teachers were socially and emotionally healthy before asking them to implement SEL with their students. As a result, her teachers grew exhausted, resentful, and angry. Mrs. Maxley was not in tune with her faculty’s social emotional needs and did not have the tools to teach SEL strategies to her staff.
SEL Strategies
To help teachers and leaders with stress, burn out, and work–life balance during regular or adverse times, experts in educational leadership and mindfulness offer several strategies.
Srinivasan (2019) assert that leaders need to practice and model mindfulness in their schools. Specifically, the author suggests three practical strategies that leaders and teachers can employ during the day. The three T’s consist of teatime, transitional time, and toilet time. During a tea break, educators commit to take deep breaths before taking a sip of their beverage. This tea break allows educators to slow down their breathing and refocus their feelings, if needed. During transitional times, educators can once again refocus on their breathing and remember to care for themselves and others. The third T relates to toilet time. The author contends that for educators, toilet time is often the only place where teachers and leaders can be alone during the day. As a result, the author claims that it is the perfect place to practice mindfulness.
Fagell (2020) suggest that leaders “prune and preserve relationships” (p. 23) by limiting contact with pessimistic people who drain them and by protecting interactions with people they trust. The author adds that in stressful times, it is important that leaders understand their triggers to remain optimistic, supportive, and strong for their teachers and their communities. Several authors also emphasize the importance of fostering collegiality and building robust relationships with their peers and school leaders (Fagell, 2020; Goodwin & Shebby, 2020; Rodman et al., 2020). This can be done by being transparent, communicative, honest, by exercising agency, and having a “can do and helping others” attitude. Practically, leaders and teachers can check on each other or call each other out when they need a break. Other strategies include naming emotions and having mechanisms to release them such as mindfulness techniques so that these emotions do not trigger negative actions and reactions toward peers or students (Fagell, 2020). Finally, Fagell (2020) recommends that leaders and teachers accept that they may not be able to fix certain things.
Chaffee (2020) advises that SEL-minded leaders (a) have a free and anonymous assistance program in which therapy sessions are available to educators and staff members; (b) do not treat SEL as a one-off event, but rather as an integral part of the school culture and professional learning priorities; (c) collaborate with community health partners to offer services that are affordable to their staff and families; and (d) periodically survey their employees to check in on their social emotional health. In addition, Harper (2020) contends that taking time to stop and do non-school-related activities and embracing vulnerability with fellow educators is key. Finally, Kafele (2020) advocates for time with family and friends while also learning to set priorities, boundaries, and learning to say no. Mrs. Maxley did not pay attention to the social emotional health of her teachers or her own. She did not seek to learn about SEL for adults, did not collaborate, or model self-care. Consequently, she did not foster a culture of care among adults.
Conclusion
The situation at PHS is serious. Although principal Maxley focuses on SEL for the students, the principal failed to recognize and support the social emotional needs of her teachers during extremely challenging times. As a result, teachers were burnt out, they were feeling unvalued, unheard, despised, discriminated against, and were even considering leaving the position for which they had trained. This case study is relevant, and its solutions are applicable to many districts and schools in the United States because it is rare that leaders consider and implement adult SEL in their schools. When leaders do not just emphasize emotional intelligence but are dedicated to the social emotional skills of their adults, they build resilient educators and school communities who are able to face adverse conditions while also promoting equity and creating socially just schools. CASEL’s model (CASEL, n.d.) provides school leaders with a practical way to guide their work on SEL for adults while also promoting equity. Next, future and current leaders have the opportunity to reflect on this teaching case study and apply what they have learned by answering the questions below. These questions are provided to help leaders actualize SEL for adults.
The Challenge
In this section, current and prospective leaders have the opportunity to reflect on the teaching case study and apply their learning on SEL. The challenge consists in answering the questions below. Please use the teaching notes to formulate your answers. For now, put yourself in Mrs. Maxley shoes.
a) What might Mrs. Maxley stop doing in her practice?
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b) What might Mrs. Maxley continue doing in her practice to promote SEL for her adults?
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c) Using the CASEL model (learn, collaborate, and model) (Table 1) and the resources in Appendix, what might Mrs. Maxley start doing in her practice to promote adult SEL?
Learn:
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Collaborate:
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Model:
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1. As a prospective or current school leader, how might you promote adult SEL in your school (for yourself and other adults)?
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Footnotes
Appendix
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
