Engage All Stakeholders in Foundational Learning

Commitment to schoolwide SEL is a long-term process in which all members of the school community internalize the critical place of SEL in each student’s education and build a shared understanding of their role in fostering SEL (Hall & Hord, 2015). Once assembled, the SEL team can create opportunities for key stakeholders to gain foundational knowledge of SEL.

It is recommended that foundational learning opportunities take place early in the school year or soon after prioritizing schoolwide SEL. Many schools begin with a one-hour presentation during an all-staff meeting or at department and grade-level team meetings.

CASEL provides a free course, an Introduction to SEL, that can be taken individually online or facilitated with a group. An SEL 101 sample introductory presentation and video and a presentation on SEL supporting research have been provided here to help get the team started. You can learn more and inquire about professional services from CASEL here.

If you have already begun providing foundational learning opportunities, reflect on these questions to identify areas for continuous improvement:

Based on your responses, you’ll want to develop a plan to address the foundational learning needs you’ve identified. Consider the different learning needs of your stakeholder groups:

• The SEL Team will be the school’s source for information about schoolwide SEL. Some team members may be learning about SEL for the first time. The team may choose to seek foundational learning opportunities from the district office, community partners, or outside organizations and conferences. The CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL is also intended to support SEL teams in developing their knowledge around SEL implementation. Before the team engages the rest of the school community, it’s necessary for the team to develop a common language and understanding of SEL; be able to communicate how SEL can be helpful for students, staff, and families; and understand how the team will support implementation (see our Workshops page for information about CASEL’s professional learning for teams).

• School Staff – The introduction of schoolwide SEL is an opportunity to energize staff, demonstrate the power of SEL, and begin establishing a common language. Staff may be concerned about adding “one more thing” to their plates. To address this concern, introduce schoolwide SEL as a lever for achieving many of the school’s existing priorities and connect it to goals in the school’s continuous improvement plan (Focus Area 1B will help you deepen this connection).

• Families – Families are a child’s first teacher and an essential factor in the cultivation of social and emotional competencies throughout a child’s life. When families and schools work together, they can build strong connections that reinforce social and emotional skill development. Cultural awareness and responsiveness are critical to successful family partnerships. Awareness and celebration of the strengths and cultures represented in the school and styles of communication within those cultures help schools to effectively engage families and all members of the school community.

• Community Partners, such as out-of-school time providers and other community organizations, are also key partners in shaping the social and emotional development of students and play an important role in ensuring that SEL becomes interwoven into the fabric of students’ lives both during and after school. Schools may choose to include community partners and out-of-school time providers in a presentation alongside the school staff or hold a separate session for partners.

Use the tool below to help create initial learning opportunities for these key stakeholder groups.

This information may need to be presented multiple times to reach broad segments of your school community and can be customized for specific stakeholder groups. These foundational learning opportunities will serve as a basis for deeper learning about SEL. In Focus Area 2, school teams will engage in further planning for ongoing professional learning.