Selling SEL to Teachers

edCircuit note: In this 2018 SELChat column, Tamara Fyke explains how principals can win teacher buy-in for social-emotional learning. An update after her column adds what national surveys and research since 2022 show about the same question.

How Administrators Can Gain Buy-In

What are the reasons SEL is important to implement on a schoolwide basis?

Although social-emotional learning (SEL) is considered one of the hottest topics in education, there is still a need for educators to understand why it is important. In a world where uncertainty and trauma are increasing, many students come to school weighed down by concerns that render them mentally and emotionally unprepared for learning.  Preoccupied with the dangers they face in their everyday lives, or those that loom over the world at large, more and more students are in a constant state of “fight or flight.” As caring adults who are a consistent presence in their lives, our job is to assure them that they are safe and they belong in our classrooms. When the basic human needs for safety and belonging are met, children can turn their attention to learning.  

Despite this logical and compassionate approach to the classroom, there are some educators who are unsure how SEL fits into the scope of their job description.  They may be overly focused on academics due to the pressures of raising test scores, or they may feel that addressing the social and emotional needs of students is beyond their expertise.  However, as Durlak (2011) notes, time spent on SEL, which includes culture, climate, and relationships, improves achievement.  Therefore, in order for SEL implementation to be successful, it must be schoolwide and comprehensive.

Schoolwide means that it needs to be adopted by all stakeholders, including administrators, teachers, students, and families.  Comprehensive means that it must be an integrated and intentional approach to the way school is done.

How do administrators set positive examples of SEL leadership for teachers to follow?

The job of the administrator is to lead his or her team and champion new initiatives.  As Leman and Pentak (2004) point out, a good leader is like a shepherd who “leads people in a manner that makes them want to follow” (112).  Being a leader who others want to follow means investing in relationships.

In the demanding world of education, we must remember that people are more important than our never-ending to-do list.  When administrators invest time to get to know people and what is happening in their lives, both at work and beyond, then the staff wants to follow.  The old saying is true, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

How can you as an administrator demonstrate care and concern for your staff?  Do you celebrate the small wins? Do you publicly acknowledge individual accomplishments?  Do you give thanks to your team in words and actions? Once this culture of honor and appreciation is established, then teachers are more likely to follow.   

What must administrators say and do to gain teachers’ buy-in for SEL initiatives?

Not only must a solid foundation of strong and healthy relationships among administration and staff be created, but there must also be clear communication about the vision and mission of the school.  The vision is the big picture – what we want to become. The mission is the work – what we do, who we serve, and how we serve. Articulating the vision and mission of the organization provides a focus for everyone on the team.  The first step to creating buy-in for SEL is to include it in the vision and mission statements.

The second step for gaining and increasing buy-in for SEL is follow-through.  Once there is understanding and agreement about incorporating SEL into the teaching and learning, then there must be actions to support that intention.  Here are some suggestions:

• Continuous professional development about integrating SEL with academics
• Ongoing coaching sessions on SEL practice
• Schoolwide SEL curriculum adoption
• Scheduled time for intentional SEL instruction, such as during the morning meeting or advisory period
• Revision of disciplinary practices from punitive to restorative

After SEL implementation is initiated, it must be sustained.  Since SEL requires time and emotional energy, teachers need to be reminded that it is a priority.  They need to hear regularly that teaching children is more important than teaching material. Additionally, teachers must be encouraged to attend to their own self-care, knowing that they can only give what they have.

Likewise, students and families need clear communication about the school’s focus on SEL.  Utilizing a common language for SEL competencies sets behavior expectations for students and creates stronger family-school partnerships.  

Three things every administrator must know how to explain about SEL

Education is the business of helping people grow.  SEL empowers people ― students, teachers and families ― to identify what is going on in their heads and their hearts, so they can use their hands to build up and not tear down.  Therefore, we must attend to the needs of the whole child – academically, physically, emotionally, and socially. In many areas, the school is the center of community life. School leadership, including administrators and teachers, is responsible for advocating for the needs of children and families.  

Administrators must understand the following about SEL

1. Focusing on SEL will impact the culture – the what we do — and climate – the how it feels — of the school.
2. Attention to SEL requires a paradigm shift in the way we do school.  People do not serve data; data serves people.
3. Change takes time.  Successful SEL implementation requires a long-term commitment.  

1. EdSource – As social and emotional learning expands, educators fear the ‘fizzle’
2. Edutopia – Creating Buy-In for SEL at Your School
3. DML Central – Selling Social-emotional Learning

Teacher buy-in for SEL in 2026: what the newer evidence says

Teacher buy-in for SEL is still the hinge that Tamara Fyke describes above. A social-emotional learning (SEL) program adopted by the front office and quietly set aside in classrooms rarely lasts. Since her column was written in 2018, SEL has spread to most American schools, met organized political opposition in some communities, and gathered a much larger research base. Each of those changes affects how a principal makes the case to staff.

Adoption has grown, and so has the research

A joint study by RAND and CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), released in September 2024 and summarized by eSchool News, found that 83 percent of principals said their schools used an SEL curriculum in 2023-24, up from 76 percent in 2021-22 and 46 percent in 2017-18. The same study found that where school leaders invested more in SEL, teachers were more likely to say they had the time, professional learning and community support to use SEL strategies. That is a survey association rather than proof that leadership causes buy-in, but it fits the author’s argument that administrators set the tone.

On outcomes, the column cites Durlak’s 2011 review. A larger update followed in 2023, when Christina Cipriano, Michael Strambler and colleagues, Joseph Durlak among them, published a meta-analysis in Child Development covering 424 studies from 53 countries and 575,361 students in kindergarten through grade 12. Students in universal school-based SEL programs improved compared with control groups in social and emotional skills, behavior, school climate, peer relationships and academic achievement. The authors also found that results varied considerably with program content, context and implementation quality. For a principal that finding is a practical warning: a curriculum that teachers deliver reluctantly or irregularly should not be expected to produce the effects reported in the research.

Time, more than belief, is the most common barrier

When teachers resist SEL, leaders often assume the cause is skepticism, yet national surveys point mainly to time. In the federal School Pulse Panel survey of about 1,700 public schools in February 2024, reported by Education Week, 72 percent of leaders in schools with an SEL curriculum named time as the most limiting factor in carrying it out. Lack of teacher support was named by 24 percent and lack of parent buy-in by 20 percent. A May 2026 CASEL analysis of a 2023-24 survey of 1,030 principals found that most rated teacher training and teacher time for SEL as substantial challenges, and that schools reporting larger challenges were less likely to be rated exceptional in third-grade reading. That last finding is a correlation across 470 schools and does not show which way the influence runs.

These findings change what a principal should say to staff. An argument about why SEL matters speaks to a doubt many teachers do not hold. Protecting a scheduled block, such as the morning meeting or advisory period the author recommends, setting aside a competing initiative, and providing coaching in the first year speak to the obstacle teachers report most often.

The political climate has changed the vocabulary

SEL has also become contested in some districts. An EdWeek Research Center survey in spring 2025 found that 16 percent of educators said their school or district had used another name for SEL in the past year to limit controversy while continuing to teach the same skills. “Character education” was the most common substitute, followed by “life skills.” Earlier, a Fordham Institute parent survey reported by The Hechinger Report in 2022 found that a majority of parents in both parties agreed that learning life skills and social skills at school is as important as academics, even though nearly half also said schools should focus on academics and leave SEL to parents. Teachers who answer parent questions need a short, plain description of what the program teaches, and they are better placed when they receive it from their leaders before the first objection arrives.

A short checklist for school leaders

1. Write SEL into the vision and mission, as the author advises, and name the specific skills in plain words.
2. Schedule the time before asking teachers for the work.
3. Choose an evidence-based program and plan coaching for at least its first two years.
4. Give teachers a one-page description of the program they can share with families.
5. Ask staff each term what is getting in the way, and report back on what changed as a result.

For more on preparing adults to teach these skills, see edCircuit’s Teaching the Teachers: SEL for K-12 Success.

Related reading

• Setting the Stage for a Unified Schoolwide Approach
• Selling SEL to Students
• How Districts Support Social-Emotional Learning

Related: Is Teacher Buy-In Worth the Effort?

More on Social-Emotional Learning