Supporting Social Emotional Environments

What makes kids, families, and communities feel safe? Builds their sense of well-being? Empowers them to thrive? Safe spaces for learning, whether inside a school building or out in the community, requires equitable social emotional environments. As Jonathan Aldis (2019) from Stantec said, “We want spaces where students can practice for the future.” That “practice” involves physical, social, emotional, and academic opportunities.

For many, it is about redefining what is possible. Families were and are all in different places, pre- and post-pandemic. A trauma-informed environment is created by promoting the wellness of students and staff. Academic support is part of this. Perhaps more importantly, ensuring that everyone feels safe and supported on other levels – physical, social, and emotional – contributes to an overall feeling of wellness.

Developing Social Emotional Environments 

Maximizing physical and psychological safety, facilitating recovery or adjustment, and supporting children and adult’s ability to learn and thrive is critical. Establish routines with clear, concise, consistent communication to start.

Communication and engagement with the community seem to be an area of opportunity for many school districts. As Joe Sanfelippo (2016) says, “Flattening the walls of your school entails eliminating the communication barriers so everyone feels like they are part of the school community.” While districts and schools are invitational with parents when it comes to events at the school, attendance often remains low.

Engaging Families to Develop Social Emotional Environments

Identifying barriers to family engagement is critical. What keeps them from engaging in their children’s schools? Communication with families regarding student performance and needs is sometimes limited to report cards and heavily loaded with information from the school and not as much from the parents. It’s the stories behind the data that build engagement.

How might you share data to enhance parent understanding and engagement? How can you use stories to help families engage? What stories help families understand the school’s vision and goals to personalize them? Remembering that people walk through doors in two directions may be useful. How can educators walk through doors to meet families in contexts where they are most comfortable and accessible? How are educators and the school showing up and going out in the community?

Equity Centric Thinking

In an equitable community, all are welcome, valued, and have a voice. Some educators unconsciously adopt biased and deficit-based thinking. We talk about having high standards for all learners and yet hear the comments about “they can’t do that kind of math.” Deficit thinking has been embedded in our systems for a long time. Changes in beliefs about the potential of learners are a must as we move forward.

Trauma-Informed Social Emotional Environments

Acknowledging the trauma related to the pandemic for all people and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on certain communities, along with systemic racism, bias, and discrimination on a broader scale and the violence in multiple communities, it is important to start the environmental transformation.

According to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, a trauma-informed system is one where all parties involved recognize and respond to the impact of traumatic stress on those who have contact with the system, including children, caregivers, staff, and service providers. Recognizing the impact on children and adults, trauma-informed practice is not something nice to incorporate and is mandatory.

Leading With Empathy

Empathy plays a big role in our environment. Who gets to decide what’s “best” for students and families? Establishing an environment that empowers all members to build and practice empathy will go a long way to creating an authentic and welcoming environment.

The mirror neurons in our brains are activated when we perform an action and observe an action. “Sometimes called “empathy neurons,” these cells help us understand the intentions of others and are active during social encounters.” (Tomlinson & Sousa, 2020). Schools provide a wealth of social encounters in the classrooms, halls, common spaces, and outdoors.

Practicing Mindfulness in Social Emotional Environments

We can control how we act; we do. Pausing to look for and from other perspectives helps us build empathy. Practicing mindfulness (breathing, brain breaks, etc.) supports our ability to harness our emotions. Developing personal and classroom routines, learning how to set boundaries, and building our vocabulary to describe our emotions allow us to express and receive input from others in ways that demonstrate self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness, all aspects of SEL. All of these contribute to the environment that supports SEL.

Establish an environment that mistakes are part of. One where mistakes are “expected, respected, and inspected” (Peters, 2021). It supports the power of “yet” and a growth mindset. Routines help establish welcoming and equitable schools and classrooms. Recognize that everyone has expertise. In your ecosystem, there are community, family members, educators, and students with knowledge, skills, and experiences to share. Create environments and offer invitations for people to share.

Actions You Can Take

• Leverage asset-based language. In Choice Words, Peter Johnston offers a plethora of examples of how a subtle change in words can have a large impact. This relates to the practice of challenging ideas rather than feedback, which is like providing feedback focused on the task rather than the person.
• Ask this question of each group – students, families, and community – What can you tell me about the school that teachers and administrators don’t know? (Boss, 2017)
• Apply structures, strategies, and tools that support active engagement, persistence, and collaboration, practices that provide routines.
• Remember that the school has community spaces – hallways, a lunchroom, a library, and school grounds. Greeting learners, educators, and families in those community spaces go a long way toward making them feel welcome and valued.
• Create a word wall for emotions. Provide learners with multiple words to describe the nuances of their feelings. For younger learners, a page of emojis, with the words beneath, is a way to build their emotional vocabulary and their ability to read and understand words.
• Support students in processing current events and their personal impacts. Create space for dialogue and other forms of expression. These opportunities help foster resilience and empathy.
• Put students and teachers at the center of decision-making about opportunities that more
  equitably address and support the wellness of the school community.

Resources

• Boss, S. (2017). All together now. Corwin.
• Johnston, P. (2004). Choice words. Stenhouse.
• Sanfelippo, J. & Sinanis, T. (2016). Hacking leadership: 10 Ways great leaders inspire learning that teachers, students, and parents love. X10 Publications.
• The Sciences of Teaching – Educational Leadership (ascd.org)