EDUCATIONAL EQUITY, SOCIAL JUSTICE & SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL LEARNING What’s the Equity Imperative? Written By: Debra Carr, LMSW, ACSW, CFSW Research documents a full body of knowledge around the need for students and adults to learn how to build their social and emotional skills. While these concepts are vitally important, they rarely consider the intersections of educational equity and social justice in practice. Equity in action can’t be achieved in the absence of social justice. These concepts are mutually reinforcing and do not happen in silos. HEIGHTENED AWARENESS Public educational systems are continuously seeking guidance for identifying standards and measures that serve to focus on “whole child.” These efforts build upon student strengths and serve to focus on what students can do and what they need to be successful at every phase of their lives. Building qualitative and quantitative ways to assess student’s knowledge, skills, and behaviors, one must recognize the implications of the social and political climate in which we navigate our lives. Building adult social and emotional learning has more often focused on the work students need to do and know rather than what adults can learn, do, and change first. The need for adults to build and embrace growth mindsets and leverage strengths-based approaches is fundamental. Shifting the narrative to incorporate the intersections of SEL, Equity and Social Justice sets the conditions for learning how these concepts inform everything we do at every level of our lives individually, institutionally, and systemically. These critical intersections are foundational for creating transformational change for which all have a role to play. Curriculums and checklists solely will not get us to the best life outcomes for All students, particularly those most marginalized. TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE True transformative change begins within our own focus of control. Building the connection between adult SEL with an equity lens allows us to deeply explore our core beliefs. The larger historical and sociopolitical climate we’re in informs our thoughts, shapes our attitudes, values, and beliefs. These influences are strong predicators of how we respond to ourselves and the changing world around us. Recent SEL’s promise is rooted in the belief that adults must first acquire critical social and emotional competencies. For students to perform better, the adults that influence their lives must do better. When adults can fully address their own implicit biases that cloud their perspectives, they begin to build a powerful baseline for building their capacity. Achieving equity is intricately linked to personalized learning and the application of new skills. It requires an understanding of one’s own needs, and the needs of students and their families. These efforts also require the design of educational experiences
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