to the Taxonomy Project: Tools for selecting and aligning SEL frameworks. Measuring SEL. https://measuringsel.casel.org/frameworks/11 National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (NCSEAD). (2019). From a nation at risk to a nation at hope. Washington, DC: ASPEN Institute.
12 Pullman, J. (2016). Tennessee to create ‘safe spaces’ in K‐12 schools. The Federalist. https://thefederalist.com/2016/08/08/tennessee‐to‐create‐safe‐spaces‐in‐k‐12‐schools/
13 Schonert‐Reichl, K. A., Kitil, M. J., & Hanson‐Peterson, J. (2017). To reach the students, teach the teachers: A national scan of teacher preparation and social and emotional learning. Report prepared for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.
14 Search Institute. (2020). The Developmental Assets Framework. https://www.search‐institute.org/our‐research/development‐assets/developmental‐assets‐framework/
15 Shriver, T. P., & Weissberg, R. P. (2020). A response to constructive criticism of social and emotional learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 101(7), 52–57.
16 Texas Education Agency and Region 4 Education Service Center. (2010). Texas Collaborative for Emotional Development in Schools (TxCEDS) Stakeholder Group report: Social‐emotional wellness in Texas schools: A guide for schools, agencies, organizations, parents, and communities (Project Coord. D. Black). Houston, TX: Region 4 Education Service Center.
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18 Zhao, U. Y. (2020). Another education war? The coming debates over social and emotional learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 101(8). https://kappanonline.org/another‐education‐war‐social‐emotional‐learning‐debates‐zhao/
Two HISTORICAL INFLUENCES ON THE EMERGENCE OF SEL
INTRODUCTION
The knowledge we gain from history is not only informative, but transformative as well. It gives us insight into current‐day problems, provides context to our efforts, guides us forward, and encourages us to think critically about future efforts as we strive to advance and promote SEL in schools. This chapter will explore recent events to highlight how awareness of the need for SEL has been propelled to the forefront of education. This will be followed by an investigation into past events, primarily within the United States, from which SEL has emerged, to illustrate how it has evolved over several decades. Through this systematic review, we can reflect on the impact of SEL and subsequently analyze how it might guide our efforts forward to help influence positive outcomes for our students. The goal of the review is not to memorize a bombardment of facts or to confirm and admire existing problems, but to use the information constructively to help us conceptualize a best approach for moving forward and advancing our efforts.
DON’T FORGET
Understanding SEL from a historical perspective helps us move from admiring existing problems to promoting viable solutions.
RECENT EVENTS
COVID‐19 Pandemic 2020
The pandemic of 2020 drove concerns about emotional functioning into the spotlight for people of all ages, but especially for children and youth on whom the impact of social distancing and social isolation had the most debilitating effects. As the virus worsened and spread, the prolonged isolation from being quarantined led to growing concerns for how it was impacting young people’s social and emotional well‐being. These concerns became far more worrisome as the quarantine extended into months. Interestingly, while there also were concerns for the physical health of children and youth, these were perhaps tempered by early reports in which it was originally believed that younger people were less susceptible to contracting the virus. Consequently, worries over their physical safety were less concerning, that is, until the quarantine progressed. As the virus grew and spread, reports of younger people contracting the virus began to emerge and the medical community began to further explore these cases. What they soon discovered was that the virus manifested differently in young people than it did in the older population. Thus, health concerns for children and youth began to rise, and the virus soon became linked to a new inflammatory syndrome with serious implications for young people’s health. Additional information about this syndrome can be explored in detail in Rapid Reference 2.1.
Inflammatory Syndrome in Young People Linked to COVID‐19
Although adults (especially older adults) were thought to be at greater risk for contracting the virus, it quickly became evident that children and youth were not immune. Clusters of children began to emerge with a COVID‐19‐linked illness called pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PMIS). This syndrome resembled a rare inflammatory illness very similar to Kawasaki disease, but manifested differently because children and youth exhibited a higher degree of physical shock, akin to toxic shock syndrome. While the COVID‐19 virus was primarily a respiratory disease in adults, PMIS was known to affect the organs and blood vessels in children and youth.
Medical experts were not sure that PMIS was caused by the virus, but they were sure that there was a relationship between the two. Many of the children and youth who were diagnosed with PMIS were found to also carry the COVID‐19 virus, and a significant number of these children and youth had been exposed to a person infected by COVID‐19. The first U.S. cases of PMIS emerged in New York, about a month after a surge of COVID‐19 infections were reported in that region, but cases were also reported in England, one of which resulted in death (MacMillan, 2020).
Of the total number of COVID‐19 cases reported in the United States, only 2 percent of those cases were reported in children and youth, and they ranged in age from infants to teenagers (Melillo, 2020). Thus, as more cases of PMIS began to emerge, concerns for children’s and youth’s physical health increased among parents and healthcare providers and added to the challenges of returning children to school and childcare facilities.
The growing concerns for the physical safety of children and youth further compounded the existing worries over their social, emotional, and mental well‐being, leaving parents and experts to grapple over how to maintain physical safety without sacrificing their need for social and emotional development and their mental health. This dilemma was the basis behind every decision being faced by parents, educators, schools, and childcare providers as recovery efforts began. The discussion that follows will focus on that perspective and the resulting outgrowth of SEL as awareness grew.
As the disastrous effects of the pandemic grew clearer, so did the long‐term implications. One of the most significant concerns, as noted, was the lasting impact it might have on children and youth in relation to their social, emotional, and mental well‐being.
