Research Wednesday | October 30, 2024

This week’s evidence comes from Edutopia and the Fordham Institute. It’s a stark reminder about how things that we take for granted – such as the essential need for social and emotional learning – are alien to many parents. The report (https://sel.fordhaminstitute.org) said:

When researchers at the Fordham Institute asked parents to rank phrases associated with social and emotional learning, nothing seemed to add up. The term “social-emotional learning” was very unpopular; parents wanted to steer their kids clear of it. However, when the researchers added a simple clause, forming a new phrase—”social-emotional & academic learning”—the program shot all the way up to No. 2 in the rankings. What gives? The researchers suggest that parents were picking up subtle cues in the list of SEL-related terms that irked or worried them. Phrases like “soft skills” and “growth mindset” felt “nebulous” and devoid of academic content. For some, the language felt suspiciously like a “code for liberal indoctrination.” But the study suggests that parents might need the simplest of reassurances to break through the political noise. Removing the jargon, focusing on productive phrases like “life skills,” and relentlessly connecting SEL to academic progress puts parents at ease—and seems to save social and emotional learning in the process.

 This is a good reminder to all of us that, as I attempted to argue in the book Achieving Equity and Excellence, equity can be perceived as a code word for low expectations, and excellence can be perceived as a code word for exclusion or privilege. That’s why we always talk about equity and excellence as mutually necessary terms.