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This critical cultural analysis of trends in the field of social emotional learning (SEL) in the United States considers how ideas concerning emotional skills and competencies have informed programmatic discourse. While currently stressing links between SEL and academic achievement, program literature also places emphasis on ideals of caring, community, and diversity. However, recommended practices across programs tend to undermine these ideals by focusing on emotional and behavioral control strategies that privilege individualist models of self. SEL in practice thus becomes another way to focus attention on measurement and remediation of individual deficits rather than a way to redirect educators' focus toward the relational contexts of classrooms and schools. The promise of SEL to foster increased achievement and equity in American education may not be realized unless more work is done to connect ideals with practices and to address the political and cultural assumptions that are being built into contemporary approaches.
KEYWORDS: social emotional learning, cultural analysis, diversity.
Since the early 1990s, social emotional learning (SEL) has emerged as a major thematic and programmatic emphasis in American education. Concerns over the vulnerability of children and youth to various social and psychological problems and me potential role of schools in ameliorating such risks have helped fuel the growing popularity of efforts to help youth become more socially and emotionally competent. By some estimates, more than 200 types of classroom based SEL pro- grams are used in U.S. schools (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2003). In 2001 the National Conference of State Legislators passed a resolution supporting the teaching of social emotional skills in schools, and in 2004 Illinois became the first state to develop specific SEL standards for K-12 students; such standards are also being considered by several other states. With the publication of Goleman's (1995) Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ and Elias et al.'s (1997) Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators, both of which had a major role in the popularization of the ideas of emotional intelligence (EI) and their application in various contexts from businesses to schooling, interest in SEL among educators and policy makers has grown substantially. Hundreds of organizations and Web sites are devoted to the topic, many of which market SEL programs,...