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Systematic SEL models such as this can support cultural changes in schools
and foster teachers’ social and emotional intelligence with relatively little cost.
Similarly, significant financial investment is not required for teacher-preparation
programs to include CASEL’s five SEL dimensions in undergraduate coursework.
What is required is a shift in mindset. Granted, this is not a simple task; however,
the financial costs and intellectual adjustments required to infuse support for teacher
SEL into all stages of the teacher life cycle are minimal in comparison to the price
of attrition.
The public pushback to SEL seems to stem largely from a definitional
misunderstanding and the conflation of SEL with critical race theory (CRT; Anderson,
2022). SEL refers not to issues of systemic racism but to the development and well-
being of the whole person. Despite the politicized divisiveness over SEL, the vast
majority of teachers support it (Krachman & Larocca, 2017). Supporting teacher
well-being requires focusing on an underlying concern with human development
and flourishing rather than with the term itself. If “SEL” is too charged and off-
putting (Tyner, 2021), perhaps we need to find a different word.

Conclusion
Teachers need social and emotional support now more than ever (Ferren, 2021).
We cannot expect our teachers to care for students and foster their SEL without
helping teachers manage stress, tend to their social and emotional needs, and focus
on their own well-being. Although such support for teachers is a critical response
to the current teacher-burnout crisis, teacher educators, schools, districts, states, and
policymakers must be more forward looking, acknowledge the connection between
teacher stress and attrition, and prioritize teacher SEL throughout their professional
life cycle.
Such a forward-looking approach requires a transformative educational shift
at multiple levels. First, it means teacher-preparation programs must find space in
their curriculum for teacher SEL and hire faculty experts in that field. Schools and
districts must then continue to support in-service teacher SEL through professional
development as well as “emotionally-intelligent” school cultures that value teachers’
(and students’) feelings and needs (Brackett & Simmons, 2015). Last, as a society,
we must acknowledge the ways in which accountability policies have reshaped
teacher identity and narrowed the focus of what teachers can and should produce to a
standardized test score (Fisher-Ari et al., 2017). Teachers are and do much more than
that. If we want teachers to stay in the classroom, we must create a multi-layered
environment that acknowledges, cares about, and fosters teachers’ well-being.

References
Allegretto, S., Garcia, E., Weiss, E. (2022, July 12). Public education funding in the U.S. needs an
overhaul. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/public-education
-funding-in-the-us-needs-an-overhaul/

Anderson, M. (2022, September 26). How social-emotional learning became a frontline in the
battle against CRT. NBC News. https://www.npr.org/2022/09/26/1124082878/how-social
-emotional-learning-became-a-frontline-in-the-battle-against-crt

Baker, B. D. (2018). How money matters for schools. Learning Policy Institute. https://
learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/how-money-matters-brief

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