Social Emotional Learning for Equity and Civic Teaching (SEL-E-CT) Program

Social emotional learning (SEL)  is a crucial lever for wellbeing, belonging, equity, and inclusive excellence in higher education. To prepare postsecondary students to navigate an increasingly complex, polarized world in values-aligned, purpose driven ways while also thriving, it is incumbent upon faculty, staff, and institutional leaders to recognize the inextricable interlinkage of emotion and cognition and cultivate SEL skills for engaged, transformative, intergenerational co-learning, and prosocial community/civic engagement. 

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is broadly defined as the “process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions” (CASEL, n.d.).  SEL advances excellence and equity in education institutions through fostering these core competencies among individuals and across learning communities:

• Self-awareness: Identifying and understanding one’s own emotions, thoughts, and their influence on behaviors across contexts; recognizing one’s strengths as well as limitations, with self-confidence, self-efficacy, optimism, and a sense of purpose.
• Self-management: Acknowledging and regulating one’s own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in a range of situations; identifying and utilizing stress reduction strategies; demonstrating agency and consideration of one’s own and others’ wellbeing.
• Social awareness: Striving to understand the perspectives of others, across cultures, backgrounds, and contexts; demonstrating empathy for others and recognizing their strengths; recognizing how behavior patterns and systems create inequitable conditions.
• Relationship skills: Establishing and maintaining supportive, healthy relationships; seeking and providing help when needed; listening and communicating empathically; practicing collaborative problem-solving; engaging in constructive conflict resolution; standing up for the human dignity and rights of others.
• Responsible decision-making: Making caring and responsible choices about one’s own behavior and social interactions across diverse contexts; engaging in responsible civic engagement; striving to further individual, social, and collective wellbeing.

The SEL Initiative at Tufts -  Social Emotional Learning for Equity and Civic Teaching (SEL-E-CT) Program

Tufts SEL Initiative was launched in January 2017 thanks to a generous gift from David T. Zussman, A53, J80P, and his family through the Zussman Fund for Social and Emotional Learning. It is now housed in the Office of Institutional Inclusive Excellence (IIE). The overarching purpose of this initiative is to foster SEL, wellbeing, inclusion, and transformational  learning across Tufts University campuses. Dr. Deborah Donahue-Keegan, Education Department Lecturer and IIE Faculty Fellow has led this initiative since its inception.

The SEL Initiative’s signature project continues to be the Social Emotional Learning for Equity and Civic Teaching (SEL-E-CT) program for Tufts faculty and staff with student-facing roles. To cultivate a culture of care and connection across the university, it is essential for faculty, administrators, and staff to understand that “all learning is social and emotional” (National Equity Project, n.d.), and that their own SEL competencies are essential to fostering SEL among students in and outside of classrooms. 

SEL-E-CT is a cohort-based interdisciplinary program that also supports a network of current and past cohort members, with ongoing Community of Practice opportunities. Each cohort includes faculty and staff from schools (departments and programs) across the university. 

Since the Fall 2024 semester, SEL-E-CT has focused on dialogue as a pedagogical and facilitation pathway for transformative social emotional learning that centers identity, agency, belonging, collaborative problem-solving, curiosity. We have partnered with Essential Partners to develop and build this updated, timely program. 

Overarching Objectives for the SEL-E-CT Dialogic Pedagogy Fellows Program:

• Develop transformative social emotional learning and wellbeing skills to build a classroom / community climate where productive dialogues and engaged learning occurs.
• Learn how to establish the conditions for the dialogic classroom through the use of agreements, preparation, design, and the use of space - both virtually and in-person
• Build connections and trust between students to support difficult classroom conversations
• Use dialogue as a pedagogical tool for reflection and bridging differences
• Structure difficult dialogues in the classroom and design dialogue questions to invite narrative, value-based discussion, multiple perspectives, and complexity
• Invite and encourage discussions on inclusion in its many forms
• Use curricular activities as pathways to more engagement and dialogue across campus 
• Continued expansion of knowledge and practical skills through the SEL-E-CT Community of Practice.

Learn More About the Tufts SEL Initiative / SEL-E-CT Program “Teaching Toward Equity: The Social-Emotional Dynamic of the Classroom” (Tufts Now, 9/17/2021) This article describes how negotiating the balance between ‘thinking’ and the ‘feeling’ can make for more inclusive experiences.

For more information about the SEL Initiative at Tufts and the SEL-E-CT program, email Dr. Deborah Donahue-Keegan deborah.donahue_keegan@tufts.edu 

Our Generous Funders

The SEL initiative was established in 20217 through a generous gift from David T. Zussman, A53, J80P, and his family through The Zussman Fund for Social and Emotional Learning. The Zussman family continues to support the Tufts SEL Initiative. Additionally, The Omidyar Group has provided ongoing funding support, most recently with focus on dialogic pedagogy as a pathway to bridge differences at Tufts and beyond.

Read more about the program on the CELT website.