Navigating the Voyage Within: Teacher Perceptions on Embedded Social Emotional Learning in the English Language Arts Classroom

Abstract

The middle school English Language Arts (ELA) classroom is a place where adolescents can articulate their experiences, empathize with characters, and process the world around them. Social emotional learning (SEL) is fundamentally woven in the fabric of English Language Arts, as an underpinning of ELA is to qualify the world and analyze it. This qualitative case study describes eight ELA teachers’ present levels of preparedness and currently implemented strategies in integrating SEL as an organically embedded component of ELA instruction at a middle school in urban Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and a post-interview survey were used to garner teacher perceptions of SEL in the ELA classroom. Results indicated that ELA teachers feel SEL is a natural component of ELA instruction, strong relationships between students and teachers are important, SEL integration contributes to academic and emotional engagement, and SEL instruction has become more intentional. In addition, ELA teachers expressed interest in exploring peer mentoring systems of support and professional development on navigating contemporary issues.