Housekeeping: Buy the fall #NerdFarmReads Book, We Gon Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang
This week the pod takes on Social Emotional Learning in schools. Danielle Gonzalez of the Aspen Institute begins the podcast with her perspective on SEL and why we must teach it. She also delves into the danger of “systematic whitening” of students of color and where the national policy conversation on SEL is headed.
Next up, author and professor, Claude Steele, gives an overview of Stereotype Threat with a few ways to combat it. Professor Steele’s book Whistling Vivaldi centers around anecdote about a man-of-color whistling Vivaldi in public spaces. Steele also discussed the impact of the disproportionate ratio of white females teaching to students of color and the need for Social Emotional Learning in school.
2:00 What is Social Emotional Learning and why do we teach it in schools?
4:00 Aspen Institute convenes state superintendents to talk about leadership and disparities between white and black students. Implicit bias, interpersonal relationships, black and white students experience the world differently. See the Aspen Report here.
9:00 Is SEL a way to systematically “whiten” students of color?
12:00 Stereotype threat and the meaning behind Whistling Vivaldi.
15:00 Academic Beat of Professor Steele: What do you do?
17:30 Professor Steele explaining SEL from his perspective.
22:00 Teacher diversity and the correlation of Social Emotional Learning
“The opportunity to see yourself… in a leadership turns out to be important in the success students have.”
25:00 Professor Steele’s take on historical events that led to teachers being so homogeneously white and female. How should we develop trust between students and teachers of any color.
29:00 What should school systems do to support students social-emotional needs?
33:00 Who do you see and who have you seen do this well?
35:00 What do you [Professor Steele] wish the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, understood about Social Emotional Learning?
Going Further:
Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us by Claude Steele