VIRTUAL Prague Research & Teaching Conference

Abstract

Supporting educators’ emotional intelligence and social awareness is crucial for their own learning and development, as well as their students’. However, frameworks guiding educational practices often overlook the critical role of social-emotional competencies in shaping learning environments that can support and sustain both teacher and student wellbeing. This paper presents a case for embedding social-emotional learning (SEL) principles within any framework that supports and informs the learning process. We propose a visual representation of the SEL theme as a ‘dotted line,’ symbolizing open spaces that emerge when an educator’s understanding of themselves, in relation to their understanding of others, deepens and expands. This paper outlines and defends the recommendation to integrate SEL into any framework that guides and informs the learning process, advocating for holistic approaches that prioritize teacher and student wellbeing. Drawing insights from a case study that integrated SEL into a teacher leadership framework, this research provides an example of intentionally interweaving SEL competencies into an existing educational framework. Self-learning, and an increasing awareness of self in relation to others, as depicted by a dotted line, can be added within the visual representation of almost any framework. This paper applies ‘dotted line’ thinking to other existing models to demonstrate the versatility of this approach. The dotted line can exemplify openness and growth, and depicts authentic connections between the educator and others, and the importance of empowering educators to nurture the wellbeing of themselves and their learners.