Wendy Y. Perez, Sara McAlister

Center for Policy, Research, and Evaluation

The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools

This research brief was developed with support from the William T. Grant Foundation.

As jobs that require postsecondary education continue to increase, gaps in postsecondary access and completion by race and socioeconomic status persist. [4] College education is connected to greater health and increased civic engagement. [5] Over the last two decades, college readiness scholarship and practice have embraced the important role that socio-emotional skills play in facilitating academic engagement, persistence, and thriving. [6] These skills and mindsets (including self-efficacy, self-regulation, resilience, positive identities, relationship skills, and other skills) predict academic engagement and achievement, college preparation, and well-being into adulthood. [7]

But socio-emotional learning (SEL) models have faced mounting critiques for their failure to address the structural inequalities and hostile racial climates that BIPOC youth face in both K-12 and postsecondary education. [8] SEL approaches sometimes employ deficit lenses that frame BIPOC youth as lacking skills and dispositions necessary for success in White, middleclass-dominated spaces, rather than affirming their own cultural assets and supporting BIPOC youth to understand and challenge the sociopolitical conditions that limit their opportunity. [9] Responding to this imperative for SEL to mitigate, rather than reproduce, social inequality, Jagers, Rivas-Drake, and Williams articulate a vision for “transformative” SEL. They write,

In essence, we argue that for SEL to adequately serve those from underserved communities—and promote the optimal developmental outcomes for all children, youth and adults—it must cultivate in them the knowledge, attitudes, and skills required for critical examination and collaborative action to address root causes of inequities. [10]

Transformative SEL incorporates dimensions of critical consciousness into socio-emotional competency domains. Originally conceptualized by Freire [11], critical consciousness consists of three dimensions: an understanding of the root causes of social inequalities (i.e. a “critical analysis”); the capacity and commitment to produce sociopolitical change; and participation in individual or collective action to change perceived social inequalities. [12]

This expanded vision of transformative SEL resonates with research on aspirations, persistence, and resilience among BIPOC students. Positive racial identity, awareness of racism and other forms of oppression, and political and civic self-efficacy are associated with academic engagement, aspirations, and persistence among BIPOC youth. [13] For BIPOC college students, especially those in predominantly White postsecondary institutions, persistence and resilience are fortified by having the skills to maintain strong ties to home communities, build culturally affirming communities on campus, and locate their own education in a legacy of resisting oppression. [14]

What settings and experiences support BIPOC youth in building the transformative SEL competencies that support college persistence?

This research brief shares qualitative findings from a mixed-methods study on the developmental trajectories of youth organizing (YO) participants that suggest YO can be a powerful strategy for transformative SEL and college success. First, we offer additional background on the link between youth organizing and transformative SEL. Then, we briefly describe our study and the methods used for this brief. Next, we share findings from interviews with YO alumni, illustrating connections among their YO experiences, transformative socioemotional skills, and perceived college successes. We conclude with recommendations for various stakeholder groups.

Jagers et al.’s transformative SEL framework expands and revises the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)’s five SEL competency domains to include skills and orientations related to critical consciousness

• Transformative self-awareness includes understanding one’s own goals, identities, and values and developing a sense of self-efficacy, as well as acknowledging one’s own biases and connecting personal and collective identities and histories (critical self-analysis).
• Transformative self-management includes self-regulation and stress management, resilience, and civic efficacy, as well as resistance and efficacy in pursuing collective goals.
• Transformative social awareness involves a sense of belonging and understanding interpersonal and institutional social norms for behavior, as well as perspective-taking informed by critical historical understanding and recognizing family, school and community resources for well-being.
• Transformative relationship skills include communication and interpersonal skills to maintain healthy relationships, as well as collaborative problem-solving, leadership, and the ability to navigate differing social and cultural norms.
• Transformative responsible decision-making includes the skills to engage in caring and constructive behavior as well as the ability to critically examine social and institutional norms, realistically evaluate the consequences of different actions, and prioritize collective wellbeing. [15]

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