053: Empowerment: Defining an Essential SEL Term

Lately, I’ve been thinking about impactful social emotional learning skills considered essential in human growth and development for a productive, healthy life - terms like respect, accountability, and empowerment. These terms are not listed in CASEL's SEL Competencies. These terms are not listed as skills within CASEL’s SEL Competencies. These concepts are drawn upon proficiency across several, if not all, of the CASEL competencies.

Two weeks ago, I worked with a high school teacher team. They were building a concept map to reveal the intersection of Restorative Practices, Mindfulness, Trauma-informed Practices, the Student Assistance Process (commonly referred to as SAP, similar to the RTI or MTSS), and Social Emotional Learning. The team determined that “empowerment” for students and adults would be an outcome of the successfully implemented intersection of the practices mentioned earlier.

Intrigued by their conclusion, I asked them to tell me more about what “empowerment” might look or sound like (in this case, we are creating a common language for operationalizing the term). How would you know if a student felt or was empowered?

Their response inspired me and reminded me of a conversation with one of my sons when he was in ninth grade. In the team’s words, when a student felt empowered, they would:

• -take initiative (self-management),
• -advocate for themselves and others (relationship skills and responsible decision-making),
• -demonstrate confidence and self-efficacy (self-awareness),
• -develop a sense of self - knowing their strengths and feeling secure in their identity (self-awareness), and 
• -identify and leverage opportunities (social awareness and responsible decision-making).

Our following conversation revolved around knowing how our students demonstrated these skills. What might a framework look like so students can reflect, assess, and monitor their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? (As a side note, Resonance Ed has developed a framework based on Robert Marzano’s work that we’ll share in a future post.)

I mentioned above that the conversation with this high school team reminded me of a pivotal conversation I had with Jared four years ago. It grounded me as a parent and educator, reminding me of my goals for my kids.

When Jared was in ninth grade, he told me about a political conversation in his social studies class. During our talk, he said, “I don’t know if what I believe is what I truly believe or if it is what you’ve raised me to believe.”

I was so proud of him. I responded, “You are correct. When you were younger, my role as a mom was to set a foundation for you. This foundation was related to my beliefs and values - knowing yourself, determining right versus wrong, interacting with others, and making “good” decisions. As you’ve grown and had your own experiences and learnings, it is up to you to refine this, figure out who you are, and determine your path. My role now is to step back, hoping I’ve provided a solid foundation for you to continue to grow and develop in a way that honors who you are and want to be. We might not have the same beliefs, values, or visions, but your grappling demonstrates that you feel empowered."

So, dear reader… how do you define empowerment? What does that look like to be demonstrated in your classroom or life? How do we grow in this skill and provide opportunities for our students to experience and demonstrate empowerment?