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2018-04-05 The teacher stress epidemic has serious consequences, impacting the teacher, the classrooms of students they teach, as well as the school sites and districts in which they work. Educational organizations have a responsibility to help promote the health and wellness of their teachers and to ensure that teacher stress does not negatively impact students. It is important for educational leaders and teachers to know how teacher stress and well-being impact health and teacher performance, as well as what individual and organizational factors help and hinder teacher well-being. Additionally, it is helpful to understand how Social Emotional Wellness of teachers impacts students, colleagues, employee engagement, and organizational well-being. Clark and Estes (2008) conceptual framework was utilized in this study to identify the knowledge, motivation, and organization influences related to the Social Emotional Wellness (SEW) of teachers. A thorough literature review was presented, and surveys and interviews were conducted and analyzed. Teachers who participated in BREATHtaking or SEL 2.0 had a clear understanding of SEW and its impact on their teaching and classroom climate, demonstrated a strong motivation to transfer their learning into practice, and reported increased self-efficacy and engagement with work. Recommendations for the organization were provided in this study related to ways in which validated influences could be addressed through Professional Learning and organizational policies, practices, systems, and structures.
2017-07-21 The purpose of this dissertation was to examine how teacher education programs may or may not be instructing preservice teachers to learn about and teach for social emotional learning and development for students. I conducted a mixed methods study in which I interviewed program faculty and administrators, analyzed program documents such as syllabi and assignments, and interviewed and surveyed students regarding the ways in which social emotional learning (SEL) constructs were present in the coursework or fieldwork opportunities throughout one program. I also examined student networks in the program to see whether students were forming peer learning groups around SEL related topics, such as classroom management, student behaviors, or child development. I found that SEL was not introduced with any formalized framework or theory, yet elements of SEL were embedded into the program in various contexts. Students emerged with higher levels of SEL knowledge by their second year, but appeared to have less confidence than first years in terms of implementation in the classroom.