Social-Emotional Learning: An Exploration of Purpose in Primary Schools

Abstract

Emotions and feelings are experienced by people on a daily occurrence (Allyn, 2022). Understanding what causes reactions to these emotions is key in building on one’s emotional intelligence (Allyn, 2022). To build on this, schools are using social-emotional learning to help students (Behring, 2022; Brackett, 2012; Jones, 2017; Schonert-Reichl, 2017). Although teachers believe social-emotional learning is important, more support and data is still needed (Brackett, 2012; Reilly, 2022; Yang, 2018, 2020). The research gathered in this study included surveys from Irish primary school teachers, interviews with a Interviewee 1 and Interviewee 2, and gathered literature on the topics of social-emotional learning, wellbeing education, and mental health. The main focus of this research is on the purpose of social-emotional learning for students in primary school. Other themes covered in this research include the factors that support and hinder social-emotional promotion, teacher attitude and beliefs, and the role of the teacher for social-emotional education.