Students possess unique perspectives beyond being passive recipients of knowledge (Ben-Arieh, 2008). Even though there is inherent value in enacting students’ perspectives of learning (Cook-Sather, 2002), such viewpoints have been received insufficient attention by school-based researchers in physical education (PE) and general education (Brasof & Levitan, 2022; Cook-Sather, 2002; Dyson, 2006; Erickson & Shultz, 1992; MacQuarrie et al., 2008). When it comes to the absence of student perspectives in school-based PE research (Dyson, 2006), it has long been argued that limited understanding of student perspectives, particularly at the secondary level, may inhibit PE teachers’ ability to design and implement pedagogical experiences with active student engagement (Cothran & Ennis, 1999). Adding on to this account, more recent studies have started to acknowledge that exploring what secondary school students think, believe, and feel about PE can inform and impact curriculum and pedagogical processes in PE (Banville et al., 2023; Casey & Dyson, 2009; Enright & O’Sullivan, 2010; Howley et al., 2022; Phillips et al., 2021; Ressler & Wahl-Alexander, 2020).
However, despite the increased awareness toward students’ perspectives, there still exists a limited amount of empirical evidence on how students perceive their learning experiences in secondary PE settings. This is especially the case when it comes to students’ perspectives in PE on social and emotional learning (SEL). While increasing evidence supports SEL implementation within secondary school curricula (Wright & Richards, 2021), mostly based on the SEL framework by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2023), more in-depth qualitative evidence is needed on how students’ perspectives can be incorporated and enacted in SEL practices (Howley et al., 2021). More specifically, understanding how students experience and perceive SEL in high school PE programs may help researchers and practitioners obtain useful information to bridge the gap between scholarly understanding of SEL, teachers’ SEL practice, and students’ SEL development in PE. Exploring what students perceive as important and how they create meanings out of their SEL experiences will also inform us of more explicit and student-oriented SEL practices tailored to high school students’ needs and developmental levels.
Theoretical Frameworks
Social and emotional learning skills have been recognized as important for children’s positive behavior in a substantial body of theory, research, and practice in education (Barbarasch & Elias, 2009; Denham, 2006; García & Weiss, 2016), with interest continuing to expand (Humphrey, 2013; Martin et al., 2017). The role and place of SEL can be defined as:
The process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. (CASEL, 2015, p. 5)
PE scholars also acknowledge SEL as a crucial element of a comprehensive program (Dyson et al., 2019; Gordon et al., 2016) as reflected by established affective components in PE guidelines and standards within the United States and internationally (SHAPE America, 2014; Wright & Richards, 2022). In this regard, PE has been presented as a setting where students can “learn to recognize and manage their emotions, establish healthy relationships, set positive goals, meet personal and social needs, make responsible decisions, and solve problems” (Ciotto & Gagnon, 2018, p. 32) through numerous model-based practices (Jacobs & Wright, 2014). As “personal, social, and emotional development is inextricably woven into PE” (Wright & Richards, 2022, p. 6), learning outcomes related to social and affective domains have been recognized as significant in secondary school PE programs (Howley et al., 2021; Vila et al., 2021).
Despite the consistent attention, ironically, there has been no consensus on how to define social and affective domains of learning and what constitutes them (Bailey et al., 2009; Casey & Goodyear, 2015; Gordon et al., 2016; Teraoka & Kirk, 2022). We claim that the limited understanding of social and affective domains of learning in PE is attributed to insufficient evidence on students’ perspectives of their own social and emotional experiences related to PE. Furthermore, dominance of quantitative research in the existing SEL literature (please see CASEL.org) makes it more difficult to obtain more in-depth and contextual information regarding how students learn SEL during SEL interventions or programs in schools (Corcoran et al., 2018; Howley et al., 2021; Dyson et al., 2021). The limited qualitative evidence based on student data is especially the case in the United States (Howley et al., 2021), where there has long been an excessive focus on promoting physical activity in PE (Dyson, 2014).
In designing this research and methodology, we wanted to foreground students’ perspectives based on social constructivism (Pope, 2006; Schwandt, 1994, 2014). The social constructivist believes that there is no clearly defined reality or truth, but rather multiple and conflicting interpretations by social actors. In this regard, this study is based on the assumption that students possess unique knowledge and perspectives about their learning experiences (Howley et al., 2022), which can be different from one another. The focus of this study is on making sense of the multiple meanings and interpretations that students create about their SEL experiences in a high school PE program. We claim that obtaining more detailed information on students’ perspectives of SEL will help PE teachers to identify potential benefits and challenges of school-based SEL implementation and reflect on their own pedagogical practices to advance toward a quality PE program (Dyson, 2006; Dyson et al., 2021; Howley et al., 2022).
Our understanding of how learning occurs is also grounded in Vygotsky and Cole’s (1978) social constructivism. Focusing on the “social student” who learn from other students, Vygotsky and Cole (1978) proposed that student interactions occurring through cooperative activities is a powerful way to develop knowledge. According to the social constructivism, “learning occurs through peer interactions, student ownership of the curriculum and educational experiences that are authentic for students” (Azzarito & Ennis, 2003, p. 179). In this regard, Dewey (1916) also argued that students develop their beliefs, emotions, and knowledge through experiential activities and social interactions in the real-time situations.
In this study, we also paid close attention to understanding the specific school context in depth where students and the school PE program were situated. Positioning our work with scholars, such as Azzarito and Ennis (2003) and Rovegno and Dolly (2006), we framed our arguments grounded in the real-world school context using a practical orientation during everyday events (Pope, 2006). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore students’ perspectives of SEL in a high school PE program, more specifically how they experience SEL and what meanings they generate regarding the SEL experiences.
Methodology
A qualitative case study design was implemented over one school semester approximately 5 months in length (Merriam, 1998). Our approach to a qualitative case study design was based on Merriam’s (1998) view that “all types of qualitative research are based is the view that reality is constructed by individuals interacting with their social worlds” (Merriam, 1998, p. 6). Therefore, even though there have been scholarly works to explain what SEL is (CASEL, 2015; Jones & Bouffard, 2012), the main focus under investigation in this study was high school students’ subjective perspectives and experiences related to SEL in a specific school context. It was conducted as part of a larger study exploring teachers’ and students’ perspectives and experiences of SEL. This study serves as a follow-up to an initial participatory-action-research study that took place at the same site involving students from February to May 2022.
Participants and Settings
The research was conducted at Tyber College located in the Southeastern part of the United States. The school operates in partnership by the local school district and a local university where the school’s campus is situated. The Tyber College is an urban alternative high school with 250 students. The U.S. Department of Education defines alternative education schools as any “public elementary/secondary school that (a) addresses the needs of students that typically cannot be met in a regular school; (b) provides non-traditional education; (c) serves as an adjunct to a regular school; or (d) falls outside the categories of regular education, special education, or career/technical education” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016).
The participant recruitment and data collection process were guided by the ethical procedures approved by the school district and university’s office of research and integrity. A total of 42 students were recruited from 70 potential students who took the PE course at Tyber College during Spring 2022. Aged 14–16 years old, they were in ninth and 10th grade when the study was conducted. While a purposive sampling procedure was used to recruit participants (Patton, 2015), the students agreed to participate in this research project voluntarily. The participants and the school have been assigned pseudonyms to protect their privacy. Table 1 shows the background information about the student participants.
Participants’ Demographic Information
| Number (%) | Female (%) | Male (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| White | 12 (29) | 10 (24) | 2 (5) |
| African American | 14 (33) | 10 (24) | 4 (10) |
| Asian | 6 (14) | 4 (10) | 2 (5) |
| Latinx-Hispanic | 9 (21) | 5 (12) | 4 (10) |
| Native American | 1 (2) | 1 (2) | 0 (0) |
| Total | 42 | 30 | 12 |
Content and Pedagogy at Tyber College
Even though an intentional and purposeful approach to teaching of SEL by physical educators can be relatively new in traditional school-based PE programs (Wright & Richards, 2022), the PE program at Tyber College was focused on promoting a positive, supportive, and inclusive learning environment as well as developing students’ social and emotional experiences. Central to this was the enactment of democratic and reflective pedagogies during the course promoting student voice. The program was described in a previous paper as a program that enacted democratic and reflective pedagogies (Howley et al., 2022). A wide range of class activities were conducted based on the democratic and reflective pedagogies, which included full-value contracts, biographies, timelines, digital reflections, photovoice, class consultation and negotiation, and taster sessions (see Dyson et al., 2021; Howley et al., 2021). These pedagogies were modified to explicitly align with CASEL’s (2015) framework. Additionally, cooperative learning structures such as such as learning teams, think–pair–share, and jigsaw learning were used frequently to promote positive interdependence, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing tasks (Dyson et al., 2016). Table 2 shows an overview of the specific pedagogies implemented in the PE class.
Overview of the Implemented Pedagogies
| Pedagogy | Details |
|---|---|
| Digital reflection | Describing emotions, experiences, and movements about PE and physical activity. |
| Photovoice | Taking pictures of something important and meaningful related to PE, physical activity, and social and emotional experiences. |
| Timeline | Creating a timeline of critical incidents related to physical, social, and emotional health and well-being. |
| Biography | Reflecting on prior experiences related to PE and physical activity. |
| Taster sessions | Voting on two activities after experiencing various movements and physical activities. |
| Class negotiation | Continuously reflecting on and sharing feedback about experiences in PE especially related to SEL. |
| Cooperative learning | Used as a pedagogical model for building positive relationships and continuing reflection within class especially through group processing. |
Note. SEL = social and emotional learning; PE = physical education.
The course was implemented by the two PE teachers and teaching assistants across 12 lessons of 75 min over a 15-week semester. During the course, students participated in taster sessions, and curriculum negotiation before selecting and participating in two units of work. After several taster mini demonstration classes, the two classes began 6 weeks of two units of PE. One PE teacher’s class selected kickball and badminton, (Teacher D) and the other PE teacher’s class selected football and badminton (Teacher A) with an additional games and sports creation element.
Data Collection
The 42 students participated in focus group (FG) interviews (N = 16) and individual interviews (N = 5) after their semester PE course was completed, lasting approximately 45–70 min each. The interview dates and times were discussed with the school administrator beforehand to organize when individual interviews and FGs would be implemented, and, with whom. All interviews with students were conducted in a gym at the university. FG interviews were conducted with three to four student participants at a time. The interviews were implemented by the research team, which include five school-based qualitative researchers with diverse sociocultural backgrounds. The research team not only had sufficient experiences of collecting qualitative data, but also had prior or ongoing experiences of teaching PE, and working with students in different school contexts. Even though one of the PE teachers at the Tyber College participated as one of the interviewers, he was not assigned to interview students from his own class.
During these interviews, students were asked to reflect on their experiences and describe their perspectives of SEL during the PE program, for example, “How would you describe SEL based on your experiences?” and “How those experiences made you feel?” These interviews questions were guided by social constructivism, which allowed us to investigate students’ own interpretations of their SEL experiences in PE, rather than looking for specific knowledge related to SEL. Each interview was transcribed and cleaned by the interviewer for accurate wording in the interviews.
Data Analysis
Deductive and inductive qualitative data analysis was conducted in this study to investigate students’ understanding and experiences of SEL in PE at the Tyber College (Miles et al., 2014; Patton, 2015). Since the SEL framework by CASEL (2023) has been widely accepted and adopted in school-based SEL research (Wright & Richards, 2022), we believed that a deductive approach using the existing SEL framework and its competencies by CASEL could be useful to explore students’ perspectives in detail. However, after a pilot analysis using five FG interviews, the authors also found a considerable number of quotes, which did not fully fit into the CASEL’s five SEL competencies. The research team then engaged in a collaborative qualitative process of inductively and deductively analyzing the data (Patton, 2015; Richards & Hemphill, 2018). We read through the transcripts multiple times with highlighting quotes related to students’ understanding and experiences of SEL, which is often called winnowing data (Guest et al., 2012). All the highlighted quotes were then organized in a file and coded in three methods: descriptive, in vivo, and process (Saldaña, 2013). Descriptive codes were assigned to provide an inventory of students’ comments and stories. In vivo codes used the students’ own language in representing their voice. In process coding, gerunds were used to connote behaviors and attitudes, considering human action as strategic, routine, and thoughtful (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Coded data were constantly reviewed by the research team to establish a thematic structure of the data, commonly referred to as axial coding (Saldaña, 2013). Through axial coding, seven categories were developed based on the dimensions and properties of the coded data (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Finally, the research team identified four overarching themes through consistent discussions, exploring how the seven categories could be integrated or interconnected with each other.
Various strategies were used to establish trustworthiness. For credibility, the peer debriefing process involved discussion and challenging each other’s interpretations of the data. Initially, the first and second authors held weekly meetings over a 5-month period to engage in an appropriate qualitative research processes to represent accurate students’ voices. By questioning and challenging the research questions and rationales in peer debriefings, students’ perspectives were interpreted collectively and repetitively. Second, the preliminary findings of the data analysis were forwarded to the third and fourth authors for a re-examination of the data from different viewpoints. The dependability of the study was confirmed by conducting a code–recode strategy. After building an initial code book, researchers waited 2 weeks and then returned to the same data for recoding from a fresh standpoint. Regarding confirmability, researchers looked to share potential bias and put a conscious effort to compare findings by searching for literature and discussing with the experienced qualitative researcher. The main findings are presented thematically, followed by a discussion interpreting significance and meaning in relation to theory and literature.
Findings
The findings were framed around the perspectives of the 42 high school students. The following themes were generated from the data analysis to illustrate students’ understanding and experiences of SEL: Think about it more in depth, You can say how you feel, Care and support, and Different levels of buy-in.
“Think About It More in Depth”
I was the most self-aware because I was not in the moment, and I wasn’t with other people. My actions and thoughts were not affected by other people during the moment I’m alone in my room, on my computer, typing up a reflection based on what I felt during the activity. (Madelyn, Interview)
These reflective experiences helped students better understand their own emotions, thoughts, and values, and how they influence behavior across contexts while they were participating in the activities. This in turn motivated them to participate in learning tasks: “It made my day like to see everybody participate .... Everybody was excited. So, it really made me more motivated to continue in the sport ... it reminded me how much the sport meant to me” (Heidi, Interview). Additionally, consistently engaging in reflective activities throughout the semester, the students also became much more comfortable with critically looking back on how they behaved and interacted with others during the PE activities. This required them to recognize and understand the perspectives of, and to empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts: “I find myself insulting my opponents ... but in a playful way. And I just have to stop myself, you know, reiterate and tell myself to calm down. Encouraging my teammates instead of insulting them” (Ana, FG5); “Really important is the body language you put out. And what did you say? It was like more important the way they say it” (Peyton, FG1).
The students described that they were given consistent opportunities to think about their behaviors, thoughts, and feelings in the PE class. Especially, individual assignments which required their self-reflexivity were reported to help them explore who they are, how they feel, how they act, and what impacts their actions have on other people. The students illustrated that these experiences helped them to get more motivated for physical activity and positive social behaviors.
“You Can Say How You Feel”
Students commented that they could share their personal opinions and experiences openly with others, which helped them to understand themselves and other students in the class, promoting social awareness and relationship skills. In terms of sharing their emotions and thoughts with their peers and teachers, they described how they learned to feel compassion for others and better understand that each individual can feel and act differently from one another: “I really appreciated basically having somebody else in this class that understood my perspective on things” (Cam, Interview). Students found the overall class atmosphere to be respectful and inclusive, helping to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups: “I think this is a very open class. You can say how you feel .... I don’t know if people are actually judging, but talking to the teachers, I don’t feel judged” (Omari, FG12). Especially when they were asked to present their physical activity experiences, they described that: “[Be]cause it’s more about the social development and their Interactions. I asked them questions. Not just like [what happened], but also how they feel” (Ryder, FG7).
One thing that I noticed that we all had in common was that we all played this sport for a long time, but then we just stopped because it took a toll on our mental health, or we got tired of it. So, I think it was a good bonding experience. [Be]cause we all got to see each other’s like point of view of why they stopped playing this or why they did. (Avery, FG2)
Getting to know about the commonalities in physical activity and PE experiences allowed them to have trust toward their peers, provide leadership, and seek or offer help when needed: “I enjoy it just like the class in general. We talked at the same level. Like it really like opened my mind. If you have things in common, you can really trust the person to do things with” (Abigail, FG1).
The students indicated that their PE class provided opportunities where they could be more aware of themselves and other people by sharing their different experiences and perspectives regarding physical activity and PE class. The constant interactions with other people on the commonalities and differences helped them to emphasize and collaborate with others throughout the PE class.
Care and Support
Care from teachers was reported as one of the most important aspects of creating a supportive and open environment in the PE class. The intentional focus on relationship skills and responsible decision making meant students were able to feel that the teacher and peers cared about them: “I would say he likes to keep it friendly, but he would like us to care” (Cam, FG10). Further, along with having emotional support from the PE teacher, Cam also shared that they were encouraged to think about how to transfer their relationship and responsible decision-making skills beyond the PE class:
I like how Mr. Hallways made sure to include like an emotional appeal to everything where he’d be like, how is your social interaction or how did playing make you feel? Or how can you use like different skills in this, in life going forward? (Cam, FG10)
I feel like with this class, I mean, some people really did change because .... You [teacher and graduate assistants] did your best to encourage people, you inspired others to want to do the same. And that’s the main thing I really found about this class. (Stella, FG14)
Somebody helped me and then it helped me get better at the sport. So that could be like an example of like social and emotional learning. Because that person thought I was having a problem and they decided to take it upon themselves and helped me. (Ada, FG14)
At the end of my basketball practice, we come in a huddle. We asked each other like, how do y’all feel about practice today? What do you think we need to work on? Like, what do we need to help our teammates work on. I think group discussions are very beneficial because you can help somebody, and you can see what they are struggling with. (Sam, FG12)
The students described their experiences in PE class where they had care from their PE teachers and learned how to support other people while making responsible decisions. Transforming their competitiveness in activities into opportunities for equitable and inclusive learning to take place, the students observed gradual changes in the social and emotional development of their peers.
Different Levels of Buy-In
While the explicit focus on SEL competencies and skills was apparent from the student perspectives, different levels of buy-in toward SEL in the PE class were observed and shared by the students. First of all, there was one group of students who found SEL elements in their PE class practical and meaningful. Relating to conversational skills that she learned in the PE class, Julie commented: “Sometimes we were with teams that we weren’t used to. It helped me communicate with others. I learned how to start conversation. When most people in my group weren’t talking, I had to initiate the conversation” (FG15). Additionally, the students learned how to communicate with others and give feedback to others in a more positive and constructive way: “I can help kids build their confidence, make them believe that they can do it. So, I think just talking in a positive way, not letting them give up, not let them turn their back on something” (Asher, FG12). Along with this process, they recognized the importance of engaging diverse perspectives and making their work inclusive: “When you’re a team leader, you have to make sure everybody’s taken into account .... And ask, how did this make you feel? How did you work with others? How did you communicate with others?” (Stella, FG3).
Despite the students’ positive responses toward SEL, there also have been different levels of pushback from the group of students. Some students openly commented that they did not find the group processing fun or useful from time to time: “Well, sometimes I think it was a waste of time doing it [group processing] like every week .... That one got boring” (Abigail, FG1). Also, Regan observed different levels of participation in the group processing, which made her think it was at times a one-sided interaction driven by the students who usually talk more: “Some people just didn’t talk at all. So, it just really felt like one-sided especially like, I don’t like silence, especially when it’s, there’s not supposed to be any silence” (Ryder, FG10). Particularly, this type of pushback toward SEL emerged more evidently in the students who are highly invested in competitive elements of sports or physical activity: “We want a more competitive environment, and it was just like, everything felt so, so nice. And that’s just not what sports is to me.” (Alex, FG5).
This finding reveals that students’ buy-in for SEL implementation in the PE class was not the same. Even though there were students who found SEL practices useful and practical for their lives, there also existed the opposite voices that SEL was not interesting to them and that SEL was too much focused on gradual progress rather than immediate playing the game or accomplishments. Students’ experiences and perspectives of SEL was not so much a “transformation” but rather a gentle moving of the dial toward a more holistic student-centered learning experience.
Discussion
This study aimed to investigate students’ perspectives and experiences of SEL during a high school PE program. Four themes were generated for the findings: Think about it more in depth, You can say how you feel, Care and support, and Different levels of buy-in.
Grounded in social constructivism (Azzarito & Ennis, 2003; Pope, 2006; Schwandt, 2014), this study engaged high school students’ perspectives of SEL in their PE program. Since students at the high school level have rarely been asked their views or opinions about the pedagogical experiences in PE (Dyson, 2006; Howley et al., 2022), this study can provide useful and detailed accounts from the students’ perspectives. The students’ articulations of their experiences in this study indicated that what they learned and experienced about SEL was not only based on teachers’ pedagogical intentions but also well aligned with a contemporary conceptual SEL framework (CASEL, 2015; Dyson, 2006; Howley et al., 2022). From the students’ perspectives, this study suggests that the explicit yet deliberate focus on SEL led to a more holistic educational experience in PE beyond solely a more prioritized focus on physical activity and the psychomotor domain of learning (Lund & van der Mars, 2022). As discussed in the findings, the pedagogically purposeful emphasis on SEL was not something that the students had experienced previously in PE curricula up to that point. In this sense, we claim that the in-depth qualitative evidence in this study can help researchers and practitioners in the field to improve students’ social and emotional experiences in high school PE class by incorporating SEL elements into the current pedagogical practices (Dyson, 2014; Howley et al., 2022).
Additionally, there is a reality check for physical educators from high school students’ comments, given that the fourth theme Different levels of buy-in revealed that not every student has the same appreciation of SEL practices in secondary PE settings. Students’ interpretations of what SEL encompassed within PE and willingness to practice it while learning broader subject matter was not always guaranteed. Even though these students experienced consistent SEL implementation in their PE programs, how individual students interpreted their SEL experiences and enacted SEL in and outside of school were not uniform. In this regard, we believe that understanding diverse students’ perspectives about SEL can help to better address potential challenges and identify more relevant solutions for effective SEL implementation in high school PE programs. Unearthing and acknowledging these varied perspectives and experiences exist will allow PE teachers to implemented SEL in a more individualized and contextualized way, while developing the targeted SEL competencies and skills based on the existing framework.
The themes in this study appear to be similar to and overlapping with the CASEL’s (2015) SEL competences and skills. The first theme, Think about it more in depth demonstrates that students learned or experienced self-management, self-awareness, and social awareness in the program. You can say how you feel demonstrates how students exhibited and understood the need for social awareness and relationship skills. Learning that having a safe and open space where students did not feel judged helped students to share with other students and teachers who they really were, their interests, and how they felt about their relationships with, and experiences of PE and physical activity. Further, the third theme Care and support advocated relationship skills and responsible decision making, highlighting that they learned how to work with or engage other people with different physical activity backgrounds and motor skills.
These themes also infer that SEL experiences in PE can be used as an effective vehicle to promote equity and inclusion, where every student can feel valued and appreciated (Baek et al., 2024). The second and third themes can be tied closely with the first theme Think about it more in depth, given that during the data analysis process, the authors were critically reflexive to avoid taking a privilege and power position, which has been highlighted in justice-oriented pedagogical practices in this field (Landi et al., 2021). In line with observations and concerns raised about the lack of equity and inclusion within traditional curricula in Banville et al.’s (2023) study, students alluded to the necessity of having to utilize SEL in PE based on their experiences of decision making and reflection in the program. Students sought to establish a positive team environment where less skilled and noncompetitive students were not marginalized. At the same time, this environment also provided opportunities with more skilled and competitive students where they could help and support their other teammates with enhanced leadership and empathy. The emphasis on SEL as an integrated part of PE alongside the focus on traditional subject matter allowed for a more personalized and student-centered approach to learning to occur (Ressler & Wahl-Alexander, 2020).
However, it is important to recognize the limitations of this study. First of all, since this study was majorly focused on exploring high school students’ subjective perspectives of SEL in PE, this study did not provide explicit evidence about which aspects of the PE program contributed to the students’ perceived SEL experiences in specific. This limitation was also attributed to the fact that this study did not aim to develop an intervention to promote students’ SEL development and measure how students’ SEL competencies were changed after the intervention. The second limitation is that the findings in this study may not be fully generalized or applied into other education settings due to the unique school context where this study was conducted. Nevertheless, the limitations of this study refer that more school-based research should be conducted on SEL implementation in various school contexts with a systematically developed program to fully legitimatize the findings. Adding on to this, we claim that more empirical evidence is needed on how the existing pedagogical theories and models, such as cooperative learning, democratic, and reflective pedagogies (Howley et al., 2022), can be incorporated into school-based SEL programs as a student-centered approach (Dyson & Baek, 2023).
Conclusions
The findings in this study are overall aligned with the contemporary literature and current popular SEL competencies largely supported by quantitative research (CASEL, 2015). We conclude that our findings are similar to the CASEL’s SEL competencies, but there are nuanced differences that further research should investigate. To our understanding, this evidence from the student perspectives can provide a unique school-based and contextually relevant contribution to designing and implementing SEL programs in PE contexts. In summary, students’ experiences and perspectives of SEL in this study were more about gradual progress with consistent endeavors for holistic learning experience in PE, rather than a sudden shift toward SEL skills. However, we acknowledge that further inquiry into the transformative nature of high-quality SEL programs is extremely important for our students’ mental health and well-being.
This inquiry grounded in a school-based learning environment foregrounds the role of the student as being crucial in the SEL teaching and learning process. The fourth theme (Different levels of buy-in) provides the caveat that if we as educators don’t have a good understanding of student’s own experiences and perspectives before we begin the challenge of teaching SEL in a classroom, then we as teachers and scholars will be missing a big piece of the jigsaw puzzle. We need to help ourselves and our students understand more about who they are and how they can change in order to provide them with the opportunity to move toward a more holistic education that integrates SEL into their lives. We highlight that students are the agents of their own learning—demonstrating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes found in a more holistic definition of SEL.
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