Episode 2 -Supporting Social, Emotional, and Academic Well-being and Thriving in Challenging Times and Contexts

Description

This episode is in three parts that explore how to support social, emotional, and academic well-being and learning in connected ways. Listeners will learn and be able to think about practices that integrate SEL and academics, understand why whole-person approaches deepen engagement and achievement, and explore principles of application across classrooms and community settings. Organizations, tools, materials, and research will be identified that can support implementation and adaptation.

Panelists

Sarah Woulfin, and Robert Jagers (Part 1 - From Recovery to Coherence: Implementation, Relationships, and the Conditions for Learning), Sophia Rodriguez (Part 2 - From Engagement to Partnership: Sharing Power in Learning Ecosystems), 

Commentators

Joe Bishop and Karen Pittman (Part 3 Sections A & B)

Bios

Sophia Rodriguez is

an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Sociology of Education at New York University. Her research centers racial equity, urban education, leadership, and policy, with a particular focus on elevating the voices and experiences of immigrant and other minoritized youth. Supported by funding from the Spencer Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, and the Foundation for Child Development, her longitudinal, mixed-methods, and ethnographic projects examine how community–school partnerships, educators, and school-based personnel advanceequity and belonging for immigrant youth. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals, including Educational Researcher, Educational Policy, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, and Sociology of Race & Ethnicity, as well as public outlets such as The Washington Post and Chalkbeat. She is the founder and director of the ImmigrantEdNext Research Lab, a public-facing hub dedicated to research and doctoral mentoring. Rodriguez earned her PhD in Educational Policy Studies and Sociology of Education from Loyola University Chicago.

Sarah Woulfin is

professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy who studies the relationship between education policy and equitable instruction. Much of her work draws on the research-practice partnership approach to formulate relevant questions, engage practitioners substantively, and transform practice. Using lenses of organizational sociology and qualitative methods, Dr. Woulfin investigates pressing issues of district and school improvement, including how to strengthen professional learning opportunities and instruction. While analyzing the institutional structures and organizational conditions of districts and schools, she focuses on how leaders and teachers implement policy. Her research illuminates how infrastructure and leadership influence educational change. Dr. Woulfin's work has been published in outlets such as American Journal of Education, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Teaching and Teacher Education. She co-authored Making Coaching Matter and served as co-editor of Educational Researcher. As a former urban public-school teacher and reading coach, Dr. Woulfin was dedicated to strengthening students' literacy skills to promote equitable outcomes.

Robert J. Jagers, Ph.D., is

an independent senior researcher focused on capacity building of local stakeholders to improve learning experiences and outcomes of young people in underserved school communities. Dr. Jagers previously served as Vice President of Research at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Prior to joining CASEL, he was a faculty member in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan, a Co-PI of the Center for the Study of Black Youth in Context (CSBYC), and the founding director of Wolverine Pathways, a university-sponsored diversity pipeline program for qualified secondary school students. 

Joe Bishop, Ph.D., is

the Executive Director and co-founder of the Center for the Transformation of Schools (CTS) in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA. CTS conducts research that supports school systems and policymakers in their efforts to organize schools around the needs, interests, and talents of young people in several areas including school discipline and school climate, juvenile justice reform, student homelessness, students in the foster care system, school finance, and ensuring practices and policies take into account the needs of students of color inside and outside of school settings. Dr. Bishop has held several state and national educational leadership positions with the Learning Policy Institute, the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign with the Schott Foundation for Public Education, Opportunity Action, the Coalition for Teaching Quality, the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund.

Karen Pittman, Ph.D., 

played a key role in conceptualizing and promoting positive youth development. She spent six years at the Children's Defense Fund promoting an adolescent policy agenda. She was the founder and Director of the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research until 1995, when she accepted a position with the Clinton Administration as director of the President's Crime Prevention Council. She helped start the Forum for Youth Investment, which she led for many years, and is now a partner at Knowledge to Power Catalysts, LLC, which has successfully overseen the transfer of Youth Today, the on-line publication for the allied youth fields, and the start-up of the Alliance for Youth Thriving, championing investments in ecosystem stewards to cultivate year-round, community-wide learning pathways for youth and young adults.

Podcasts

Part 1 - Sarah Woulfin, and Robert Jagers (Part 1 - From Recovery to Coherence: Implementation, Relationships, and the Conditions for Learning)

Part 2 - From Engagement to Partnership: Sharing Power in Learning Ecosystems

Part 3 – A Part 3 – B Commentators Joe Bishop and Karen Pittman

Transcripts

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 – A

Part 3 – B

Spanish Transcripts

Parte 1

Parte 2

Parte 3 – A

Parte 3 – B

References

Notes – In Part 3 a reference is made to Mezzo - In a systems-theory framework, mezzo-level practice focuses on medium-sized social systems, such as classrooms, grade-level teams, schools, after-school programs, and community organizations that support learning. At this level, educators and practitioners pay attention to the patterns of interaction, norms, and relationships within these groups—for example, how teachers collaborate on behavior supports, how a school partners with families, or how a youth program coordinates with a local school. Mezzo systems connect individual learners (micro level) to larger policies and contexts (macro level), and change efforts at this level often involve strengthening collaboration, communication, and shared decision-making across these interconnected learning settings.[study]​

Also, in Part 3 – a reference is made to The Professional Soldier. By Morris Janowitz.(Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press. 1960. Pp. xiv, 464. $6.75.). 

The three papers commissioned by the National Academy of Education may be found at:

https://naeducation.org/addressing-educational-inequities-in-the-wake-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-commissioned-paper-series/