Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Degree Name

Teaching and Learning

Department or School/College

Phyllis J. Washington College of Education

Committee Chair

Jingjing Sun

Commitee Members

Anisa Goforth, Morgen Alwell, Kate Brayko, Allison Wilson

Keywords

cultural humility, SEL skills, social-emotional learning, teacher wellbeing, teaching efficacy

Abstract

Learning in P-12 classrooms is filled with joy and social-emotional challenges. As a result, teachers are on the front line of addressing students’ social-emotional needs in the classrooms. Less is known, however, about how teachers integrate social-emotional learning (SEL) into teaching academic subjects and daily classroom activities to support their students. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, this study explored factors influencing teachers’ integration of SEL in their classrooms and their experiences in facilitating students’ SEL skills. 102 teachers in Montana participated in the initial quantitative phase of the study by completing surveys that examined whether and how teacher factors such as teacher wellbeing, teaching efficacy, and cultural humility influenced the frequency of SEL integration in classrooms. Among these teachers, 8 further participated in the qualitative phase of the study through transcendental phenomenology to share their experiences in facilitating students’ social-emotional skills. The quantitative findings through regression analyses showed that teacher wellbeing was a predictor of teachers’ SEL integration; however, when considering teaching efficacy and cultural humility as potential mediators, the effect of teacher wellbeing was no longer significant, revealing that both teaching efficacy and cultural humility were the underlying factors influencing teachers’ SEL integration. Further, years of teaching predicted teaching efficacy. The qualitative findings through thematic analysis showed that teaching-efficacy, cultural humility, and teacher-student as well as collegial relationships were three important factors to support the integration of SEL. Qualitative themes further revealed that teachers integrated SEL by aligning lesson and classroom management strategies with their SEL goals. Findings from the study add evidence to the importance of teacher wellbeing, efficacy, and humility for successful SEL integration in classrooms. They also provide practical implications on how school administrators can help teachers cultivate their wellbeing to enhance their teaching efficacy and humility, which ultimately supports teachers to integrate SEL more seamlessly into classrooms to facilitate students’ joyful learning.

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