The Role of Leadership in Social-Emotional Learning Implementation: Principal and Counselor Practices to Support Social-Emotional Learning

• Main Author: McGarrigle, Donna M.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Boston College 2018
• Subjects: counselor; distributed leadership; principal; SEL
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:107977

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho === This case study of a public school district in the Northeast United States explores the leadership practices of elementary and middle school counseling staff and principals in supporting SEL, using a distributed leadership framework (Spillane, 2006). Data sources included 24 interviews with administrators, guidance counselors and social workers and document review. Findings indicate counseling staff support students and staff in a variety of ways through both formal and informal leadership practices. Principals support SEL by establishing SEL programs or strategies to match the needs of their student population. Two different models were found for how guidance counselor and social worker responsibilities are structured. The most common model, in six of the nine schools, is a tiered model where guidance counselors work with the majority of students on academic support/monitoring and delivering SEL lessons. Social workers focus on smaller numbers of students with more intensive needs. The second but less common model, in three of the nine schools, does not differentiate the roles of social workers and guidance counselors and instead assigns responsibilities by grade level. Concerns with this second model were raised by some administrators and several counselors. The quality of peer and administrator relationships was reported to be supportive and collaborative in the schools with differentiated roles. In the non-differentiated schools, it varied, and was related to shifting staff, a misunderstanding of the role differences, and challenges in developing collaborative relationships. Recommendations include assessing support structures to ensure the model adequately supports the SEL needs of the school. === Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. === Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. === Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.