Essay on Empowering Educators and Learners: Bridging the Gap Through ESLE

Introduction

The promise that education will bring social, economic, and political development in the party that acquires it is only accurate when the means through which the education and training are delivered. It is therefore essential that the stakeholders in the education sector use the proposed emotional and social learning tools as a lever to help the educators and learners to bridge the gap brought about by the cultural differences that may exist, especially between the student and the education system being proposed (Katz, 2018). Given that learning is social and emotional, the educators must recognize that learning is made possible through interactions between the instructor and the student and that the barriers to the effectiveness of this reality are social, political, and racial for all children going through the education system.

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Social-emotional learning is an education system that acknowledges addresses and heals the learners from the adverse effects of the racism and oppression that they face on account of their races, either directly or indirectly. The system also focuses on the cultural history of the children involved, taking note of the effects that the race of the children may have on their attitudes and perspectives in and outside the classroom environment (Allen, 2018). This way, children from different cultural and racial backgrounds are not treated as one autonomous group, but rather as individuals who have different characteristics and dangers that they may face in and out of school.

The system also seeks to create room for inclusivity, liberal learning environments, which will enable children of color to experience a sense of belonging, hence motivating them to work towards overturning the barriers to success and academic excellence that they face and ensuring that they are on level ground in terms of the possibility of accessing the resources available in the school context (Barnes, 2019).

However, the chance of achieving educational equity is dependent on the ability of the stakeholders in the education sector to prioritize equity in education and creating a sense of belonging as a way of administering social-emotional learning (Barnes &McCallops, 2019). Strategic application of the research of the idea of race and practice of racism is key in establishing a relationship between culture and education, as well as the development of healthy perspectives and attitudes in the learners so that they do not continue the racist ideologies when they grow, therefore phasing out the practice and effects of racism.

For the social-emotional learning to be active, the educators need training on how they can deliver the proposed ideas in a timely, effective and non-offensive ways that will ensure that the learners get to enjoy holistic learning which provides a level ground for their development and growth academically and socially (Blad, 2017). Therefore, through training, educators can identify the role of their cultures and races in shaping their journey in life to getting to who they are today.

When the educators' self-awareness is increased, they can improve their efforts towards creating an environment of equality and equity in school to ensure that marginalized learners are offered means through which they can overcome the challenges they face to achieve social and academic excellence. Secondly, educators need training on how to roll out the process since they need to improve their knowledge on the history, development, and the effects of races and racism, and find ways in which they can bridge the gap between those who are oppressed and put in a disadvantaged situation on account of their races and the opportunities that education offers them (Bodkin-Andrews, 2013).

The educators also need the training to ensure that the education they offer to the child is relevant to their cases. Therefore they should be trained on how to deconstruct the current system and modify it so that the children being taught can feel included and accepted by the education system in place. Despite deconstructing the system of education, the educators should ensure that despite the modifications that they contain, the system should still recognize the role that education needs to play in a child's education and therefore have the fundamental values of the culture in their pillars (Desai et al., 2014).

While educators have only been taught on the knowledge to impart on the learners as well as how to deliver the knowledge, there is a need for them to also learn about the neuroscience of education. This means that the educators need to learn how a threat, either perceived or real, will mentally affect a child, thus affecting their academic performance. This being so, the educators need to be trained on how to build trust and reassurance, especially when they are of a different race, cultural background, and social class from the students that they instruct.

Despite the proposals offered by the stakeholders in the education sector, the effects will be insignificant if the proposed policies and classroom practices do not include the idea for the inclusion of the cultures of the children involved (Hoffman, 2009). Given that the social-emotional learning model is a proposal to help the students from marginalized societies to overcome the barriers that deter them from achieving social and academic excellence, the educators in the learning institutions are considered as the first respondents to the issues that the learners face.

Therefore, the educators play roles similar to those performed by counselors, social workers, and psychologists, since they help to bring reassurance, feeling of security and reassurance (McCallops et al. 2019). However, their duties will be ineffective if they are not equipped to accommodate the reality that children, even those from the same races, have different cultural requirements, that if not addressed, accepted and given room to thrive, will prove to be a barrier between the proposed ideas and the goals to be achieved. When people feel that their culture is disrespected or not recognized, they shut themselves out of the educators. Therefore the attempts to provide social and emotional learning will be the students who are supposed to benefit from them.

Racial trauma is among the other areas that educators need to put into consideration when dealing with their students. It is a sad reality that racism has found its way into the school systems, with students also being perpetrators of racist incidents.

This leads to an increase in the insecurity that the students who are victims of racial profiling and abuse becoming racially traumatized, whereby they feel that their races are the reason for the maltreatment that they receive (REL, n.d). Some of the practices within the education system that have escalated the situation include incidences of hate crimes and bullying with race as the motivating factor.

These school policies have resulted in more suspensions and expulsion of black students due to the system's inability to take into account the cultural factors that may make the students behave in a certain way (Simmons, 2017). For example, they may be aggressive because of the environments in which they have grown, yet they will be judged on the same scale as the children who come from secure neighborhoods with no incidences of crime.

Racial trauma is also evident when it is over-referred and misidentification for special education for students with learning disabilities, developmental delay, or other related emotional and behavioral disadvantages. At the same time, children from different races enjoy specialized attention and education when there is an incidence of the same conditions (Yates & Allatar, 2017).

The preferential treatment means that intellectually challenged children will suffer from the lack of support that they require to overcome the hurdles they face in their quest to get an education. While they are over referred for special education, black children are under referred for gifted education programs, advanced placement, or any other programs offered to the other advanced learners.

This means that while they may be qualified, the black children are not provided the same advantages that their counterparts receive, leading to racial trauma in the children involved. They feel inadequate, unappreciated, and rejected, making the dropouts rates from the black children to continue rising steadily, and for those who persist in the school system to revert to delinquent acts to get the school systems' attention of America do not give them.

Theories that could help in Reducing White Supremacy in Schools and Increase the Effectiveness of the Social-Emotional Learning System

The Critical Race Theory

This theory emerges from the need for problematization and theorization of the existence and effects of racism in the activities of the society, with a specific interest in the impact in the educational system in this context. Critical race theory has six essential tenets, and when addressed, they will help in fighting racist tendencies in schools.

First, the theory accepts that racism is almost intertwined with the American culture and society and that there is a need for the elimination of such ideas and practices. Secondly, the theory suggests the rejection of ideologies and narratives of the superiority of the white race, since it is these ideas that are used in racially profiling the black children and denying them the opportunities that they need to be able to get better education opportunities, as well as better chances of making it in life (Haynes, 2017).

Additionally, the theory suggests for the roots of racism to be recognized and that the roots should be severed to ensure that while we cannot change history, we get to improve the present and provide future generations with the opportunity to achieve academic excellence that will help them in overcoming the challenges that they face due to their races.

The theory also proposes for the people who have been racially profiled to be used as resource people who will help in providing the necessary insights on the issues related to reducing racist incidences in the school setting. There should also be a clearly defined structure through which the system which seems to focus on white supremacy can be turned into one that is all-inclusive (Madda, 2019). Furthermore, for racism to end, all forms of mistreatment should be brought to an immediate end, thus ensuring that people in the society are treated equally and judged based on their merits, not their skin color.

Constructivist Grounded Theory

This theory has been widely sought and applied to the qualitative research of critical issues in society. There are two paradigms, in theory, that is, the constructionist and objectivist paradigms. The objectivist model assumes that research processes provide an impartial observer with a single reality that is achieved through value-free reality (Haynes, 2017).

On the other hand, constructivist paradigms are based on the assumption that the data collected and the analysis made are social constructions that are an illustration of the researchers' and the subjects' experience in the process of research and the phenomenon under study, in this case, white supremacy and racist tendencies.

Through this theory, it is possible to expose the restrictive and expansive views and beliefs that limit equality and present the hierarchies created when one dies not to address the white supremacist beliefs and structures. Additionally, the theory helps in the process of data collection and analysis of the prevalence of racist practices and the support of white sup...