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JULIA MAHFOUZ

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, DENVER

RESEARCH POWER HOUR

APRIL 29, 2022

The Prosocial School Leader for Healthy, Caring, and Welcoming Schools

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Teacher, Dept. Head

Educational Consultant

Principal

[K-12]

Community engagement

Researcher

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics in Educational Settings for Equity and Social Justice

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Impact on Students

Improved students’ education & school achievement

Positive school climate

Positive health practices & engaged citizenship

Growing demand for SEL in schools

Growing requirements for schools to integrate SEL into curriculum, procedures, and practices

Increased requirement that teachers receive training in SEL to support the social and emotional competence of students

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CURRENT SITUATION

  • 884 K-12 principals (98%) believe that SEL skills are teachable, and that promoting SEL will benefit all types of students by promoting equity and reducing educational disparities, but they need guidance for SEL implementation
  • Results of a 2017 Gallup Poll also indicate that principals believe they lack the training and confidence
  • Little is known about the degree to which state-level school leader certification and evaluation requirements include SEL-related knowledge or skills.
  • DePaoli et al., 2017; Dusenbury et al., 2020; Gallup, 2017 ; Yoder et al., 2020 ;Atwell & Bridgeland, 2019; Mahoney et al., 2020; OECD, 2020; Schonert-Reichl, 2019)

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What exactly is a Prosocial School Leader?

What Can we do to attend to the field of educational leadership?

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PROSOCIAL SCHOOL LEADER LAB

Vision

Create evidence-based adult learning

Address the needs by offering SEL courses, certification, and professional development on adult SEL

Conduct research on adult SEL

Study the effectiveness of the programs offered and the implementation process in the practical world with school educators.

Create an intellectual space

Build partnerships within Colorado communities and engage in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations.

Offer graduate student opportunities

Provide funding for students interested in this field of study.

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Policies & Standards

 

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

Preparation Programs

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Policies & Standards

Professional Development, Preparation Programs, & Interventions

 

Preparation Programs

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

 

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Policies & Standards

 

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

 

Preparation Programs

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

Professional Development

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Interventions

​

Implementation Science  

 

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CARE PROGRAM

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SOUL OF LEADERSHIP PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • Mindfulness: increases on four of the subscales: non-reactive, nonjudgmental, describing, and observing
  • Burnout: The change in the scales is statistically significant. The emotional exhaustion scale decreased by a magnitude of around 10% which is statistically significant. Depersonalization decreased as well meaning that principals felt more connected. Participants also reported after participating in the SoL program an increase in the subscale of personal accomplishment.
  • Psychological Capital: Three of the subscales (hope, optimism, and efficacy) had statistically significant improvements between the pre and post-test. The largest changes occurred on the psychological capital inventory with hope and efficacy both having an increase of around 10%.

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Policies & Standards

 

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

Preparation Programs

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Social Justice  

Professional Development, Preparation Programs, & Interventions

 

Preparation Programs

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

 

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

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Policies & Standards

 

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PRINCIPAL STATE STANDARDS

  • Only 18 states mention learning context and teachers’ SEL and wellbeing, and only 30 states mention students’ SEL

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  • Overall, 39 states mention all five dimensions of the school leaders’ SECs domain in principal certification and evaluation standards

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  • Only 5 states address SEL implementation and only 14 states include the need to support schoolwide coordination of SEL in certification and evaluation standards.

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Policies & Standards

 

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

Preparation Programs

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

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Social, Emotional, & Cultural Dynamics

in Educational Settings

Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Pedagogies

Policies & Standards

 

Professional Development, Preparation Programs, & Interventions

 

Preparation Program

Policies

School Improvement

Various contexts: rural, urban, national, international, school and university settings

Methodologies: qualitative, mixed methods

Prosocial Leader Lab

Professional Development

Interventions

Implementation Science 

 

Preparation Programs

​

School Improvement

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PROSOCIAL SCHOOL LEADER PREPARATION PROGRAM CERTIFICATE

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As one of my participants said, “My preparation program provided me with all the knowledge base, the PA policies, how to supervise teachers, how to do teacher observations, and even how to develop district-wide strategic plans, and I came to this just knowing it is going to be stressful—but no one, I mean no one, told me how to deal with a difficult parent, what to say to a teacher who doesn’t comply, how to go about these day to day never ending problems!”

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SEL for Prosocial School Leaders Certificate:

1. Overview of SEL, SEL frameworks, SEL programs

2. Cultivating personal SEL

3. Implementing, evaluating and sustaining SEL in schools

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Julia Mahfouz

Julia.Mahfouz@ucdenver.edu

(814) 441-6656