[article in Lithuanian; only abstract and key words in English]
While schools still lack balance between subject knowledge and social and emotional education (hereinafter – SEE), and despite that the focus is put more on academic achievement, SEE has recently been attracting more attention. Although the teachers are given a hard challenge – to successfully develop pupils’ social and emotional competencies – SEE is, nevertheless, still a relatively new and unexplored phenomenon in Lithuania. Thus, there is a lack of studies and scientific analyses that are needed to reveal the role of the teacher, which is required in order to successfully implement the social and emotional development concept of an educational institution.
The goal of this article is to reveal the teachers’ attitudes and opportunities and empirically discover their experiences within the context of social and emotional education. The article is based on humanistic psychology provisions. The methods used were theoretical (an analysis of literature) and empirical (a qualitative study that applied a structured interview method, and the data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis).
This article analyzes the theoretical aspects of social-emotional education and emotional intelligence. It reveals the role of SEE and the role of the teacher in developing social and emotional education. The results of qualitative research are presented in this article, which reveals the attitude of teachers both working with SEE programs and those who are not. Their possibilities and their readiness to work with social and emotional education are revealed. The results of the empirical study reveal the potential difficulties of implementing SEU and present the received suggestions of what could help in improving the implementation of SEE.
The empirical study found that both types of employees, related and unrelated to SEE, warmly welcome the new amendment of the Ministry of Education Act, stating that it is an opportunity to improve, learn and acquire knowledge in the workplace. Members from both informant groups stressed that the educators who seek to successfully educate children with SEE principles must have certain social and emotional competencies and must be able to become role models for the children themselves. The informants identified the teachers’ intrinsic motivations and significant changes in desire, as well as a wish to constantly update their knowledge and improve their skills in the field of SEE, as some of the possible factors that determine the success of working with SEE.