Sociopolitics of Health & Education

This newer work direction focuses on how the values, attitudes, and behaviors regarding political and social issues shape education practice and policy. Ultimately, we aim to understand the effect of such factors on student outcomes. Sociopolitical topics of interest include viewpoint diversity, social justice, civics education, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and antiracism. While much of this focus is on school-aged youth, we also focus on education beyond the secondary level, including undergraduate education and medical school training.

Adverse effects of social and emotional learning (SEL)
Recently, concerns and claims about SEL being harmful to students have been raised. Some argue that SEL takes approaches that are detrimental to students' mental health. Others argue that SEL, without integrated social justice approaches, is harmful to Black students. This study examines these claims by using meta-analytic data to understand the extent of SEL's adverse effects on mental health outcomes. Additionally, we explore how such effects vary by implementation characteristics, racial and socioeconomic composition, and other study characteristics. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Christina Cipriano and uses data from our previously published meta-analysis.

Related Op-Eds

• Strambler (2024). Is Social and Emotional Learning “Bad Therapy”?Education Next.
• Strambler (2023). The Intellectually Honest Case for Social and Emotional Learning. Discourse.