This paper reports an investigation into social emotional learning (SEL) in children with special education needs in mainstream and special schools in Bengaluru, India. The objectives of the research were to investigate and explore the teaching strategies used to teach SEL to children with special educational needs (hereinafter referred to as CwSEN), how these strategies were deployed to promote social and emotional development and the challenges teachers faced while teaching SEL. The research questions were:

1. What are the methods teachers adopt to teach SEL?
2. What are the challenges that teachers face while teaching SEL to children?
3. Does SEL benefit children with special educational needs? If so, how?

Social and Emotional Learning is the way by which both children and adults understand and manage emotions, build and maintain relationships and take responsible decisions (O’Conner et. al.,2017). Blyth et. al., (2017) state the importance of creating an environment and of planning experiences in such a way that SEL is both “taught and caught” – “taught” by those teaching SEL and “caught” by the children to whom SEL is taught. In my experience and observation, CwSEN often experience difficulties understanding and managing their emotions, building and maintaining relationships and taking decisions. Butzer et. al., (2016) argue that while there are attempts to initiate interventions for the emotional well-being of children in urban areas, there is a dearth of systematic surveys and about organizations with whom a partnership could be made to organize SEL programs. This research here reported, attempts to fill this gap and add to the body of literature from India, specifically with respect to Circle Time, the approach considered in this paper.

40 of the 118 teachers and special educators who participated in the study adopt Circle Time as a method to teach SEL to CwSEN. Lown (2011) notes that Circle time is a class activity in which students and the teacher sit in a circle to discuss thoughts, ideas and emotions, engage in role-play or other activities and discuss situations that are social / emotional in nature. Canney and Byrne (2006) argue that explicit teaching of social skills is rare, suggesting that schools need to pay more attention to explicit teaching of these skills and one of the interventions to teach SEL is Circle Time.

The theoretical framework for this research study is Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Bandura’s theory considers how individuals function cognitively in their experiences in the social environment and how these experiences then influence their behaviour and development. These experiences include an individual’s response to a situation, expectations of the outcome and their perceptions of their beliefs in their own abilities (self-efficacy). Since Bandura stresses the importance of cognition in the realm of integration of the individual and his / her social experiences, it came to be renamed as Social Cognitive Theory (Grusec, 1996). Social Cognitive Theory establishes the triadic factors of how an individual’s cognition and feelings, their behaviour and the environmental events work mutually to influence one another. The cognition, feelings and emotions of an individual will affect the environment and activities that they choose to be in and this in turn affects their further cognition, feelings and emotions, thus making it a constant process of working (Eun, 2019). Circle Time as a method to teach SEL to CwSEN aligns to this theoretical framework, wherein it is an experiential activity which involves engaging with other peers in discussions; thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are expressed verbally and mutually influence one another. 

A mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches, was adopted for this study. This approach enabled me to triangulate the data gathered. The process of corroborating evidence gathered from different individuals utilizing different types of instruments used, ensured both multi-methods and multi-respondent triangulation. This approach lends accuracy and credibility to the study and ensures trustworthiness (Creswell, 2015). The research deployed a purposive sample. As the research focuses on investigating SEL to CwSEN between the ages of 10 and 15 years, the sample population selected comprised teachers and special educators who taught children in these ages in mainstream and special schools. Ten schools participated in this study of which four were mainstream schools and six were special schools. These schools were chosen on two criteria – proximity to the place of my living and presence of a student population of CwSEN with three identified special educational needs – Specific Learning Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. While Specific Learning Disability may not be considered as a disability in Europe, in India its identification and assessment is recognised as a disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD Act; Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2018). The RPWD Act defines Specific Learning Disability as ‘Specific learning disabilities means a heterogeneous group of conditions wherein there is a deficit in processing language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself as a difficulty to comprehend, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations and includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, and developmental aphasia.’ (Thomas et. al., 2021). As I was working with children with these three identified needs, this enabled me to further understand the SEL needs of the sample children and on dissemination of knowledge gained through this research. Based on the number of teachers and special educators who taught the children in the ten schools, 101 teachers and special educators were administered the questionnaire. 17 teachers and special educators who carried out roles such as principal / counselor / coordinator were only interviewed. Instruments that were used to gather data were self-completed questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and observation schedule. The observation schedule was utilized in two schools to investigate teaching SEL to CwSEN. Since there was no circle time conducted during my observation in these schools, I draw data on circle time from data gathered in the questionnaires and interviews.

Data analysis for the research study is in progress. One of the themes that has emerged is that Circle Time – as a method is commonly adopted by teachers and special educators to teach social emotional learning. This paper will primarily report with reference to research question 1, which is to investigate the method of Circle Time adopted by teachers to teach SEL. In my research, in two of the schools which were a part of the sample, Circle Time was a proactive, scheduled activity. Participants from these schools worked according to a curriculum that has details of the topic to be taken up every month and lessons that are planned accordingly. In eight of the schools, Circle Time was used either daily or as and when situations deemed appropriate arose. Participants said, ‘we have something called circle time every week. Every week the class teacher spends time with the entire class. Maybe we do an activity, we just try and get them to share what they're going through and what they are feeling and not judging them, we're not going to say that is right this is right. It is just a space for them to express what they want and a participant’ and ‘So this is a group of 13 to 14 year old’s, where SEL happens with a lot of focus. We started at a level where we gave them synonyms for each emotion, we had to teach them things like joy, an equivalent word. So that’s a class where we really worked on SEL as a theme and every month we had an emotion’. Circle time as a method to teach and reinforce SEL helps children be aware of their emotions, express themselves and help children to socialize amongst their peers.

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