Social and emotional learning for early childhood teachers teaching online

Teaching is one of the most stressful professions. When teachers are stressed, it affects their well-being, job satisfaction and performance, as well as the behaviours and work of the children under their care. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) aims to improve wellbeing of self and others through understanding and enhancing how individuals socially and emotionally interact. When implementing SEL into educational settings, the primary focus has been directed towards students. However, when adults do not pay attention to their own social emotional health, they are not able to attend to the emotional well-being of their students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how early childhood educators took care of their own social and emotional needs while teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicated that despite challenges, the teachers met some of their social and emotional needs in terms of belonging, mastery, interdependence and generosity.