Chinese Facilitators’ Transformative Learning in a Community-Based SEL Study

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on three female facilitators and their narratives of participating in a community-based social and emotional learning (SEL) study in China. A combination of communities of practice and critical feminist pedagogy is used as theoretical framework. Narrative inquiry is applied to portray and make sense of each facilitator’s transformative learning experience. The dialogical space that is created by the study allows them to bring in their personal experiences and assists them in critically examining voice and silence in the current trend of SEL in China. The narratives provide a critical lens to re-examine the localization of Eurocentric SEL frameworks in the Chinese context as well as empower individual educators to become agents of change for social transformation. This study suggests an alternative framework based on interpreting social and emotional meanings in the local context to offer insights and critiques to the SEL global movement.