What kind of affective citizen? An analysis of state social emotional learning standards

Emotion plays an important role in how young people acquire the skills, knowledge, and dispositions of engaged citizenship, including being able to empathize, listen to multiple perspectives, and build relationships of solidarity with others. This study investigated how social emotional learning (SEL) standards in 17 U.S. states guided the preparation of youth for affective citizenship. The concept of affective citizenship was used to analyze how SEL standards encourage youth to feel about their fellow citizens, how public behaviors or attitudes are managed, and how emotions can fuel civic engagement to address problems of social injustice. Findings indicated that SEL standards conceptualize emotions as individualized experience, teach students to resolve conflicts through civility and cooperation, and favor individual responses to injustice. Implications are discussed for how to leverage SEL standards alongside social studies content standards to promote justice-oriented affective citizenship in the current socio-political climate.