Abstract
Despite overwhelming research supporting the need for social, emotional, and cultural integration and with the adoption of social emotional learning state standards, too few schools implement social emotional learning (SEL) or culturally responsive teaching (CRT) practices, which is detrimental to our most underserved students. This study utilized a mixed-methods sequential explanatory research design to evaluate the perceptions and practices of SEL and CRT practices among teachers and school administrators at an independent study school in Northern California. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to evaluate how the perceptions and practices among teachers and school administrators inform the implementation of a holistic social, emotional, and cultural (SEC) teaching framework, and (b) to better understand how these factors inform organizational readiness. The findings from this study suggest that structural and psychological factors play a large role in determining an organization’s readiness to implement an SEC framework. Recommendations for educational institutions, leadership practice, and policy include 1) utilizing survey instruments to measure the change readiness of an organization, 2) ensuring vertical alignment of SEC practices at all levels of educational institutions, and 3) embedding SEC practices into state standards.