Abstract
Recently, more schools have been turning to social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula to develop social and emotional skills and reduce conflict among students. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of social-emotional learning and classroom conflict. Perceptions of social-emotional learning were broken down into three aspects: comfort; commitment; and culture. Conflict was broken down into verbal conflict, physical conflict, conflict requiring teacher intervention, and conflict requiring office intervention. 157 teachers from the Sacramento region participated in this cross-sectional, quantitative design study. The study found teachers who reported higher rates of verbal conflict or higher rates of conflict requiring teacher intervention reported being more committed to SEL. This study also found that the more conflict requiring administrative intervention a teacher reported, the lower their perception of the school culture. This study has important implications and may indicate that SEL does not reduce conflict but only helps the teacher identify conflict.