Welcome to the first course of our MOOC titled, The Teacher and Social and

Emotional Learning from the University of Colorado at Boulder. This first module
was titled, The Teacher's Social and Emotional Learning. I'm Dan Liston and with my
colleague Randy Testa. We'll provide an overview of module one's themes, readings
and learning activity, by posing this central question: why focus on the teacher's
social and emotional learning? We're going to examine the rationale for the
following claim which comes from the writing of Arthur Jersild. "To facilitate
students' social and emotional learning, a teacher must know the pupil as a person.
This means that the teacher must strive to know him or herself." Today, we're going
to elaborate on the importance of the teacher's understanding of self; especially
one's on social and emotional terrain. Our guiding premise here is that deeper
teacher self-understanding facilitates deeper student relations, and greater
chances for the transformative possibilities for teachers and students. Randy has a
mini-presentation to tease out the origins of these premises. It concerns Sigmund
Freud's daughter, Anna, and her work with little children. Take it away Randy. Anna
Freud was the youngest child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. As a young adult in 1918,
she entered analysis with her father. And by 1922, she had become a full fledged
member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Anna Freud made her father's
profession her own and child analysis her specialty. Anna Freud wrote a very
important book titled, Psycho-Analysis for Teachers and Parents, first published in
1935. In it, Miss Freud took her father's central analytic premises and apply them
to teaching. She attempted to explain to educators how and why psychoanalysis could
help teachers better their work with children. In particular, it was the idea of
transference, that is, the unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to
another. In the case of psychotherapy, from patient to therapist, and in the
classroom, from children to their teachers; which when applied to education was of
such importance. The corollary to transference, countertransference, refers to the
unconscious transference of feelings from the therapist to patient and in schools,
from teacher to student. In Psycho-Analysis for Teachers and Parents, Miss Freud
gives concrete examples of how transference and countertransference play themselves
out in classrooms. Miss Freud's genius is a careful explanation of a stunningly
simple truth. "The deepest impulses driving children's responses to their teachers,
and teachers' responses to the children in their charge are unconscious- which is
to say, unknown to them both − unless teacher or child undergo a certain kind of
inner work whereby unconscious motivations are made conscious." Unfinished business
we have with people from our past plays itself out in the present with people who
remind us of those with whom we have this unfinished business. The idea of teachers
becoming more aware of their emotions and perhaps unconscious motivations underlies
this course. We're not suggesting that you need to go into Freudian or any other
kind of psychological analysis but we do hope you'll see the need for a greater
awareness of your personal emotional terrain. We begin here because we've noticed
an irony, a tendency in the ready-made social and emotional learning programs to
overlook the social and emotional well-being of teachers. Absent are the materials
to help teachers understand and modulate their inner responses to their students
before beginning the work of social-emotional learning on behalf of their students.
Two readings and a video will elaborate these ideas. Both Randy and I have found
Arthur Jersild's chapters rich and engaging, and Tish Jenning's essay timely.
Here's an excerpt from Teacher's College Record Obituary of Arthur Jersild. "Arthur
Jersild was a developmental psychologist who spent decades studying the ways in
which schools can foster self-awareness in children and teachers. One study,
involving interviews with 3,000 students ranging from fourth grade to college,
revealed that children have more self-awareness than is commonly perceived. Jersild
discovered that students had a great deal of common understanding in matters
pertaining to their own character traits, their emotional tendencies and feelings
about other people." Here's a quote from Arthur, "The little child knows what it is
like to have his feeling hurt, to be sad or to be disappointed with as much the
same basic meanings as are experienced by the post-graduate student." Jersild also
urged that teacher preparation programs should help teachers face their own
conflicts and anxieties. His analysis of teacher's self-understanding in his book,
'When Teachers Face Themselves,' was published in 1955 by Teachers College Press.
Now, why are we starting off with material from the 1930's and 50's as well as
material from this decade? The reason is actually pretty simple. These are
foundational writings and their authors speak truths about teachers and teaching.
Teaching is emotional labor and it is high time we recognize that. For more than 80
years, thoughtful teachers have said so. Now, it is time to MOOC it. And we don't
expect you to agree with everything you read or view in this MOOC. But we do hope
that you will find yourself challenged to think, feel and respond to the ideas and
sentiments expressed. So with that in mind, off we go. For the first learning
activity, we'll ask you to consider what insight and understanding you might need
in order to teach well and champion the students in your charge.