This dissertation presents a design-based research study that utilized qualitative data analysis to investigate justice-oriented approaches to integrate transformative social-emotional learning (TSEL) with interactive read-alouds to simultaneously support elementary students’ social-emotional and literacy development. In this study, I collaborated with a fifth-grade teacher during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years to iteratively design, enact, and revise an approach we are calling Read Alouds for Social Emotional Learning (RASEL) across two rounds of implementation. More specifically, the goals of my study were (1) to explore in what ways (if any) fifth-grade students demonstrate changes in components of social-emotional learning and narrative reading comprehension before and after participation in the instructional sequence and (2) to determine the aspects of RASEL instruction that enhance or inhibit the integration of students’ SEL and literacy development based on the experiences of one fifth-grade teacher and a group of anchor students. Across three iterative and flexible phases within the DBR process (analysis and exploration, design and construction, and evaluation and reflection), we developed RASEL, which includes a series of interactive read-alouds using high-quality culturally relevant text sets focused on corresponding social-emotional themes such as self-awareness and social awareness. To answer my research questions, I analyzed my data set (student interviews and artifacts, teacher interviews and surveys, video observations, and researcher notes and memos) through an interpretivist approach. After participating in RASEL, students shifted in overlapping components of TSEL and narrative reading comprehension which include: exploring more complex emotion vocabulary, inferring emotions with evidence that highlights characters’ cultural experiences, embracing the interrelated nature of their personal and social identities, recognizing injustices and acknowledging harm, and identifying themes from the text that advocate social justice. Additionally, my analysis highlighted three aspects of RASEL (feel wheel, identity silhouettes, and the text set) that enhanced the integration of SEL and literacy development and two aspects of RASEL (identity mapping and character perspective-taking) that inhibited the integration of SEL and literacy development.This study advances the field’s understanding of the reciprocal relationship between social-emotional and literacy development. It also builds the growing body of TSEL research by offering actionable steps to teach against traditional notions of SEL with more authentic, humanizing, and culturally responsive TSEL integration. It highlights teacher expertise and student voices that contributed to the RASEL design, which shows promise as a framework for fostering social-emotional growth in ways that embrace culture, complexity, and justice.
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