Beyond Casel: Toward a Racialized and Gender-Responsive SEL Framework for Black Girls

Background

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) frameworks, particularly those institutionalized through CASEL, have become central to contemporary school reform and behavioral prevention efforts. Framed as universal competencies, the CASEL model includes self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. While Tier 1 SEL programs are presented as universal and have modestly improved school climate, they have not dismantled racialized discipline disparities for Black girls; who are the only group of girls disproportionally suspended across U.S. Schools (Jagers et al., 2019; GAO, 2024).

Black girls’ schooling is often shaped by adultification bias, racialized gender stereotypes, hyper-surveillance, and disproportionate exposure to trauma (Epstein et al., 2017; Morris, 2016). When SEL frameworks assume universal developmental pathways, they risk recoding Black girls’ adaptive survival strategies as socio-emotional deficits. In such contexts, Black girl’s face greater discipline for subjective infractions (ex. Tone of voice, aesthetics, conduct), and their response to inequitable treatment is rarely read as developmentally normative but often criminalized (Morris, 2016). Thus, drawing on Black feminist theory, intersectionality, and radical healing frameworks, we argue that the structural conditions confronting Black girls erode the psychological safety required for conventional SEL competencies to fully take hold. Instead, we provide our first conceptual framing of literature and community-informed Black Girl SEL constructs.

Conceptual Framework

This conceptual paper advances two Black girl-centered responses. First, we articulate a Tier 2 SEL framework grounded in the lived realities of Black girl who experience hyper-marginality. Second, we introduce the FLY Girl Joy Incubator, a scholar–practitioner model designed to operationalize healing, identity affirmation, and collective agency.

We propose four interlocking domains that extend beyond universal SEL competencies:

1. Intersectional Self-Awareness: the capacity to critically interpret gendered racism and locate oneself within systems of power.
2. Strategic Emotional Regulation: context-dependent emotional calibration in environments marked by surveillance and stereotype threat.
3. Relational and Institutional Navigation: skills for discerning trust, decoding authority, and maneuvering within institutions that are simultaneously supportive and punitive.
4. Collective Resilience and Joy as Resistance: culturally rooted practices of radical healing, sisterhood, and joy as insurgent survival (French et al., 2020; Ginwright, 2018).

Finally, the FLY Girl Joy Incubator translates these domains into five pillars: Joyful Foundations (therapeutic safe spaces), Joyful Connections (Afrocentric sisterhood healing circles; Belgrave et al., 2000), Joyful Growth (healing-centered development for girls and adults), Joyful Liberation (systemic change grounded in Black feminist praxis), and Joyful Narratives (counter-storytelling as epistemic resistance; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Conclusion & Implications

Universal SEL frameworks, while valuable, do not adequately address the racialized and gendered structures shaping Black girls’ school experiences. Moving beyond universal models requires centering Black girls through Tier SEL 2 constructs grounded in scholarship and community-driven knowledge. The FLY Girl Joy Incubator operationalizes these constructs by inviting school social workers and educators into a shared process of healing, professional growth, and reflection. By applying these frameworks in practice and transforming alongside the girls they serve, school social workers can disrupt inequitable systems and meaningfully improve Black girls’ lived experiences in schools through policy and practice.