Our Values

To guide our work and ground our time together, the SEL Research Group functions and operates by a shared set of values. These values ground our work with schools and communities and are the foundation for how we are, together. We invite those with whom we work and interact to adapt and live by these shared values and priorities, too.

  • Lifelong Learners We are committed to being lifelong learners and adopt a growth mindset, calling us to learn from all situations.

  • Mutuality We engage in mutuality; that is, mutual respect towards one another and commitment to learning from one another and those with whom we work.

  • Humanizing Work When we work with schools/communities, we remind ourselves that they are human beings, not participant IDs – humanizing and contextualizing our work.

  • Participants' Voices We honor students’, teachers’, and community members’ voices, as they are the experts of their experiences.

  • Centering Strengths We engage in transformative, strengths-based research and ecological inquiry, explicitly centering schools’ and communities’ strengths.

  • Multi-Method Approach We employ a variety of research methods to work towards human flourishing and social justice.

  • Collaboration We are constantly striving towards a community of collaboration, compassion, flexibility, and inclusivity among ourselves and with community partners.

  • Systems Thinking We acknowledge the systemic challenges facing certain schools and communities and apply this systemic lens to our work.