From Implicit Practice to Intentional Social and Emotional Learning in Sociology Classrooms

Abstract

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is often discussed as a formal programme, yet teachers may enact SEL-compatible practices before they possess a shared conceptual language or intentional implementation plan. This qualitative case study examines that distinction in sociology classrooms at SMA Negeri 7 Padang, Indonesia. The study draws on classroom observations, interviews with sociology teachers and students, and school documentation; source and technique triangulation were used, and analysis followed data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The evidence shows that teachers already enacted several SEL-compatible practices implicitly, including listening to students, providing emotional encouragement, mediating classroom conflict, supporting group roles, and creating space for empathy and discussion. However, these practices were rarely framed as explicit SEL objectives or systematically connected to the five CASEL competencies. Teacher readiness was therefore uneven: relational and pedagogical routines were present, but conceptual understanding, intentional lesson planning, and school-wide coordination remained limited. Sociology emerged as a particularly productive disciplinary setting because its treatment of interaction, conflict, inequality, groups, and social perspective-taking can connect subject knowledge with social-emotional competencies without reducing SEL to generic supportive teaching. The study contributes the distinction between implicit enactment and intentional SEL and identifies conceptual, pedagogical, and organisational readiness as conditions for moving between them.