Social and emotional learning is hegemonic miseducation: students deserve humanization instead

The ahistorical objectives of social and emotional learning fall short of repairing the cultural contempt of hegemonic miseducation and does not address the primary social forces negatively impacting the health and wellness of communities of color – their colonial relationship with inequitable social systems. In this article, we posit humanization in place of social and emotional learning because SEL’s inadequate analysis of intersecting oppressions justifies existing power relations in communities and schools. In essence, this article examines the pedagogy and psychology of humanization as a viable framework to confront systemically imposed self-hate, divide and conquer, and suboppression if it teaches students knowledge (and love) of self, solidarity, and self-determination.