Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) in YCEI ResearchAt the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, we are committed to creating equitable school communities with RULER. The importance of creating safe and inclusive learning environments where all learners thrive is at the core of RULER.RULER tools focus on building positive emotional connections across differences, creating awareness around the range of our own emotions and the emotions of others, managing emotions with our best selves, building perspective-taking skills and empathy, resolving conflict, and restoring communities affected by conflict. In this way, RULER is an onramp to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and antiracism, as it focuses on the development of the skills and language necessary to have conversations around these topics and achieve equitable practices.Yale Center for Emotional IntelligenceYCEI_faf7b4d2-c94c-11eb-8334-64611183ea00SchoolsSchool StaffDEI & Personal and Professional Learning ~ Social and emotional learning cannot be taught without taking context into consideration. The staff within schools are knowledgeable about their contexts and best equipped to apply RULER concepts and tools to the specific needs within those contexts. RULER provides the principles, tools, and resources that can be adapted for use in various contexts and the people within them. In order to make RULER an enduring part of a school’s culture, the adults within that community are taught to adopt and implement RULER in a way that is unique to the needs of their school. Part of this process is assessing the needs of their communities and determining specific goals for how they would like to see their school community benefit from RULER skills and tools to create positive change. In 2019, we launched RULER for All, a systematic evaluation of our approach (staff training, RULER tools, and preK-12 curricula) through the lenses of Universal Design for Learning and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. This work identifies barriers and access points for staff and students of different identities and will inform a process and end product to ensure full inclusion and representation of all learners from all backgrounds in RULER.ClassroomsDEI & Classroom Content ~ RULER is designed to be adapted for use in various classroom contexts and the diverse students within them. For example, when discussing and providing practice with the skills of emotional intelligence, educators choose reading material, current events, real-life examples, and other learning content that will resonate with their students’ lives. Students create and choose scenarios that represent their own experiences so they can practice applying emotion skills to actual situations in their lives in ways that make sense to them. In this way, RULER’s design encourages and reinforces culturally responsive teaching practices. RULER classroom content addresses many of the Learning for Justice (formerly known as Teaching Tolerance) standards with lessons and activities focused on appreciation of similarities and differences in race, gender identity, cultural background, and experiences, as well as developing solutions to challenges within unique school communities and classrooms. RULER does not teach a “correct” way to express or manage feelings, nor does it condone a one-size-fits-all approach to behavior. RULER helps diverse learners discover what strategies and behaviors work for them personally to achieve greater well-being, build and maintain positive relationships, and attain goals, with an emphasis on how our actions affect ourselves and others. RULER Classroom Projects: * RULER schools can log in to RULER Online and access the RULER and Transformative SEL resource. This resource describes how RULER encompasses the components of transformative SEL. * We are currently working on adaptations of RULER to serve students with diverse learning needs, including best ways of providing access to SEL for students of all abilities and identities (race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability). * In 2020, we partnered with Scholastic to broaden the diversity of characters and ideas in our recommended book lists for schools.FamiliesDEI & Family Engagement ~ RULER for Families content focuses on helping parents and caregivers better recognize, understand, accept, and manage their own and their children’s emotions. Activities help caregivers feel more comfortable with the full range of emotions and guide them to deal with those emotions in ways that support the development of warm and secure relationships. As in the classroom, parents and caregivers are provided with resources that are flexible to be adapted to their unique context. RULER Family Engagement Projects: * We are prioritizing the translation of essential RULER classroom and family engagement content into languages other than English. There is a pre-existing set of translated RULER for Families content that is available to RULER schools on the RULER Online platform.DEI SpecialistsContinuous Improvement Plan ~ YCEI’s DEI Content Team is developing a plan to partner with (1) an organization that specializes in DEI to scrutinize all aspects of RULER content to ensure it is culturally responsive and (2) organizations that specialize in DEI to (a) create crosswalks on how RULER fits with DEI and antiracist initiatives and (b) compile resources to share for use alongside RULER. In addition to the above, YCEI research, much of it on methods to enhance RULER, also has made a strong commitment to DEI.Equitable school communities_b31fe930-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea00To provide an onramp to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and antiracism_b31feb6a-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea00EmotionsRULER is based on the premise that all emotions matter, and that individuals experience emotions uniquely based on their identities and backgrounds.DiversityAt present, RULER has been adopted successfully by over 2,500 highly diverse public and private schools across the United States and in other countries, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Mexico, and Spain.EquitySafetyInclusivityLearningBest Practices & AccountabilitySystematically evaluate the elements of our research process and develop best-practice recommendations and a system of accountability, at each phase of research. _b31fec78-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea001QuestionsConsider how our research questions contribute to or detract from equity in our society._b31fed7c-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea001.1Examining the questions we ask to consider how they contribute to or detract from equity in our society- for who, of who, how and why? What knowledge do these questions and subsequent results advantage? What constructs do we study, and whose perspectives do they prioritize or reinforce? What systems (e.g., individualistic vs. communal) do these questions and subsequent results prioritize? Metrics & ReportingAdopt a language to measure and report on race, ethnic, and intersectional identities._b31fee76-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea001.2Adopting a Center-wide language for how we measure and report on race, ethnic, and intersectional identities across our research studies. We formed a subcommittee of researchers representing all levels of training to interrogate interdisciplinary field norms and practices to ensure that all demographic and related questions use fully inclusive terminology, build a shared library of demographic questions ready for study use, and design accompanying decision trees centered on the participants to guide decisions for which items are to be included when. These steps will create consistency across our studies moving forward, support research autonomy and discretion on each individual project, and inform our department and field’s model of best practice when conducting emotion science and social and emotional learning research. MethodologiesEnsure we use the best possible methods to capture a fully inclusive voice._b31fef66-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea001.3Interrogating our methodologies to ensure we use the best possible methods to capture a fully inclusive voice. For example, we use action research, person-centered analyses, qualitative and mixed-methods designs to support elevating and centering critical voices in our work which may not be fully reflected otherwise. We are also engaging in center-wide learning of the QuantCrit paradigm, a model of examining quantitative methods through critical race theory, for research among other professional learning.Template & ChecklistCreate a template to guide our language and a checklist to hold ourselves accountable._b31ff074-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea001.4Creating a template to guide our language and a process-based checklist to hold ourselves accountable in our work and to ensure that we have fully met our DEI commitments in our work. Hiring & StaffingExamine our hiring and staffing procedures through a DEI lens to identify and eliminate existing structural inequalities. _b31ff16e-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea002Job RequirementsEnsure that required training and experiences do not privilege applicants on basis of race, class, gender, sexuality, or disability._b31ff272-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea002.1Revisiting all researcher job requirements at each level of training to ensure that required training and experiences do not privilege applicants on basis of race, class, gender, sexuality, or disability.RecruitmentBroaden access and participation of researchers of color and those from marginalized communities in academia._b31ff38a-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea002.2Researchers of ColorMarginalized Communities in AcademiaRecruiting talent to join our team through intentional communication with organizations, social media networks, and institutions committed to broadening access and participation of researchers of color and those from marginalized communities in academia.SalariesEvaluate and change salary caps for training positions._b31ff48e-c952-11eb-a5a2-680e1c83ea002.3Working with our department and university business offices to evaluate and change salary caps for training positions to enable broader participation among trainees from all socioeconomic backgrounds.2021-06-09https://www.ycei.org/commitment-to-dei-in-researchOwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net