Social Emotional Learning for Equity & Civic Teaching (SELECT) Faculty Fellows Program

This program is led by Dr. Deborah Donahue Keegan, a Lecturer in the Tufts Department of Education, in partnership with CELT. For more information about this program, please reach out to Dr. Donahue-Keegan at deborah.donahue_keegan@tufts.edu. Social-emotional learning involves developing the skills needed to recognize and manage emotions, handle conflict constructively, establish positive relationships guided by empathy, engage in perspective-taking, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations effectively. The SELECT Fellows Program seeks to further integrate them into educational practices. The SELECT Fellows is a year-long cohort program of 18 instructors from schools across Tufts, and is led by Dr. Deborah Donahue Keegan, a Lecturer in the Tufts Department of Education in partnership with CELT.

The group meets monthly, and the program aims to help Tufts faculty develop:

1. A deep understanding of the vital role of social-emotional learning to cultural competence and civic engagement;
2. A strong commitment to integrate SEL into their Tufts courses; and
3. The social-emotional skills needed to engage in and promote constructive dialogue with students and colleagues, both for faculty members' professional development and for the benefit of student learning in the classroom.

What the Program Involves

• Some summer reading and reflective writing to prepare for the program.
• Monthly meetings on Friday mornings during the academic year. Meetings will mostly occur via zoom, with in-person meetings at the beginning, middle, and end of the cohort year. Dates and times for the year are determined in early June once the cohort is established.
• Each SELECT Faculty Fellow will receive a stipend (in May 2024) for full year-long participation, which includes: active participation in monthly cohort meetings, completing readings and reflective writing throughout the year, contributing to online discussions, and revising at least one course syllabus.

For more information, please contact Dr. Deborah Donahue-Keegan.

If you want a participant perspective on the program, you can contact any of the Past Select Fellows.

Our Generous Funders

The SEL initiative was launched in early 2017 thanks to a generous gift from David T. Zussman, A53, J80P, and his family through the Zussman Fund for Social and Emotional Learning. In addition, The Omidyar Group provided Tisch College with a $15,000 planning grant to create a 5-year strategic business plan for the initiative, with the goal of maintaining an evolving and financially sustainable program, and funded a Navigating the Pandemic webinar series.

Learn More About the Social Emotional Learning Initiative at Tufts

Teaching Toward Equity: The Social-Emotional Dynamic of the Classroom

This article about the initiative in Tufts Now describes how negotiating the balance between ‘thinking’ and the ‘feeling’ can make for more inclusive experiences.

For more information about the initiative, email Deborah Donahue-Keegan. You can also follow the initiative's work on Facebook.