Relationship Between Social-Emotional Learning, Culturally Responsive Teaching, and Reading: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Reading, social-emotional learning (SEL), and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) practices are often discussed as complementary processes that support students’ academic learning and general well-being. We conducted a scoping review of the extant literature that combines reading, SEL, and CRT to investigate (a) how scholars have positioned these three conceptually aligned constructs and (b) if and how SEL and CRT facilitate reading. Twelve works met inclusion criteria, highlighting the limited scholarly work incorporating all three constructs together. Moreover, none of the included works fully integrated all three concepts, including only one text that measured reading outcomes. Gaps in scholarship included an integrated conceptualization of how reading, SEL, and CRT work together and a lack of construct measurement to ascertain if and how reading is supported through the application of SEL and CRT. We discuss findings and implications and provide recommendations for future research.