Teacher Emotional Competence and School Climate: SEL Implementation Pathways Within SEL-Oriented Educational Contexts

The present study examined the associations among teachers’ emotional competence, SEL implementation practices, and school climate perceptions within schools involved in RULER-related professional development initiatives. Drawing on ecological and implementation-oriented perspectives of social and emotional learning (SEL), this study proposed an observed-variable path model in which emotionally competent educators would report greater implementation of SEL-related practices and more positive perceptions of school climate. Participants were 1185 educators from 44 Spanish-speaking educational institutions collaborating with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Universidad Camilo José Cela. After listwise deletion of cases with missing data on the variables included in the path model and unavailable school identifiers, the primary path analyses were conducted with 1022 educators nested within 44 educational institutions. Participants completed multidimensional self-report measures assessing emotional competence, emotional growth mindset, SEL implementation practices, and school climate perceptions. Observed-variable path analysis was conducted using composite scores derived from the study measures. Results indicated that emotional competence showed the strongest positive associations with both SEL implementation and school climate perceptions. SEL implementation demonstrated statistically significant indirect associations linking emotional competence with school climate perceptions. Complementary analyses additionally indicated that emotional growth mindset demonstrated comparatively weaker, although statistically significant, associations with SEL implementation and school climate. The findings highlight the relevance of teachers’ emotional competence and SEL-related implementation practices within emotionally supportive educational environments. This study contributes to the literature by examining SEL implementation as a potential implementation-related pathway linking teacher emotional competence with school climate perceptions within large SEL-oriented educational contexts.