Contributing and Hindering Factors of Teachers’ Social and Emotional Learning Competencies

Background/purpose – Teachers are the role models that students tend to imitate. Therefore, teachers’ social and emotional learning skills and competencies are crucial to the implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention programs. When teachers are under stress, their social and emotional well-being can be significantly affected. This study focuses on assessing the SEL competencies of teachers


INTRODUCTION
Teaching is considered to be one of the noblest of professions.However, as good as it may seem, it is also one of the most stressful professions in the world.In the Philippines, several news items have highlighted cases of teacher's having even committed suicide, an alarming situation caused mostly by stress, whether due to personal or work-related issues (Orlanda-Ventayen & Ventayen, 2021).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers' stress increased further compared to the pre-pandemic period (Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al., 2021).Teachers from public high schools, for instance, often share how difficult it is to teach, yet remain committed as teachers.With increasing levels of paperwork and administrative duties, aside from the preparations for everyday lessons, the burden can become overwhelming for many teachers.
Teachers are the ultimate role models for students, and who can therefore influence the attitudes, values, and behaviors of their students.They can even exert influence over children that is as much or even more than the parents (Lumpkin, 2008).This influence that comes from teachers is rooted in the emotions they have towards their learners.It is said that teachers have to be flexible, and that means being a teacher, as well as like a parent and a guidance counselor for their students.These are the roles of teachers in terms of their students; however, their workload at school has become too burdensome in many cases, with paperwork and non-academic assignments given consistently.
Teaching is an emotional practice, and teachers need support in strengthening their social and emotional skills in order to manage the stress that comes with teaching and to remain active in the profession over the longer term.Teachers are also the engine that drives social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices in schools and classrooms (Schonert-Reichl, 2016).However, it is a just action to afford them the opportunity to help themselves and to live as stress-free as possible.When teachers become burned out and incapable of understanding and taking care of their own well-being, it prevents them from implementing effective SEL strategies and programs in the classroom, and this primarily affects their key stakeholders-their students.
The idea mentioned here talks of teachers as role models for their students, and how their own their emotions play an integral part in how they undertake their role as teachers.These emotions form part of their social and emotional learning skills, and there is a need to give emphasis as to how they can focus more on this in order to avoid the inevitable stress that hinders them from doing their work effectively as teachers.
Teaching, as an emotionally demanding career, can influence not just their professional lives but also the personal lives of teachers (Oliveira et al., 2021).As a publicschool teacher, the researcher has experienced firsthand the changes in the profession from the traditional classroom setup to the "new normal" of today's education.Along with changes resulting from the pandemic, additional workloads and paperwork have triggered stress and burnout in most of the teachers in the institution where the researcher is employed.With the presence of such stress, social and emotional skills become of significant importance in order that a person can manage their emotions well-and that is important too in that teachers can better teach their students.As far as stress is concerned, teachers' occupational health is being constantly exposed to risks which can affect their mental health and well-being.This can lead to problems in regard to their conducting of instructional and classroom management practices that in turn can affect student learning outcomes (e.g., Durlak et  2011; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009;Schonert-Reichl, 2016, as cited in Oliveira et al., 2021).Initiatives have therefore been put forward to help identify and enhance factors that can help minimize occupational stress and prevent burnout in the teaching profession.
To successfully promote SEL and to better manage themselves, teachers first need to become aware of their own SEL competencies.Then they can work to enhance their lessdeveloped competencies and thus become more effective in dealing with their students' SEL as well.Since teaching-specific stressors are mainly socioemotionally related, SEL interventions targeting teachers must be afforded the appropriate attention, especially today in the context of these "new normal" working practices in the teaching profession.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING COMPETENCIES
Social and emotional learning, as defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2023), refers to the process by which people acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitude necessary to develop a healthy identity and relationships through managing their emotions and making responsible decisions in order to achieve personal and collective goals.The process consists of five core competencies; selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.
 Self-Awareness.This refers to a person's ability to recognize their own emotions and thoughts, to understand what influence they can have on behavior, and how to make accurate assessments of one's own strengths and limitations.Self-awareness is the key to emotional intelligence (Goleman,1995, as cited in LaBarbera, 2021), and is an essential ability since without it, professionals such as teachers may find themselves feeling stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, fatigued, and quite possibly burned out.However, stress can adversely affect not only teachers, but also their students as well as the classroom climate in general (DiCarlo et al., 2020).
 Self-Management.Consisting of self-control, self-regulation, and self-determination (Hughes & Lloyd, 1993, as cited in Sajeevanie, 2020), self-management is the ability a person has to control their own thoughts, feelings, and actions.In a study by Steyn and Van Staden (2018), self-management was stated as being an essential managerial competency which can directly affect the performance of the organization.In line with this, teachers, as classroom managers, also need to have effective self-management skills in order to properly monitor and manage their classroom.
 Social Awareness.Referred to as a process, social awareness concerns perceiving and comprehending information about others and then the ability to act appropriately (Denham, 2006, as cited in Kulsoom & Hussain, 2020).According to Segal et al. (2021), when a person has social awareness skills, they can empathize with others, meaning that they can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people.As an attribute of emotional intelligence, it can also help in the establishment of stronger relationships, aid success in educational terms, at work so as to achieve career goals, and also to meet one's personal goals (Kotsou et al., 2019). Responsible Decision Making.This refers to a person's ability to consider the appropriate ethical standards and concerns whilst evaluating the pros and cons of various actions for personal, social, and shared well-being (CASEL, 2023).
Assessing SEL competencies will aid in identifying which should be enhanced and developed, thus, an appropriate SEL intervention program may be formulated so as to plan and schedule activities best suited to enhance these skills.Specifically, the current study aims to; (i) examine the SEL competencies of teachers and (ii) explain the contributing and hindering factors of teachers' SEL competencies.

Research Design
The study used a survey research design to gather personal information, facts, and experiences of the participants.This method was selected since it suited the study's relevance in investigating the characteristics, behaviors, or opinions of a group of teachers (Moser & Kalton, 2017).

Research Participants
The selected public high school is considered a mega school, with 89 teaching and non-teaching personnel.The participants for the study were selected through purposive sampling of a specifically homogenous group chosen based on their teaching experience.This criterion was purposely chosen so as to show the involvement of the respondents' social and emotional skills regarding communication with their students.This means that employees who undertook job roles not related to teaching were excluded from the sample group who completed the survey.
A total of 67 respondents participated in the study, which included 59 teachers from the Filipino, English, Math, Science, Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies), Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (Character and Values Education), Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE), and the Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health (MAPEH) departments, along with the school's principal, two headteachers, two master teachers, and three coordinators-all of whom had direct classroom teaching experience.
In terms of the participants' demographic characteristics, 39 (58%) were in the 26-41 year old age range, while 24 (36%) were aged 42-57, and four (6%) were aged 10-25 years old.Of the respondents, 45 (67%) were female and 22 (33%) male.In terms of their marital status, 36 (54%) were married, 42% were single, and 3% were separated.The majority (n = 28, 42%) said that they had worked as a teacher for more than 10 years, whereas 16 (24%) had worked for 4-6 years, 13 (9%) for 0-3 years, and only 10 (5%) had been in service for a period of 7-9 years.Furthermore, when asked about the number of subjects that they taught as teachers, 48 (72%) responded that they only taught one subject, while 16 (24%) taught two subjects, and three (4%) had no teaching load at the time of taking the survey.Lastly, 50 (75%) of the study's respondents said that in addition to teaching they also had other ancillary work responsibilities, while 17 (25%) answered "no," indicating that teaching was their sole workload at the school.

Instrumentation
An adopted self-reflection survey tool in the form of 3-point, Likert-type instrument called the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Scale (CASEL, 2013) was  Bulletin | 2023 | 12(2): 7-22.used in combination with a structured interview questionnaire as the primary data source of the study to assess the participant teachers' social and emotional learning competencies.Some of the participants were given a traditional paper form of the survey to complete, followed by a short one-to-one interview with the researcher in order to gather reliable and factual data, while the other participants responded to the same survey online due to scheduling conflicts.In the researcher's interview of some of the participants, they were asked four or five open-ended questions which addressed their SEL strengths and weaknesses and questioned the reasons behind the answers they gave.The interviewees were also asked how they perceived those strengths and weaknesses affected their interaction as teachers with their students.Lastly, they were asked how they could enhance the skills in which they felt they were lacking.

Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics, namely frequencies and percentages, were used in the analysis of the participant teachers' SEL competencies.To analyze the qualitative data gathered from the interviews, the researcher employed a narrative analysis method.Insights and ideas were given as the conversation flow progressed and were used as the basis and support for the survey results.

SEL Competencies of the Public-School Teachers Self-Awareness
The findings showed how the participant teachers developed their self-awareness through the inevitable experiences they encountered as teachers, and which then become their strengths (see Figure 1).In the survey, 54 (81%) of the participants stated that they would "often" demonstrate self-awareness, while 13 (19%) said "sometimes," and none answered "rarely." As self-awareness develops, this can become a person's strength.This was exemplified as, when asked about their strengths among the five competencies, one of the respondents said that, "My self-awareness makes me do certain adjustments in my work on a case-by-case basis so that I can improve in my work."Another participant stated that, "I know my strength and can choose to focus on what can bring out the best in me, not the stress in me."

Self-Management
The findings revealed that the participants' response regarding their self-management was 44 (66%) who stated "often" (66%), whilst 22 (34%) stated that they "sometimes" demonstrated self-management (see Figure 2), and none answered "rarely." The respondents considered self-management as their strength, with one having mentioned that, "If I have the capacity to regulate my own emotions, thoughts in every situation, it [self-management] will follow since I will have the capacity to understand and care about others."From this response, dedication to work as a teacher was shown to mean caring and understanding as important elements in communicating with both students and colleagues.
Figure 2. Frequency of respondents' response according to self-management

Social Awareness
The study's findings showed that 46 (69%) of the respondents "often" displayed the characteristics of being socially aware (see Figure 3), whilst 21 (31%) said that "sometimes" they do not portray these characteristics, and none answered "rarely."With this result, it can be inferred that despite the stress experienced by the participant teachers, they were still equipped with the social awareness skills required to undertake their work.
When the results for social awareness were compared to self-awareness, a discrepancy of 12% was seen in terms of respondents who answered "often."This means that there were more respondents who considered themselves to be more self-aware than socially aware.

Relationship Skills
Of the participants, 53 (79%) indicated having good relationship skills (see Figure 4), with only 14 (21%) reportedly feeling as though they were not complete in this skill.

Responsible Decision Making
In terms of responsible decision making, the majority of the participants (n = 40, 60%) answered "often" (see Figure 5).This indicates that the respondents generally portray having the characteristics associated with being decisionmakers.On the other hand, 26 (39%) answered "sometimes," which may mean there still exists some inability to decide responsibly when perhaps considering different factors.Interestingly, among the 67 respondents, one answered "rarely."Whilst this represents a very small proportion of the respondents (1.5%), it indicates that a need may exist to focus on any intervention attempting to enhance this competency.However, this finding may also be attributed to other factors affecting the teachers' responsible decision-making capacity.
Figure 5. Frequency of respondents' response according to responsible decision making

Hindering and Contributing Factors of Teachers' SEL Competencies Stress
The researcher found that most of the respondents felt stressed.When asked if the statement "I am stressed" contributed to and affected their work, the majority (n = 43) stated "yes," which is equivalent to 64% of the respondents.The remaining 24 answered "no," which was 36% of the respondents.
In one of the interviews, Respondent A stated that, "When I get stressed, I feel weak and out of focus," whilst Respondent B said, "If I am stressed, I don't feel good, but I try to keep going."These statements suggest that stress creates a negative impact on teachers.
Having said this, as most of the respondents felt under stress, which is considered a hindering factor towards improving SEL competencies, a program aimed at lessening the stress of teachers could also lessen the respondents' stress levels.

Motivation
The respondents were asked whether or not they felt well-motivated.A total of 56 or 84% of the respondents said that they still felt well-motivated despite being stressed, whereas 11 (16%) said that they were not well-motivated, although that may or may not be due to reasons that are personal and not work-related.This result shows that the motivation that teachers feel is a contributing factor to their SEL competency levels, and that it is does have a relation to their stress.This was further supported by two of the interviewed participants, with Respondent C stating that, "If I am stressed, I get motivated to do more so that I can forget my problems," whilst one participant said, During times of pressure or tension, stress does affect my motivation in a way that I feel the urge to accomplish all my tasks and work.Sometimes I get tired and end up crying, but I see to it that I will finishing it all as best I can.(Respondent D) These statements suggest that despite feeling stressed, the teachers remained motivated to continue their commitment and show dedication to their work.

Health Status
Most of the participant teachers (n = 62, 93%) were reportedly in a good health condition, which represented most of the personnel working at the school.Only five (7%) individuals stated that they were not in good health.When asked about their health status and how it affected their social well-being, one of the participants said that: Our work requires us to communicate every now and then to people.During the pandemic, it was essential that we remained healthy not only for ourselves, but also for our students.If we're not healthy, we cannot do our tasks and that might affect our students.(Respondent E) Meanwhile, Respondent F said, "I think I am healthy even though I am stressed at times because I think that if I will not be healthy, I will not function well, and I cannot then help my students."This statements shows that despite the circumstances in which teachers do their jobs, they try to remain healthy for their goal of helping their students.Whilst stress can make someone unhealthy, many of the respondents seemed able to handle the stress and remain in good health.This means that, in a way, the health of teachers can contribute to building and enhancing their SEL competencies.

Financial Status
There was a notable close distribution in the participants' responses as to whether or not they had a healthy financial status.In total, 35 (52%) said "yes," whilst 32 (48%) said "no" they did not have a healthy financial status.This result indicates that those respondents with a strong financial situation and those who were not were almost balanced.It is possible, however, that those who were stressed were affected by their financial status.As an example, Respondent A said, "I can't say I have a good financial status, but when I lack money, I get stressed sometimes and that causes me to feel weak."However, one interviewed participant said, I don't have a lot of money, but I don't let it cause any stress.I believe God will always provide that's why, if I don't have a lot, I just allow it and accept it.I know things will get better and I just carry on and do my work.(Respondent C) These statements show how financial status could be a both a contributing and/or hindering factor depending on how it is perceived-as problematic or motivational.It may be said that the balance between the responses given may signify that many could be stressed about their financial situation, but that many were also able to handle it well.It is clear that a relationship exists between stress and financial status.

Work Relationship Status
The response to the statement, "I have a good relationship with my colleagues," showed that the vast majority (n = 64, 96%) of the teachers enjoyed a good working relationship, whilst only three (4%) stated the opposite.When asked about their relationship with other colleagues and how important it was to their work as teachers, one said that: It is important to have a good relationship with colleagues because when things get tough, you can have people to lean on and they keep you motivated.For me, I feel good when I have good relationship with them [my colleagues]; it motivates me even more to grow personally and professionally.(Respondent D) This implies that work relationships can really play a vital role in enhancing the SEL competencies of teachers.However, one of the interviewed participants said that: I don't really have good relationship with them not because I don't like to be with them or we're not okay.It's just easier for me to communicate with my students rather than with them; but I don't have problems with them.(Respondent F) This statement may indicate that there are some teachers who cannot easily communicate with others, especially with their colleagues, although there may also be more personal reasons behind this too.

School Management
With regards to the statement, "The school management is effective and motivating," the majority (n = 50, 75%) responded "yes."This indicates that the school where they work, and its management team, has an effective and motivating work environment.On the other hand, there were also 17 (25%) participants who responded negatively.
This result could mean that despite that the majority saying "yes," there were still others who did not feel motivated when it came to the school's management.It could be said that those who felt stressed may consider this as a contributing factor.Regarding this, Respondent G said, "I like the school management because it keeps me motivated somehow.It is a bit stressful sometimes, but I need to do my best for myself and for my students." However, Respondent H said, "I am stressed because of the school management.I feel tired, but I need this job that's why I can't leave.I just think of the positive things to lighten up my mood and to keep going."The statement shows that school management can, in some cases, also hinder the development of teachers' SEL competencies.

SEL Competencies of the Public-School Teachers Self-Awareness
The results affirmed the findings of Schussler and Knarr (2013, as cited in Zydziunaite & Daugėla, 2020), who claimed that teachers' self-awareness develops through doing reflective exercises in relation to various experiences had with their students.The response of the participants proved that when a person is self-aware, they know how to handle their emotions and feel able to choose the right way to respond to situations that could potentially cause them stress.

Self-Management
As proposed by Sajeevani (2020), self-management practices should be embedded into everyday life.Such practices can help reduce the stress levels which then leads to an improved personal as well as professional life.Social Awareness Selman (2003) mentioned that self-awareness involves looking inward in order to learn about and understanding oneself, while social awareness is looking outward so as to learn about and appreciate others.Accordingly, teachers who possess socioemotional competencies are less likely to experience burnout as they are more able to work effectively with challenging students-one of the main causes of burnout in teachers (Zakrzewski, 2013).

Relationship Skills
According to Hughes (2012), the establishment of positive relationships between teachers and their students creates the conducive classroom environment necessary to meet the developmental, emotional, and academic needs of all students.In addition, individuals (e.g., teachers) who maintain good working relationships with one another increase employee morale and are more likely to work well together.Meanwhile, an unfriendly and more rigid work environment will likely have the opposite effect (McFarlin, 2019).

Responsible Decision Making
In a study by Omarli (2017), factors such as personal, psychological, and environmental were identified that can affect a person's decision-making abilities.McPheat (2022) explained that decision making is a crucial skill for managers, since if an individual second-guesses, the tendency is that the respect of their employees will be lost or significantly impaired, and outcomes of projects and other works will be put at significant risk.This also applies to teaching professionals since they act as managers of their classrooms; when decisions they take are wrong, there is clear a possibility that everything will be messed up as a result.

Hindering and Contributing Factors of Teachers' SEL Competencies Stress
According to Klusmann et al. (2016), burnout, which is caused through the experiencing of stress and emotional fatigue, has a negative impact upon a teacher's performance and, therefore, negatively affects students' learning and achievement.This occurs since teachers who are under stress are more likely to reduce the amount of time spent doing their job effectively and efficiently.The teachers' approach to their students may be affected as they become more deprecatory than appreciative of their students' work/output.Therefore, it is clear that when teachers are not stressed, it contributes to their general well-being and performance as individual and also as professionals.
Having said this, as the participant teachers in the current study were overwhelmingly stressed, their stress may be considered a hindering factor towards being able to improve their SEL competencies.This means that a program that aims to lessen the stress of teachers would likely help to lessen the respondents' stress in this case.

Motivation
The motivation of teachers is very important to the educational development of the next generation (Kotherja, 2013).As such, if teachers are motivated, there is an evident increase seen in their work productivity as manifested by their active engagement with school activities involving students, parents, teaching colleagues, and other stakeholders.As the results showed in the current study, a high number of respondents were stressed, therefore, if teachers are well-motivated, it is likely to be a contributory factor to being able to enhance the teachers' SEL competencies.Conversely, if teachers are demotivated for whatever reason, it could be a hindering factor.

Financial Status
According to Henager and Wilmarth (2018), financial wellness could be defined as a combination of objective status, subjective perception, financial behaviors, and the overall financial health of an individual.Attaining financial wellness allows a person to experience financial security and freedom, which can translate to feeling less worried about sudden changes, being able to spend more time with family, and to be less stressed.
According to Gerrans et al. (2014), when a person is financially healthy, less stress will be present and therefore may lead to a natural improvement of SEL.On the other hand, if a person is financially unhealthy, stress can follow and all aspects of their well-being can be negatively affected.

Work Relationship Status
Cohen et al. ( 2009) viewed school climate as the quality and character of a school.It is a powerful characteristic that can promote resilience or become a risk factor for every member of the academic community (Freiberg, 1999).When a more positive school climate, exists, higher levels of attendance and engagement is likely for both students and staff, and can reduce teachers' turnover, reduce instances of bullying and violent behavior, and improve academic outcomes.School climate is therefore considered a determinant factor of teacher and student learning outcomes (Parris et al., 2018).Decades' worth of research supports the importance of a positive school climate for both students and teachers (Collie et al., 2012).Therefore, when teachers have a good working relationship with their colleagues, it can serve as a contributing factor to achieving their SEL competencies and, where necessary, their enhancement.
Meanwhile, negativity amongst colleagues lowers productivity and can adversely affect an organization's overall performance; thus affecting SEL competencies and how teachers work.Negativity amongst colleagues can therefore be a hindering factor.School Management Kirana et al. (2021) stated that school management that comes from leadership has an impact on the success of teachers.They concluded in their study that the higher the effectiveness of a school's leadership, the higher the performance of its teachers.Lastly, they indicated that teachers' success is influenced collectively by leadership and school management.
However, a poor school climate and management can reduce teachers' satisfaction and motivation, and also teachers' plans to stay in the profession (García & Weiss, 2019).As such, should this occur, it becomes a hindering factor for teachers.

CONCLUSION
The current study revealed that the SEL competencies of the participant public school teachers were at a high level overall; however, the discrepancy between the statements of "often" and "sometimes" revealed that there is still need for improvement for these competencies.Several factors were suggested as hindering and contributory factors to the enhancement and development of SEL competencies, although these factors' effect is dependent upon how an individual perceives it.Stress, for example, is predominantly considered a hindering factor, yet could also be seen as a contributing factor if considered motivational as a means to keeping going and as diversion from one's problems.
This study could serve as a basis on how teachers should assess and reflect on their own SEL competencies.Assessing these competencies means being aware that as teachers, they should always consider their personal and professional growth and should always be open to further enhancements when their social and emotional learning competencies are found to be lacking.When SEL competencies and social and emotional well-being are at a high level, teachers' readiness to manage their classroom and implement SEL intervention and enhancement programs is much more possible.
Although the current study provides useful information not only to teachers but also to school leaders whose role includes providing the ways and means to support their teachers, its limitations in relation to the selection of the study's participants and the method of data gathering opens the opportunity for further exploration of this research topic in the future.Thus, a recommendation to cover a larger sample size, using randomly selected participants, and multiple methods of data collection such as structured survey, interviews with various stakeholders (i.e., teachers, administrators, and students), may provide a more in-depth understanding through more analysis and thereby improve generalizability of the study.
Finally, the quest for teachers' overall well-being must be afforded the utmost importance in any educational setting.Having fully-developed SEL competencies can make a real difference to the way in which teachers perform their duties and responsibilities both within and outside of the classroom.At the heart of every classroom are the students and having a teacher who can understand the very essence of being a learner and a social and emotional being has significant implications towards promoting a good and healthy teaching and learning environment at all levels.DECLARATIONS Author Contributions: First Author: Literature review, conceptualization, methodology, data analysis, original manuscript preparation.Second/Corresponding Author: review-editing and writing, journal article preparation.Competing Interests Authors declare no conflict of interest.Funding This research study did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Ethical Approval No ethical approval was sought since the study's data was not based on human or animal subjects.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Frequency of respondents' response according to social awareness