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This curated list of books was chosen by IFSEL’s team because they offer interesting perspectives on timely topics in education and are all related to SEL. We hope these reads spark interesting discussions in your community and would love to hear your thoughts and impressions. We also want to know if there are any that you would add to our list!
Looking for student summer reads? Check out these suggestions book suggestions for students.
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IFSEL’s Educator Practice: Engage with Nature encourages educators and students to look for moments of connection with nature, opening us up to the emotion: AWE. Dacher Kelther from UC Berkeley is one of the experts on awe and has written a fascinating book about it. As Prof. Claude M. Steele, Lucie Stern Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University, notes, these often tumultuous times, including “clickbait media” and “our own habits of mind” highlight and emphasize the “negative and threatening in life.” Steele calls this book “a counter force,” and we think that educators will appreciate a chance to engage with it’s uplifting, accessible and well researched stories and science. “It’s a guide to how to see and experience the wonder that is always all around us. It balances consciousness. It has been a long time since I’ve read anything as inspiring. I’d say race to read it. You won’t be disappointed.” — Prof. Claude M. Steele
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A staple experience at IFSEL is check-in and naming emotions. This book offers interesting insights to this common SEL experience. While we may think of emotions as universal responses, felt inside, psychologist Batja Mesquita asks us to reconsider them through the lens of what they do in our relationships, both one-on-one and within larger social networks. “Between Us offers an “outside-in” perspective to emotions in different cultures. Mesquita explains why various emotions mean different things in different places; pride in North Carolina is not the same thing as it is in Amsterdam. By looking outward at relationships at work, school, and home, we can better judge how our emotions will be understood, how they might change a situation, and how they change us. “Understanding people across cultural and racial divides requires immersing yourself in their diverse emotional realities. The book is a must-read for everyone working towards justice and inclusion -- from law enforcement to schools to the workplace." ― Jennifer Eberhardt, Stanford University
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Underlying IFSEL’s whole community approach to SEL is the goal of creating schools where all children and adults feel a sense of belonging. David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.” In this book, Brooks sets out to outline how we can do better at this and poses questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to? Brooks points out that the act of knowing another person is profoundly creative.
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This small book is full of love and practical ideas for teachers to explore our shared humanity. We think it is kind of like an IFSEL workshop in a book. There are opportunities to reflect and engage with the simple and profound ideas at the end of each chapter, and readers are invited to explore how we have been socialized to accept the status quo and how we can rely on love to engage in teaching for social justice, even in the presence of fear. Shamari Reid lays out a path for working toward liberation for our students and ourselves by honoring our own humanity and choosing love over fear.
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"If you want to understand how we can best thrive in a world that is rapidly changing because of AI, and feel hopeful and confident about the role you can play, you'll find this book to be both brilliant and essential. Full of insights and practical tips, I, Human will prepare you for the future by focusing your attention on the very traits that make human nature unique." — Francesca Gino, Harvard Business School "A must-read for anyone who has wondered how we can maintain our humanity amid the super powerful prediction machines we've created." — Angela Duckworth
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In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we can expand it
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Despite our deep desire to feel a sense of belonging, many of us feel isolated. The rise of technology and modern workplace practices have led people to be even more disconnected, even as we remain constantly contactable. And as our human interactions have decreased, so too have our happiness levels. This is sparking a crisis in mental health that will have repercussions for years, leaving people lonelier and organizations less productive and profitable, too. What Christine Porath has discovered in her research is that leaders, organizations, and managers of all stripes may recognize there is a cost but have few solutions for how to implement the cure
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There are many books on “hustle culture” and this one is written for parents and schools. “Thoughtfully, expertly and, without judgment, Wallace guides readers through the stressful terrain of our achievement culture and offers a more emotionally intelligent route forward.” –Robin Stern, Ph.D, Co-founder and Associate Director for the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
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Most people we know have noticed that its gotten harder to pay attention. We see it in ourselves and we see it in our students. Jonathan Hari set out to understand this phenomenon and the result is a fascinating story. Hari claims that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He offers ideas for solutions.
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Everyone is talking about this book by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness and investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how “play-based childhood” has evolved to “phone-based childhood” and offers four simple rules for parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments to restore a more humane childhood. No matter what your “position” is about the role of devices and technology in schools, homes, and childhood, this book is sure to spark a lively discussion.
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AI is being increasingly seen as a way for teachers to save time, particularly on lesson planning and creation. But, of course, they must know how to use the technology first. This playbook’s authors aim to empower teachers to use AI to its full potential with, among other tools, a step-by-step guide for composing writing prompts that engage students and avoiding plagiarism. Ultimately, the authors consider AI a way to solidify teacher-student relationships that can only be created by humans.
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In The Drivers: Transforming Learning for Students, Schools, and Systems, renowned authors Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn build on their previous books and lay out a complete model for transforming teaching and learning. The goal: making sure students are actually prepared to live and thrive in the complex world around them.
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This is a highly practical book that provides scaffolding and stories to support educators in foundational SEL skills and mindsets including: self awareness and understanding of five identity categories: race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Questions at the end of each chapter and the process of reading this book with others in your school community offer a powerful opportunity to support positive engagement with diverse perspectives and skills for healthy engagement with conflict transformation, all in service of creating more caring and inclusive communities.
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In this follow-up to Cultivating Genius, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad adds a fifth pursuit―joy―to her groundbreaking instructional model. She defines joy as more than celebration and happiness, but also as wellness, beauty, healing, and justice for oneself and across humanity. She shows how teaching from cultural and historical realities can enhance our efforts to cultivate identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and-indeed-joy for all students, giving them a powerful purpose to learn and contribute to the world. Dr. Muhammad's wise implementation advice is paired with model lessons and assessment tools that span subjects and grade levels.
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In this book, Zaretta Hammond draws on cutting edge neuroscience research to offer an innovative approach for designing and implementing brain compatible culturally responsive instruction.
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This book is a great way to examine our own motivation, as well as what drives students, and it goes against reward and punishment models. Daniel Pink examines the three elements of motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into practice.
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This new edition offers new insights into Carol Dwek’s now broadly embraced concept of the power of mindset. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset. She also expands the mindset concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love—to transform their lives and your own.
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More than a summer read, Elena Aguilar’s practical framework for educators to build resilience, self awareness and community is a classic that we recommend!
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Another important book which contains a collection of essays on the intersections between education and politics, race, class, and gender. bell hooks, inspired by Paulo Freire, rethinks the role of the student and teacher through the vulnerable work of self-reflection and scrutiny.
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This is a classic book to explore your teacher identity—who you are and how that relates to being an educator. In Palmer’s exploration, he also offers insight in how to stay connected to purpose and explains why “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique alone.”
Learn MoreThe Institute provides participants with inspiration and current research as well as experiential lesson materials. Throughout our time together, IFSEL’s facilitators will demonstrate a unique take on ten distinct educator practices that expand social and emotional learning, inclusivity and well-being..
The Institute provides participants with inspiration and current research as well as experiential lesson materials. Learn ten distinct educator practices that expand social and emotional learning, inclusivity and well-being.
The Institute provides participants with inspiration and current research as well as experiential lesson materials. Learn ten distinct educator practices that expand social and emotional learning, inclusivity and well-being.
