Social, emotional, and moral competencies of teaching staff from Early Childhood Education to Secondary Education

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Social, emotional, and moral competencies are the set of knowledge, skills and attitudes that make possible to develop prosocial relationships and to understand and to manage one´s own emotions and those of othersin diverse contexts. It is understood that the social, emotional and moral competencies are key for adequate coexistence in schools. School interventions have been implemented to develop these competencies in students. These interventions are more effective if the teaching staff are socio-emotionally and morally competent. No studies have been found that analyze the level of social, emotional, and moral competencies of non-university teaching staff. This reseach seeks to study the level of social, emotional and moral competencies of the non-university teaching staff. METHOD: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional ex-post-facto study has been developed, with 301 teachers from Early Childhood Education to Secondary Education (70.80% women, 27.90% men; M_age = 38.33, SD = 11.10). The research has been carried out through a survey (socio-labour characteristics and two scales: one on socio-emotional competencies and the other on moral emotions), with sampling for convenience and accessibility. RESULTS: The teaching staff presents a high level of social, emotional, and moral competencies. Women and those who have a lot of experience with student body of different ethnic-cultural origins, with different sexual orientations and with disabilities score significantly higher in social, emotional and moral competencies than men, and who have little or no experience in the three areas mentioned. DISCUSSION: The findings of this study show that the teaching staff, from Early Childhood Education to Secondary Education, perceive themselves as competent on a social, emotional and moral level. This study points out which areas can be reinforced in pre-service teachers training so that teaching staff are socio-emotionally and morally competent, with implications on the professionals training for excellence and, therefore, for the achievement of quality education that responds to the characteristics of all students.