The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how general education teachers in an urban public elementary school described the experience of personal social emotional competencies related to quality of work in the Southwestern United States. The research questions were: how do general education teachers in an urban public elementary school describe the experience of self-oriented social emotional competencies, and how do general education teachers in an urban public elementary school district describe the experience of social-oriented social emotional competencies? The theoretical foundation and conceptual framework used to develop this research study were the Goleman's Theory of Emotional Intelligences and the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning's Framework for Social and Emotional Learning. The sample included kindergarten through eighth grade general education teachers who worked in an urban public elementary school district in the southwestern United States. The instrumentation utilized to collect data for this study included an individual interview protocol and an online open-ended questionnaire. Through Braun and Clarke's Thematic Analysis, the data were analyzed, and the phenomenon was described. The findings from this study suggested two overarching themes, which answered the two guiding research questions. The study provided data revealing that teacher social emotional competencies are an essential component of the teaching profession. As such, future research should include a similar study with teachers from ninth through 12th grade and in different geographic regions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]