Applying a "Social Lab" Process to Advance Student Well-Being in K–12 Schools

• In Event: 16.060 - Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: 16.060-2 - Beyond Subject Knowledge Acquisition: Two Distinct Approaches Toward Student Well-Being and 21st-Century Competencies

Abstract

Objectives:
• To review the theory and rationale supporting a social lab-inspired process in advancing student social and emotional wellbeing in school and school district policy and practice

• Using a case study of 6 school districts in British Columbia, Canada (BC), discuss key developments, learnings, and reflect on the key elements of effective process.

Perspective
A growing movement of educators and academics are also exploring both the ways in which school communities are affected by mental illness and lack of wellbeing, and the significant positive impacts that social and emotional wellbeing have on success in school and in life (Durlak et al, 2011). However, the limitations of the traditional program dissemination model that has characterized the field in past decades (Embry & Biglan, 2008) and the systemic barriers to adoption of policy and practice (Elmore, 1997) justify exploring alternative approaches to support student social and emotional wellbeing.
Social labs are a multi-stakeholder, collaborative processes to generate, test, and iterate solutions to complex social challenges(Hassan, 2014). Inspired by this approach, the authors partnered with 6 school districts in British Columbia, Canada (starting in the 2015-16 school year) to approach the challenge of achieving a systemic shift in education towards prioritizing and integrating social and emotional wellbeing into school and district policy and practice.
Mode of Inquiry
This paper draws from secondary international literature in a range of areas related to child and youth mental wellbeing, implementation of comprehensive school health approaches, and social lab theory and practice. This paper also draws upon interviews and document analysis from six school districts that were a part of WellAhead, an initiative to integrate social and emotional wellbeing into K-12 education, in British Columbia, Canada.
Point of View
Based on the experience of working with 6 diverse school districts in BC, Canada, this paper brings forward two key insights: First, that prototyping is a valuable methodology in the education space, that relates to existing work such as the ‘spiral of inquiry’, for example (Timperley, Kaser, Halbert 2014), and builds on identified best practices of these integration mechanisms by engaging teachers in networking, participation, internal communication, joint working, and professional development (Dechenes et al 2013a). Second, that social lab initiators must begin by clearly identifying the scale at which an intervention will operate, and identify both process and criteria for interventions that have potential to influence change at that level.
Significance
While the practice of social labs has grown substantially in past decades, study of its key elements, efficacy, and effectiveness in addressing complex social challenges remains sparse. This paper offers insight into a way of working differently within school communities to advance wellbeing and suggests that building on the efforts of social labs, a focus on prototyping is one way to advance meaningful shifts in practice amongst educators through an experience that is at once social, systemic, and actively experimental (Hassan, 2014). This paper will have interest and implications for those interested in the interface between theories of praxis, studies around health promoting schools, and practice.

Authors

• Vani Jain

• Paul McArthur, McConnell Foundation