How do we know if teachers are well? Exploring and validating a teacher social-emotional well-being measure

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday VII)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Beyond scripted lessons – exploring diverse social-emotional learning practices and research approaches

Proposal

Practitioners and researchers are increasingly recognizing that for teachers to incorporate social-emotional learning into the classroom, they must possess the skills themselves (Cunningham, Acosta & Mulle, 2016). Teachers’ own social-emotional competences and well-being is correlated with creating healthy relationships with their students, managing the classroom effectively, implementing social-emotional programs well, and improving classroom climate for all students (Jones et al., 2013). Teaching in crises and conflict-affected contexts can be particularly stressful and challenging, and teachers’ working conditions can impact their social-emotional, psychological and physical well-being.

While the interest in and support for projects that promote teachers’ social-emotional competencies and well-being is increasing world-wide, and in crises and conflict affected-contexts in particular, there is only a limited body of evidence assessing the impact of these programs on their participants. The rise of programs targeting teachers social-emotional competences and well-being in emergency contexts has raised questions about intervention outcomes and how to measure effectiveness. To determine which programs and which approaches are most effective, it is imperative to develop objective and reliable measures. In this presentation, FHI 360 will share insights from the process of developing a tool that measures teachers’ psychological well-being, mindfulness, emotional regulation and self-awareness. We will discuss our theory of change, intended outcomes, the potential use of this tool, its psychometric properties and the challenges we face in measuring teachers’ social-emotional competences and well-being in emergency contexts.

Authors

• Paul Frisoli, FHI 360

• Fernanda Soares, FHI 360