What Makes a Positive School Positive: Findings from Malawi and Uganda

• In Event: Poster session IV
  In Poster Session: Poster session 4

Proposal

The culture and climate of school make a difference in student’s lives. When the school and staff are welcoming and genuinely care about students, encourage them to do their best and are responsive to the social and learning needs of all students – then students’ positive social and emotional development is nurtured alongside their academic growth. (Thapa, A. et al., 2013, A Review of School Climate Research, Review of Educational Research). Furthermore, special programs designed specifically to foster social and emotional learning (SEL) have made positive impacts on attendance and learning outcomes as well as the general wellbeing of students, however, the effect sizes tend to be small and sustainability of outcomes is not always observed (Taylor, et al., 2017. Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based SEL Interventions: A Meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development). The basic premise behind the research presented in this poster session is that social and emotional learning (SEL) is inherently dependent on and a direct result of the organizational culture and climate of the school , which is supported by Jones, S. and Bouffard, S. 2012. Social and Emotional Learning in Schools: From Programs to Strategies. In Sharing Child and Youth Development Knowledge, Vol 26, No. 4.
This study sought to understand how certain aspects of school culture and school climate serve to nurture students’ social and emotional development. Three schools in each, Malawi and Uganda, were identified as being above the 95th percentile on measures of gender responsiveness, use of positive reinforcement, positive school climate, and violence intolerance based on data from the Malawi NASIS (National Assessment of School Inclusion and Safety) and the USAID/Uganda Literacy Achievement and Retention Activity baseline data on school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). These schools were considered positive outliers in terms of inclusion, violence intolerance and school climate. One struggling school in each country was selected based on their position in the distribution of these measures, falling below the 5th percentile. None of the schools in this study were receiving any external interventions related to school climate or SEL and thus the findings were a reflection on how the school organizes itself organically to provide a positive, supportive and violence-free school climate for learning. Qualitative methods were used to answer the following questions:
• What are the characteristics of a positive school culture and climate in Malawi and Uganda?
• How does a positive school mediate social-emotional and cognitive development?
• In the absence of external interventions, how is a positive school culture and climate established and maintained?
Preliminary findings suggest that in schools that are exceptionally positive, school staff, parents, SMC members and students alike are unified around a unique school identity such as social capital, school ‘as family’, sports and school competitions, collaborative problem solving. Surprisingly school leadership and materials resources were rarely mentioned as key contributors to nurturing students’ positive social and emotional development.

Authors

• Elizabeth Randolph, RTI International

• Julianne Norman, RTI International

• Lauren Edwards, RTI International

• Joseph Destefano, RTI International