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Session Submission Summary

Interventions to promote resilience throughout the life course of children in adversity

Thu, April 18, 10:00 to 11:30am, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Atrium (Level 2), Waterfront B

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Even though noteworthy strides have been taken towards achieving ‘education for all’ since the turn of the century, a significant proportion of the world’s children have not benefited from the progress made to date. Moreover, while the focus of national and international efforts has frequently been about increasing school enrolment rates, education quality is often neglected. It is estimated that one third of primary school age children living in low- and middle-income countries, for example, do not have basic literacy and numeracy skills, even after completing primary education (EFAGMR, 2010; UNESCO, 2014). Extreme poverty and crisis exacerbate these issues by making schooling unaffordable and inaccessible. Poor children are more likely to be exposed to violence and other disruptive influences than their wealthy counterparts. Conflict and war creates further barriers to education due to compromised safety, reduced infrastructure, and new social and family roles.

Research in the fields of resilience science and developmental science have identified a host of protective factors for children and youth which are associated with positive outcomes in adversity. This body of evidence suggests that influential factors that determine learning and success exist at the level of the child, the family, the school and the community (Cefai, 2008; Garmezy & Rutter, 1983, Werner, 1993). Integrating these multiple levels requires a “whole-child, whole-community” approach which goes beyond school-based interventions. There is a small, but growing movement in education to embrace this approach in the design and implementation of programs to foster resilience in children and youth growing up in adverse environments.  

One barrier to the adoption of the whole child, whole community approach is that education systems do not have the tools to measure variables beyond the child- and school-levels. Household surveys, which are routine in fields such as public health, are very rare within the education sector. In addition, the education sector tends to emphasize a narrow set of academic skills (mainly literacy and numeracy), at the neglect of critical socioemotional domains such as resilience, empathy, and mindfulness. Moreover, there is a gap in translating findings from whole-child, whole-community research to actionable programs.

This panel will report on the findings from three studies engaged in promoting a whole-child, whole-community approach to resilience throughout the life course of children and youth in adversity. Each study focuses on a different stage of the life course of the child, thereby offering several options for applying the whole-child, whole-community approach to diverse environments and developmental stages.

(1) Engaging priests in early child development in Haiti.
Catholic priests in Haiti play an important role in informing parental attitudes and behaviors, but they are rarely involved in early child development programs. In effort to support priests in Haiti to adopt a whole-child perspective, the research team is developing early child development training manuals for use in pre- marriage and family pastoral counseling programs, as well as a training video showing the impact of responsive care and stimulation on early child brain growth. These materials will be piloted, disseminated, and evaluated in late 2018/early 2019 through existing parish structures. This study is an example of how to mobilize non-traditional actors to create a behavior change campaign that impacts young children living in extreme poverty. 

(2) Assessing socioemotional learning in primary school students in Haiti.
Haitian learning assessments focus almost exclusively on literacy and numeracy outcomes. This emphasis neglects other key aspects of child development and learning, including socioemotional competencies and socio-ecological influences outside of the classroom, such as child health, household economic. Three separate measurement tools were identified or created to inform the development of an innovative socioemotional learning curriculum for early-grade primary school students in Haiti. Alongside these quantitative measures, the study team is also engaging local parishes in community asset-mapping to mobilize effective, locally-implemented initiatives that address key socioemotional and socioecological concerns as they are identified. The anticipated findings are critical for informing the introduction of sustainable and effective interventions geared towards the whole child.

(3) Catch-up education for forcibly displaced youth in the DRC and Tanzania.
Children in crisis experience enormous challenges, often compounded by disruption of education, leaving children months or years behind in their school curriculum. An accelerated education program (AEP) has been developed for out-of-school, over-age children and youth who have not received education or who experienced an interruption in education due to crisis and conflict. The program is targeting forcibly displaced populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania. Preliminary results from the piloting of the program will provide a profile of the refugee children enrolled in AEP programs along with methods used for data collection and the realities of research in humanitarian response. This work contributes to a wider understanding of the realities of displaced children and how to effectively fill gaps in their education so that they have the best opportunity for success in the future.

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