A rapid approach to contextualizing SEL interventions in crisis settings: Reflections from a pilot programme in Adjumani, Uganda

• In Event: Finding educational solutions that work for crisis-affected children: Experiences and findings contextualizing SEL interventions in three countries

Proposal

In January 2022, primary schools in Uganda reopened after the longest COVID-19-related school closures worldwide. By then, school closures and other COVID-19 restrictions had considerably deepened the learning crisis across the country. Refugee-hosting communities were particularly hard hit, as the pandemic also took a high toll on the mental wellbeing of young refugees (REACH, 2021; World Bank et al., 2021). Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Education and Sports and its education development partners agreed on the necessity of remedial learning solutions addressing both essential learning outcomes such as foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) and promoting learners’ social-emotional learning (SEL).

But while effective FLN methodologies are relatively uncontested, concerns have been raised about the contextual fit of SEL interventions transferred from the global North (Deitz, n.d.; Giacomazzi, 2022). Indeed, a lack of localization might be one of the reasons why we are not yet booking consistently positive results with SEL interventions in crisis settings (Bailey et al., 2021). Recent ethnographic research on the assessment of life skills and values in East Africa uncovered how skill constructs are influenced by culture and communities. For instance, according to participants in the research, problem-solving is not solely a cognitive but also a social process – something you do together (Ngina & Ariapa, 2021). Besides the call to contextualize SEL definitions and assessment, there is concern that many of the approaches promoting SEL are not easily applicable in the classroom realities in crisis settings (Bailey et al., 2021). To lower the burden on teachers, a low-lift, strategy-based approach to SEL that represents essential “active ingredients” from more comprehensive, effective SEL programs is welcome (Jones et al., 2021). Though such an approach does still require contextualization, it offers a promising starting point to (relatively quickly) build effective, low-cost and easy SEL methods (USAID, 2021).

This paper reflects on our experiences contextualizing such SEL methods in Adjumani, one of 13 refugee-hosting districts in Uganda. We use findings from our pilot program and perceptions shared by educators in the contextualization exercise to distill insights and recommendations on how rapid contextualization of SEL interventions can be facilitated. We will look at two components of contextualization: identifying and defining priority SEL skills for overage-for-grade learners and finding the right fit of SEL activities in the Adjumani classroom. The classroom in this case specifically refers to the remedial lessons that 28 pilot schools organize for overage-for-grade learners aimed at strengthening their FLN alongside SEL. The data presented were collected during the contextualization process that ran for four months (March-June 2022), including a landscape research and co-design workshop. We further present a preliminary analysis of classroom observations to be conducted during the first phase of the pilot (September-December 2022) to assess the fit of SEL strategies in the classroom realities. Based on these findings we will identify preliminary contextualization considerations for the refugee setting in Uganda. We will also pose questions and considerations for panel discussants and the audience regarding the balance between bottom-up, ethnographic approaches versus more rapid contextualization efforts.

Author

• Kakula Sambanu Wandi, VVOB - Education For Development