Building a national SEL framework and intervention from the ground up in Rwanda

• In Event: Social Emotional Learning: Building Community and National Networks and Policies

Proposal

Evidence from global contexts has shown that school-based social-emotional learning interventions improve learning outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing of children. However, the 2021 USAID systematic review of SEL programs found that “highly structured global approaches did not always lead to positive effects.” One reason for this may be that, although the understanding of what social-emotional learning is and how to teach it varies widely between and within contexts and cultures, most of interventions use SEL frameworks designed in western contexts that lack coherence with the skills, values, and conceptions of success for children in their society (Jukes et al, 2021). In fact, SEL interventions are most effective when they reflect local understandings of social-emotional skills and utilize culturally relevant and meaningful teaching methods and activities, which can only be achieved when local stakeholders have the power to design and lead programming (Bailey et al, 2021). In Rwanda, a partnership between a USAID-funded program and the Rwanda Basic Education Board is delivering contextually relevant SEL programming through the successful development and adoption of a national SEL framework and intervention led by local stakeholders.

This presentation will share Rwanda’s achievements and lessons learned from this collaboration in developing an evidence-based locally led SEL intervention at the national level, including designing and adopting a national SEL framework. It will begin by outlining the process of developing the SEL skills framework aligned to the Rwandan competence-based curriculum and reflective of Rwandan culture, values, and language through a process of inclusive stakeholder participation, ministry engagement, and research. The presenters will then demonstrate how the framework provides the foundation for Tunoze Gusoma’s approach to integrating evidence-based SEL activities and practices into teacher training and materials, including a fully SEL-integrated teacher guide for lower primary level literacy. We will also share initial results of the program evaluation that uses a SEL skills assessment tool tailored to the national framework.

By empowering local stakeholders to define social-emotional learning and how to teach it, this initiative is protesting the trend towards global definitions of SEL and countering the patterns of power that push education interventions towards conformity with approaches from the global north. We will show how the locally led process has facilitated uptake and ownership of SEL as part of the national curriculum, serving national educational goals around fostering foundational skills and developing good citizens and community members. We will also discuss lessons learned about the amount of time and effort involved in developing fully locally led SEL interventions, particularly how future initiatives can better include participatory methods including children and communities.

Authors

• Jules Gatete, Save The Children International

• Elyssa A Skeirik, FHI 360

• Chantal Uwiragiye