What Is New in Evidence for Safe Learning Environments: Climate Change, COVID-19, and Mental Health

• In Event: Expanding the Understanding of Resilience in Educational Responses to Crises

Proposal

This session presents findings from the work completed on updating the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network's (ECCN's) Safe Learning Environment Evidence Review (Safety Gap Map). A systematic literature review completed for this update was guided by this question: Given the additional evidence generated since the original Safety Gap Map, what additions and revisions to the 2018 gap maps are needed to support learning network members’ access to and application of evidence-based tools and resources related to safe learning environments? Based on a 2015 literature review, the original Safety Gap Map provided evidence-based resources to practitioners to support planning and implementation of programs and identify gaps where further research is needed. The development of the original Safety Gap Map has adopted the hazard framework to identify findings in the following areas:
-Internal threats, including gang violence that emanates from within the school and school-related gender-based violence;
-External threats, including school-related gender-based violence experienced on the way to and from school, gang violence, armed conflict, and ideological attacks on education;
-Environmental threats related to physical health; and
-Environmental threats related to various natural hazards.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and with the increasing impact of climate change on educational experiences, the learning network members identified the need to update the Safety Gap Map to inform future research and programming. Learning network members reference these gap maps as an especially useful set of resources in their work and have advocated for updating the Safety Gap Map during 2023 to address conditions in the educational sector post-pandemic and during an intensified climate change period. The update wil incorporate learnings of the impact of the pandemic on the learners’ physical and mental health at global scale in 2020, post the first edition of the gap map. Climate change continues to accelerate extreme weather events and other environmental threats to learners’ safety and well-being.


The methodology for this recent update of the Safety Gap Map followed the original hazard framework (mentioned above) and adhered to the principles of quality described in a quality assessment tool (produced by our funding agency) that codifies best practices in designing, implementing, and reporting on evaluations for use by The Agency’s in-country bureaus, partners, and the education sector at large, as appropriate. At a high level, the principles include: conceptual framing, openness and transparency, cultural appropriateness, robustness of methodology, validity, reliability, and cogency. The updated Safety Gap Map is accessible via the funding agency website. The presentation will highlight the process of updating the Safety Gap Map and identify significant changes and valuable learning from the process.

Author

• Cynthia Koons, Education Development Center