Preparing teachers to build the social emotional skills of learners at risk: contextualising SEL kernels in Adjumani, Uganda

• In Event: Localizing Social and Emotional Learning: Adapting SEL Kernels in International Contexts

Proposal

Developing SEL skills is vital for building resilience and promoting social integration in crisis settings (International Organization for Migration, 2021). While the importance of strengthening learners’ SEL skills cannot be understated, needs of teachers responsible for the delivery of SEL programs are often ill-attended to. This is remarkable considering teachers strongly influence learners’ SEL outcomes and academic achievement (Schonert-Reichl, 2017).

Uganda hosts the largest population of refugees and asylum seekers in Africa, with an estimated 1.58 million refugees living in the country (UNHCR dashboard, July 2023), mostly from South Sudan and DR Congo. Its progressive education policies mean refugee learners have access to the country’s public education system. While the Ugandan model of integrated education appears to foster amicable relations between refugee learners and their host community peers, it is not without its challenges. In Adjumani, one of Uganda’s thirteen refugee-hosting districts, teachers reported the need for psychosocial support for teachers and primary school learners alike, in order to build resilience (and reduce the risk of early school drop-out), enhance emotion recognition and handling, and foster intercommunal relationship building.

Against this backdrop, VVOB partnered with the Ministry of Education and Sports and the Adjumani District Local Government to pilot a teacher professional development package that equips primary school teachers with classroom methodologies to strengthen learners’ foundational literacy and numeracy skills as well as social emotional skills using two complementary approaches, namely Teaching at Right Level (TaRL) and SEL Kernels.

This paper presents findings from our experience capacitating teachers to strengthen the SEL skills of 2,113 overage-for-grade primary school learners from grades 3 to 5 in Adjumani district using SEL kernels. We offer preliminary analysis of process monitoring data from 14 pilot schools over three school terms to assess the ability of teachers to implement practices in the classroom that develop learners’ SEL skills from the cognitive, social, emotional, and identity domains. Additionally, we comment on teachers’ competence in using SEL kernels using data from teacher training evaluations and lesson observations. The findings show a preference of teachers to implement SEL kernels in the social and cognitive domains, while shying away from the emotion domain. Based on this, we pose questions on how to ensure teachers strike a balance in addressing the priority SEL domains and skills. Finally, we share insights from the prototyping of a SEL assessment tool that was prototyped in July 2023 in four primary schools in Adjumani district.

Authors

• Kakula Sambanu Wandi, VVOB - Education For Development

• Maud Seghers, VVOB - education for development