Education, Inclusion & Upbringing in the Digital Age in Serbia: A Program and its Technology Means to Support Social-Emotional Learning

• In Event: Inclusion, Identity, and belonging

Proposal

Over the last 15 years, the Republic of Serbia has made significant progress with respect to defining a legal framework for inclusive education, such as the potential for improving social cohesion, intercultural relations, and educational opportunities for all children. Nonetheless, after years of inclusive education introduced in schools across Serbia, implementation capacity has not yet caught up with legislative changes. For example, the Law on Foundations of Educational System (2020) lays down in Article 3 that each person is entitled to education and upbringing in schools. The upbringing role of education is defined as “supporting the development of students' personality,” meaning character development or social-emotional learning (SEL). Hence the objectives of education and upbringing specified later in Article 8 include development of self-awareness, creative abilities, critical thinking, development of positive human values, sense of solidarity, understanding and constructive cooperation , among other variables. Yet if upbringing is an inalienable and integral part of education system in Serbia, unfortunately its function in education is still widely neglected and with little understanding of how to implement it in non-digital and digital ways. Schools still turn towards a narrow cognitive aspect of learning, and not to the overall development of the student’s character - as a consequence an entire set of important objectives and outcomes of education are overlooked. The country’s Strategy for Education Development in 2030 (2021) warns: “It is clear that such a model, in the best-case scenario, may produce a person with a good grasp of the facts but dependent, incapable of connecting and applying knowledge, cooperating with others, unskilled for teamwork, for taking on responsibilities, decision-making, identifying and problem solving, and with a low motivation for learning and intellectual work.” Without the methods, approaches, and willingness to provide upbringing through SEL, we risk creating students who are not able to express social-emotional skills but also potential adults who cannot thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Moreover, we risk ignoring schools’ and teachers’ capacities to learn how to teach students social-emotional skills that will significantly aid in their upbringing. For students now, as they live in a digital age, it is imperative that they gain social-emotional competencies that will allow them to navigate this changing world that can be both isolated and interconnected. Teacher competences in the Standards for competences and professional development of teachers in Serbia (2017) are determined in relation to learning goals and outcomes and should provide professional standards on what is considered successful teaching. Analysis of professional development programs for teachers during the 2016-2019 school years showed that out of a total of 961 offered programs, only 6 programs (0.6%) deal with emotions and emotional intelligence. Teaching that is effective both academically and socially-emotionally can be achieved through well-planned teacher professional development that focuses on both non-digital and digital methods. Studies (2017) in Serbia on teaching and curriculum show evidence that when they focus solely on cognitive content and processes, schools cannot fully meet the needs of students living in the digital age.

International and in-country partners during the last three years have designed and implemented a program to mitigate some of the issues faced by schools in bringing up students and tending to their social-emotional character development. The first stage of the program was the creation of a framework that aligns with government policies for schools to adhere to student upbringing and social inclusion. The importance of this framework was catalyzed by the school shootings in May 2023, which brought on government policy that all schools across the country implement SEL as they are able. Next programmatic stage was managing capacity building through a professional development training series amongst teachers and school staff so that they best understand social-emotional learning, how to implement it in non-digital and digital methods, and how to participate in human-centered design such as communities of practice and participatory action research. The program at this stage continues to employ activities that demonstrate how teachers build their own capacities in upbringing and character development via digital tools but also how they are using technology to support students’ upbringing and growth in their social-emotional competencies. Moreover, evaluation results demonstrate the feasibility of other schools to take on professional development, capacity building, and SEL implementation, but also the digital means to carry assessments and evaluations, thus marking that such a program could be expanded and go to scale nationally.

The authors of this paper can demonstrate the program’s goals, outcomes, and outputs, and how it has supported SEL implementation and professional development with both non-digital and digital methods. The paper will present how such a program designed and implemented in an Eastern European country can build schools’ capacities to use technology and digital tools to strengthen students’ social-emotional competencies, whilst focusing on how schools can better align to government policies on education and upbringing to advance social inclusion and student growth. Yet the paper will also show how the program used digital tools to connect and build teacher capacities, how teachers now use other technology to teach SEL, and how schools and organizations alike can advance SEL through digital and technology means.

Authors

• Katherine Tek, Childhood Education International

• Aleksandra Kalezić Vignjević, Center for Interactive Pedagogy