Examining the rise of “life skills” education programming for adolescents in developing country contexts

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Education for “life skills” is a popular concept in the field of international development education. A recent review of the literature on “life skills” in the field of international development education found that “there are as many definitions of life skills as there are global education actors and thought leaders” (Dupuy and Halvorsen 2016). Non-governmental organizations, international aid agencies, and philanthropic donors in education have embraced the idea that education should prepare individuals both academically and with “skills,” also referred to as “life skills,” “non-cognitive skills,” “character skills” and/or “socio-emotional skills.”1 Acquiring “skills” is commonly mentioned as a characteristic of quality education (e.g. Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.4; Tikly and Barrett, 2011; Sayed and Ahmed, 2015). The meanings and terminologies associated with the concept of life skills vary, and methods for systematically measuring and tracking changes in life skills are not well defined. While “life skills” might be a catchy or acceptable terminology in the field, specification of the cognitive, socio-emotional and behavioral learning outcomes is needed, particularly for researchers interested in examining how and if interventions can lead to improvements in people’s lives.
This panel includes three presentations that critically engage the idea of life skills education in developing country contexts, with special attention to gender issues. Dr. Erin Murphy-Graham will present a landscape analysis and empirical review of research on life skills education for adolescents. She identifies three discourse communities that have engaged the term life skills, and will discuss them in detail as well as the areas of overlap in how they use the term life skills in their interventions and publications. Dr. Joan DeJaeghere will present on the problems with and possibilities for girls’ life skills. Drawing upon empirical data, the presentation offers an alternative framing of life skills that focuses less on individual “traits” or characteristics that can be learned, such as perseverance, and more on how these “skills” are embedded in social relations in their communities, institutions and the larger society. Finally, Dr. Urvashi Sahni will present work from the Prerna school in India that includes a critique of “life skills” when it is used in a decontextualised way, without  embedding them in social and political structures, with a special focus on a new curriculum for boys. Dana Schmidt, a Senior Program Officer at Echidna Giving, will serve as Chair and Discussant.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Erin Murphy-Graham, University of California, Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• Life skills education for adolescents: A landscape analysis and empirical review - Erin Murphy-Graham, University of California, Berkeley

• Problems with and possibilities for girls’ life skills: From individual skills to social relations - Joan DeJaeghere, University of Minnesota

• “Learning outcomes” to “Life outcomes”: Reclaiming the purpose of education - Urvashi Sahni, Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF)

Discussant

• Dana Schmidt, Echidna Giving