Play-based SEL Kernels in Ukraine: Understanding Local Priorities and Needs through Landscape Research

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

Proposal

Education in Ukraine has been under attack since the start of the war. Over 2,000 schools have been shelled or bombed, (Arhirova & Fisch, 2022; Snyder, 2023) with an average of four preschools a day damaged or destroyed (Save the Children, 2022). The education of over five million Ukrainian children has been disrupted by bomb sirens, shelling, lack of electricity due to targeted attacks on infrastructure, frequent school closures, and displacement (United Nations, 2023). The stress associated with loss of relationships, exposure to violence, and ongoing disruption in housing, schooling, and other basic needs has a profound effect on the social and emotional development, wellbeing, and learning of young children. Many teachers in Ukraine are increasing their focus on the social and emotional needs of students amidst the unstable learning conditions and trauma that have become a “new normal” for their students. The head of a kindergarten that was shelled in Kharkiv said: "It's not the destruction of the building that makes me emotional. It's the destruction of childhood" (Nadworny & Harbage, 2022). A teacher who is displaced and teaching her students online shared that her “focus is less on imparting new knowledge and more on distracting the children from the war” (Specia & Varenikova, 2022). Indeed, the biggest challenge for educators in the coming months and years will not be academic, but will be supporting students to cope with trauma.

One approach to support teachers and students’ social and emotional wellbeing and development in Ukraine, amidst more specialized supports, is an upcoming national rollout of contextualized play-based SEL Kernels. SEL Kernels are fun, short, and flexible strategies (activities, games, routines) that can easily be used by teachers and other educators to build social and emotional skills such as emotion knowledge and expression, collaboration, attention and inhibitory control, etc., while strengthening relationships in the classroom. This paper will present the findings from landscape research conducted as a preliminary step in the localization process to understand the most pressing priorities for teachers’ and students’ wellbeing and social and emotional development, and the most culturally embedded values, practices, and assets that are informing the co-development of SEL Kernels for Ukraine. Landscape research findings will be shared from locally conducted interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations. This paper will discuss the implications of these findings for the SEL Kernels; in what ways the Kernels are being adapted and shaped to reflect the local priorities and culture in Ukraine. Finally, we will discuss the implications of this phase of work for upcoming phases, including a pilot study, national rollout, and future evaluation research.

Authors

• Sonya Rose Temko, EASEL Lab, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Rebecca Bailey, Harvard University

• Bryan Nelson, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Stephanie Jones, Harvard Graduate School of Education