Schools as Enabling Spaces to Improve Learning and Health-Related Quality of Life for Primary School Children in Rural Communities in South Africa

学校是改善南非农村社区小学生学习和健康相关生活质量的有利空间

• 批准号: ES/T005149/1
• 负责人: Qing Gu
• 金额: $ 234.96万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FT005149%2F1
• 关键词: Schools; Enabling; Spaces; Improve; Learning

Inequalities in education and health are deeply rooted in social and economic disadvantage. In South Africa, 38% of children live in rural communities and are significantly more likely to be deprived of opportunities for quality education and health-related quality of life than those less disadvantaged. This research aims to address this persistent structural challenge and establish how schools can beat the odds and enable children to achieve and thrive despite their location in high-poverty communities. This project is grounded in an ethic of social justice and led by a UK and South Africa interdisciplinary team from Education, Health, Psychology, Sociology, and Health Economics. This mixed methods research will establish a comprehensive, empirically grounded theory of practice - i.e. organising schools as enabling spaces for improvement in learning and health. It will focus on the Foundation Phase of primary schooling (children aged 6-9) because: i) this is a critical period of transition from early childhood to middle childhood when early interventions can make a significant impact on long-term outcomes; and ii) this is also a key transition phase when children begin developing a sense of belonging to quality schools that can provide protective environments for those who are 'at risk' because of their dysfunctional early childhood experience. The project will begin with a rapid evidence assessment (REA) and participatory focus group and individual interviews with purposefully selected policy officials, school and community leaders, and other stakeholders (including parents) to scope and assess the research evidence and policy reports over the last decade. The REA will identify new evidence in the key education, health and policy areas where intervention programmes have shown the potential of being most effective in enhancing children's achievement and health-related quality of life in the short, medium and long term; and the range of factors that influence these. The results of the REA and interviews will inform the development of a systems-oriented, multi-layered intervention to strengthen the organisational and professional capacities of schools as enabling spaces for children's learning and development in socioeconomically disadvantaged rural communities. Multi-stakeholder, participatory and collaborative child (family)-school-community partnerships will be used to enhance the design and evaluation of the feasibility, applicability and sustainability of the interventions throughout the project. A six-month pilot will be carried out in 18 rural primary schools in the province of Mpumalanga. Surveys and participatory ethnographic methods will be used with children and adults in schools and their communities to explore how variation in intervention tasks, organisational factors (especially school leadership, professional capacity of the staff, learning culture), and school and community contexts combines to create variability in outcomes (i.e. what seems to work, for whom, under what circumstance). The refined interventions will then be scaled up in an efficacy investigation in 58 rural primary schools (with 4,600+ children, 230+ teachers/school leaders) and their communities in Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo. Similar evaluation methods will be used to assess the extent of change in schools' organisational and professional capacities and how such change has impacted on children's learning and health outcomes. By examining how schools may be(come) enabling spaces to promote whole-child quality education (SDG4), and through this, transform the health-related quality of life for children and adults (SDG3) in rural communities in South Africa, the research will make a timely contribution to understandings of how different sectors may work more effectively with schools to unlock the transformative power of education for the achievement of the other SDGs.

教育和保健方面的不平等深深植根于社会和经济劣势。在南非，38%的儿童生活在农村社区，与处境不那么不利的儿童相比，他们更有可能被剥夺获得优质教育和与健康有关的生活质量的机会。本研究旨在解决这一持续存在的结构性挑战，并确定学校如何克服困难，使儿童能够在高贫困社区中取得成就并茁壮成长。该项目以社会正义伦理为基础，由来自英国和南非的教育、健康、心理学、社会学和健康经济学的跨学科团队领导。这种混合方法的研究将建立一种全面的、以经验为基础的实践理论——即将学校组织为改善学习和健康的有利空间。它将重点关注小学教育的基础阶段（6-9岁儿童），因为：i)这是从幼儿期向幼儿中期过渡的关键时期，早期干预可以对长期结果产生重大影响；ii)这也是一个关键的过渡阶段，当孩子们开始对高质量学校产生归属感时，这些学校可以为那些因为早期童年经历不正常而“处于危险之中”的人提供保护环境。该项目将从快速证据评估（REA）和参与性焦点小组和个人访谈开始，有目的地选择政策官员、学校和社区领导人以及其他利益相关者（包括家长），以确定和评估过去十年的研究证据和政策报告。评估将在关键的教育、卫生和政策领域确定新的证据，在这些领域，干预方案已显示出在短期、中期和长期提高儿童成就和与健康有关的生活质量方面最有效的潜力；以及影响这些的一系列因素。评估和访谈的结果将为制定面向系统的多层次干预措施提供信息，以加强学校的组织和专业能力，使其成为社会经济上处于不利地位的农村社区儿童学习和发展的有利空间。将利用多方利益相关者、参与性和合作性的儿童（家庭）-学校-社区伙伴关系，在整个项目中加强对干预措施的可行性、适用性和可持续性的设计和评估。为期六个月的试点将在普马兰加省的18所农村小学进行。调查和参与式民族志方法将用于学校及其社区的儿童和成人，以探索干预任务、组织因素（特别是学校领导、员工的专业能力、学习文化）以及学校和社区环境的变化如何结合在一起，产生结果的可变性（即，什么似乎有效，对谁有效，在什么情况下有效）。随后，将在普马兰加省、西北省和林波波省的58所农村小学（4600多名儿童、230多名教师/学校领导）及其社区的功效调查中扩大改进后的干预措施。将采用类似的评价方法来评估学校组织和专业能力的变化程度，以及这种变化如何影响儿童的学习和健康结果。通过研究学校如何使空间能够促进全员素质教育（可持续发展目标4），并由此改变南非农村社区儿童和成人与健康相关的生活质量（可持续发展目标3），该研究将及时有助于理解不同部门如何更有效地与学校合作，释放教育的变革力量，以实现其他可持续发展目标。

项目成果

The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research

帕尔格雷夫教师教育研究手册

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-59533-3_2-1
• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: See B

Reading Cycles for the Foundation Phase of Primary Schools - Summary

小学基础阶段的阅读周期 - 总结

• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Ebersöhn, L.

International Encyclopedia of Education(Fourth Edition)

国际教育百科全书（第四版）

• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-818630-5.04084-7
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: See B

The effect of interventions for improving mental health and academic outcomes on primary school children living in socio-economically disadvantaged communities: A systematic evidence synthesis

改善心理健康和学业成绩的干预措施对生活在社会经济弱势社区的小学生的影响：系统证据综合

• 期刊: Educational Review
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Callaghan, P.

The Enabling Schools Toolkit: Centralised Learning Dialogue Manual for School Leaders

学校赋能工具包：学校领导者集中学习对话手册

• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Gu, Q.