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不利地位。在南非，38%的儿童生活在农村社区，与那些处境较好的儿童相比，他们更有可能被剥夺获得优质教育和健康相关生活质量的机会。这项研究旨在解决这一持续存在的结构性挑战，并确定学校如何能够克服困难，使儿童能够实现和茁壮成长，尽管他们位于高度贫困社区。 该项目以社会正义的伦理为基础，由英国和南非教育，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个全面的，经验为基础的实践理论-即组织学校作为促进学习和健康的空间。它将侧重于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期过渡的关键时期，早期干预可对长期结果产生重大影响;和ii）这也是一个关键的过渡阶段，孩子们开始发展对优质学校的归属感，这些学校可以为那些“处于危险之中”的人提供保护性的环境。因为他们的童年经历不正常。 该项目将开始快速证据评估（REA）和参与性焦点小组和个别访谈有目的地选择的政策官员，学校和社区领导人，以及其他利益相关者（包括家长）的范围和评估的研究证据和政策报告在过去十年。REA将在关键的教育、卫生和政策领域中确定新的证据，在这些领域中，干预方案显示出在短期、中期和长期内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;以及影响这些方面的因素。 REA和访谈的结果将为制定一项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，使其成为社会经济弱势农村社区儿童学习和发展的有利空间。将利用多方利益攸关者、参与性和协作性的儿童（家庭）-学校-社区伙伴关系，加强整个项目干预措施的可行性、适用性和可持续性的设计和评价。 将在普马兰加省的18所农村小学进行为期六个月的试点。调查和参与性人种学方法将用于儿童和成人在学校和他们的社区，探讨如何干预任务的变化，组织因素（特别是学校领导，工作人员的专业能力，学习文化），以及学校和社区环境相结合，以创建结果的变化（即什么似乎是工作，为谁，在什么情况下）。然后，将在普马兰加、西北和林波波省的58所农村小学（有4 600多名儿童，230多名教师/学校领导）及其社区进行功效调查，扩大经改进的干预措施。类似的评估方法将用于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成果。 通过研究学校如何为促进全儿童优质教育（SDG 4）创造空间，并通过这一点改变南非农村社区儿童和成人与健康有关的生活质量（SDG 3），这项研究将及时有助于了解不同部门如何更有效地与学校合作，以释放教育的变革力量，实现其他SDGs。

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.