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

教育和卫生方面的不平等根深蒂固地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相关的生活质量的机会。这项研究旨在解决这一长期的结构性挑战，并确定学校如何克服困难，使儿童能够取得成就并茁壮成长，尽管他们所在的社区高度贫困。该项目以社会正义伦理为基础，由来自教育、健康、心理学、社会学和健康经济学的英国和南非跨学科团队领导。这项混合方法研究将建立一个全面的、以经验为基础的实践理论--即组织学校，使之成为改善学习和健康的有利空间。它将侧重于小学教育的基础阶段(6至9岁的儿童)，因为：i)这是从幼儿向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，儿童开始形成对优质学校的归属感，这些学校可以为那些由于童年早期经历障碍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)和参与性焦点小组开始，并与有目的地挑选的政策官员、学校和社区领导人以及其他利益攸关方(包括家长)进行个别访谈，以确定和评估过去十年的研究证据和政策报告。REA将在关键的教育、卫生和政策领域确定新的证据，在这些领域中，干预计划显示出在短期、中期和长期内最有效地提高儿童的成就和与健康相关的生活质量的潜力；以及影响这些的一系列因素。REA和访谈的结果将有助于制定一种面向系统的、多层次的干预措施，以加强学校的组织和专业能力，使其成为社会经济贫困的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方、参与性和协作性的儿童(家庭)-学校-社区伙伴关系，加强整个项目中干预措施的可行性、适用性和可持续性的设计和评估。将在姆普马兰加省的18所农村小学开展为期6个月的试点。将对学校及其社区的儿童和成人使用调查和参与性民族志方法，以探索干预任务、组织因素(特别是学校领导层、工作人员的专业能力、学习文化)以及学校和社区环境的不同如何结合在一起，造成结果的变化(即，什么似乎有效，为谁工作，在什么情况下)。改进后的干预措施将在姆普马兰加、西北部和林波波的58所农村小学(有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规模。将使用类似的评估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。通过研究学校如何创造空间来促进全童优质教育(SDG4)，并通过这项研究改变南非农村社区儿童和成人(SDG3)与健康相关的生活质量，这项研究将及时有助于理解不同部门如何与学校更有效地合作，以释放教育的变革力量，实现其他可持续发展目标。

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.