Beyond the surface: Using Emotion-based techniques to change school-based gender-related violence: A pilot intervention in semi-rural schools in Uganda
Summary:
Save the Children International is piloting a two-pronged emotional drivers-based SBC intervention addressing school-based gender-related violence using Chaldini's principles of influence to engage teachers in an emotion-filled, reflective journey, challenging existing harmful norms that promote violence against children. The objective of the intervention is to recreate a school culture where hitting, using humiliating language and punishments, engaging sexually with children and having different gender-based expectations of children is despised while treating boys and girls with respect and equity is celebrated as the new normal. In the intervention, half an hour weekly sessions with teachers are complemented with social media (Facebook and WhatsApp) weekly posting and conversations where teachers make small doable commitments to protect children from gender-based discrimination and violence at the end of each session and social media discussions. Preliminary data from the teacher engagements indicates that; teachers have perceived gender-undertones that are hurtful to children's feelings and participation in class. The emotion-based approach is allowing authentic conversations that allow discussion and self-reflection among teachers to; walk in the shoes of their pupils; take a stand against beliefs that boys are tougher, girls are less capable and should do domestic chores and that teachers have the right to treat their pupils as sexual objects. The school-based approach and social media are enabling a sustainable change in school culture and creating a movement of teachers to reach a scale big enough to challenge and change norms at national level.
Background/Objectives:
Save the Children International is piloting a two-pronged emotional drivers-based SBC (school-based and social media) intervention addressing school-based gender-related violence using likability, consensus, reciprocity, commitment, and authority as key emotional drivers to engage teachers in an emotion-filled, reflective journey, challenging existing harmful norms that promote violence against children. The objective of the intervention is to recreate a school culture where hitting, using humiliating language and punishments, engaging sexually with children (comments, touching and sex) and having different gender-based expectations of children is despised while treating boys and girls with respect and equity is accepted and celebrated as the new normal.
Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:
In the school-based component, teachers meet for half an hour weekly to reflect on their everyday behaviour, share their feelings and vulnerabilities and 'walk in the shoes' of students who experience violence and gender discrimination in school every day. The focus is on making teachers feel how an offending teacher makes the rest of teachers lose respect, status and recognition (emotional drivers that teachers seek) from the community and pupils. At the end of each session, teachers make small doable commitments to protect children from gender-based discrimination and violence. The second part of the intervention involves closed Facebook and WhatsApp groups where most compelling protective and gender empowering quotes and photos from community members are posted twice a week. 'Conversation starters' are used to facilitate conversation amongst teachers to challenge existing discriminative gender norms and violent behaviours against children and to take a stand against violence against girls and boys.
Results/Lessons Learned:
Preliminary data shows that teachers were not aware of their perceived gender-undertones that hurt children's feelings and their participation in class. Through the sessions, teachers have questioned their own beliefs that boys are tougher, girls are less capable and should do domestic chores, that teachers have the right to treat their students as sexual objects. The school-based approach is enabling a sustainable change in individual school culture. The social media component, gives teachers the; connection and recognition they want and has the potential to create a movement of teachers to reach a scale big enough to challenge and change norms at national level.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
The combination of both face to face interactions complemented by social media provides an opportunity for large scale and low cost replicable behaviour change which can be applied for other in teaching service and large groups. Although SBC has been largely used in the health sector, the early lessons from the Commitments project show that SBC provides better opportunity for engagement to change behaviours than the traditional top-down logic-based knowledge sharing traditionally used in education. SCI is conducting a quasi-experimental survey to test and compare the effectiveness of the two-pronged SBC across 20 intervention and 20 control schools.
Abstract submitted by:
Prisca Uwera Kalenzi - Save the Children
Catherine Kennedy - Save the Children
Pam McCarthy
Save the Children International is piloting a two-pronged emotional drivers-based SBC intervention addressing school-based gender-related violence using Chaldini's principles of influence to engage teachers in an emotion-filled, reflective journey, challenging existing harmful norms that promote violence against children. The objective of the intervention is to recreate a school culture where hitting, using humiliating language and punishments, engaging sexually with children and having different gender-based expectations of children is despised while treating boys and girls with respect and equity is celebrated as the new normal. In the intervention, half an hour weekly sessions with teachers are complemented with social media (Facebook and WhatsApp) weekly posting and conversations where teachers make small doable commitments to protect children from gender-based discrimination and violence at the end of each session and social media discussions. Preliminary data from the teacher engagements indicates that; teachers have perceived gender-undertones that are hurtful to children's feelings and participation in class. The emotion-based approach is allowing authentic conversations that allow discussion and self-reflection among teachers to; walk in the shoes of their pupils; take a stand against beliefs that boys are tougher, girls are less capable and should do domestic chores and that teachers have the right to treat their pupils as sexual objects. The school-based approach and social media are enabling a sustainable change in school culture and creating a movement of teachers to reach a scale big enough to challenge and change norms at national level.
Background/Objectives:
Save the Children International is piloting a two-pronged emotional drivers-based SBC (school-based and social media) intervention addressing school-based gender-related violence using likability, consensus, reciprocity, commitment, and authority as key emotional drivers to engage teachers in an emotion-filled, reflective journey, challenging existing harmful norms that promote violence against children. The objective of the intervention is to recreate a school culture where hitting, using humiliating language and punishments, engaging sexually with children (comments, touching and sex) and having different gender-based expectations of children is despised while treating boys and girls with respect and equity is accepted and celebrated as the new normal.
Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:
In the school-based component, teachers meet for half an hour weekly to reflect on their everyday behaviour, share their feelings and vulnerabilities and 'walk in the shoes' of students who experience violence and gender discrimination in school every day. The focus is on making teachers feel how an offending teacher makes the rest of teachers lose respect, status and recognition (emotional drivers that teachers seek) from the community and pupils. At the end of each session, teachers make small doable commitments to protect children from gender-based discrimination and violence. The second part of the intervention involves closed Facebook and WhatsApp groups where most compelling protective and gender empowering quotes and photos from community members are posted twice a week. 'Conversation starters' are used to facilitate conversation amongst teachers to challenge existing discriminative gender norms and violent behaviours against children and to take a stand against violence against girls and boys.
Results/Lessons Learned:
Preliminary data shows that teachers were not aware of their perceived gender-undertones that hurt children's feelings and their participation in class. Through the sessions, teachers have questioned their own beliefs that boys are tougher, girls are less capable and should do domestic chores, that teachers have the right to treat their students as sexual objects. The school-based approach is enabling a sustainable change in individual school culture. The social media component, gives teachers the; connection and recognition they want and has the potential to create a movement of teachers to reach a scale big enough to challenge and change norms at national level.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
The combination of both face to face interactions complemented by social media provides an opportunity for large scale and low cost replicable behaviour change which can be applied for other in teaching service and large groups. Although SBC has been largely used in the health sector, the early lessons from the Commitments project show that SBC provides better opportunity for engagement to change behaviours than the traditional top-down logic-based knowledge sharing traditionally used in education. SCI is conducting a quasi-experimental survey to test and compare the effectiveness of the two-pronged SBC across 20 intervention and 20 control schools.
Abstract submitted by:
Prisca Uwera Kalenzi - Save the Children
Catherine Kennedy - Save the Children
Pam McCarthy
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: GPE/Livia Barton via Flickr - (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)