Contextually Relevant Emotional and Social Well-being Tools (CREST)
Funded by: USAID
Date Range: 2021-2023
Project Lead: Pulte Institute
Notre Dame Collaborators: Pulte Institute
Contact: Tom Purekal
About CREST
CREST, or Contextually Relevant Emotional and Social Well-being Tools is part of a cooperative agreement between USAID and the University of Notre Dame, which advances global education priorities to improve learning outcomes. CREST focuses on improving education and teaching for children and their caregivers affected by conflict in communities in Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, and Liberia.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) increases children's self-awareness, academic achievement, and positive behaviors in and out of the classroom. And effective SEL interventions require an approach that includes teachers, administrators, and others supporting students’ development.
However, how SEL skills and teacher well-being are defined and operationalized in research and its translation into practice is inconsistent. Also, most tools for measuring children’s SEL and teachers’ well-being are not easy to use in conflict-affected and fragile contexts. Conducting qualitative research on children’s SEL skills and teacher well-being in their environments is critical since surroundings play a primary role in support.
Research Questions
1. How do primary school-age children, parents, and educators define and prioritize the social and emotional skills they believe are important in the lives of children? What are the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of a measure that is developed using this context-specific information?
2. How do primary school teachers define and prioritize teacher well-being and the factors that affect this well-being? What are the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of a measure that is developed using this context-specific information?
Methods and Analysis
To address the research questions of this study, we utilize a mixed-methods instrument development design. The research occurs side-by-side in each country with a dual focus on children’s SEL and teachers’ well-being in each stage.
- Stage 1: Exploring Context-Specific Perspectives of Child SEL and Teacher Well-being
- Stage 2: Converting the Perspectives of Child SEL and Teacher Wellbeing into Measures
- Stage 3: Field Testing the Pilot Child SEL and Teacher Well-being Measures
Research Goals
Country-level goal: Understand how children, parents, and teachers define and prioritize SEL and teacher well-being and produce context-relevant, validated assessments.
Cross-country goal: Develop a data-informed process that any country or activity, but especially those in crisis- or conflict-affected contexts, can use to develop feasible, reliable, valid, context-relevant, and conflict-sensitive child SEL and teacher well-being assessments.
