How satisfied are you with your life at this very moment?
A question we may not have the opportunity to reflect upon as much as we should, but indeed a question relevant to reflect upon our own wellbeing at any given moment.
This question was posed to a group of practitioners from the education ecosystem during #NextGenEdu's latest panel on Diving into the Wellbeing of Learners, with hopes that we could gather insights on what can be done to nurture our wellbeing.
The pandemic has been a mirror to reflect upon how wellbeing has been addressed within our education system and ever since, many relevant actors across the global education community -- governments, NGOs, startups, academia, etc -- have brought the topic of wellbeing into the limelight.
In Bangladesh, in particular, after 18 months of schools being closed, a number of meaningful interventions have taken place to improve the wellbeing of learners. The panel was an opportunity to discuss what has been working and what hasn't -- and here are some key recommendations on mainstreaming wellbeing in the education system:
Explicitly introduce wellbeing into the national curriculum
It is indeed positive to learn that the National Curriculum and Textbook Board of the Government of Bangladesh has introduced curricula for wellbeing for students of grade 6 and 7, all across Bangladesh. New teacher guides and workbooks have been introduced in this regard.
While the term wellbeing is ambiguous on its own, the curriculum is an attempt to collectively make sense and raise awareness regarding this topic. The wellbeing of learners cannot be nurtured through lecturing and rote memorization and thus, experiential learning techniques have been introduced, so that students can learn to take self-care, develop a healthy lifestyle, regulate emotion, exercise empathy, manage relationships with peers, and generate help-seeking behavior.
Encourage a deeper connection between students and teachers
Strengthening the capacity of teachers to offer psychosocial support to learners, build rapport with learners and creating a safe space in classrooms and schools is part of mainstreaming wellbeing.
While face-to-face courses on how to nurture wellbeing in the classroom have been developed for teachers, online courses designed by the government and private sector partners are also showing hope that a large number of teachers can be reached within a shorter period of time and with less expenditure. The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, with support from UNICEF, has launched a series of online training courses on the Muktopaath platform catered towards secondary school teachers to help them act as first responders to students in need of psychosocial support. The BRAC Institute of Educational Development has also provided online and in-person training to address collective wellbeing through a whole-of-society approach.
Strengthen support networks for teachers
Teachers can at times feel loneliness and burnout, showing both mental and physical exhaustion. Evidence shows that strengthening the support networks of teachers can improve their performance and wellbeing, which in turn, improves learning wellbeing.
Thus, training for teachers is not just about equipping teachers with new tools, techniques or activities -- it is also aimed at helping teachers to know themselves better, to support the wellbeing of themselves and their peers. Designing and implementing an enabling environment where teachers can bring their whole selves to work should be a key consideration for designing wellbeing interventions.
Prioritize the environment of learning over the content of learning
During and after Covid-19, the education community had to face trade-offs between continuing education and ensuring proper wellbeing. Without ensuring the wellbeing of learners, forcing them to learn new concepts was not a useful option.
Am I safe? Am I being loved? What can I learn? These are three questions to keep in mind from the learners' perspective when designing interventions that ensure wellbeing, but also ultimately results in learning outcomes as well.
Nurture an ecosystem of personalized learning in school, at home, and in communities
There has been a shift in curriculum with an intention to move from being teacher-centered to learner centered. Thus, the focus is more on learning how to learn, instead of just learning how to teach.
Personalized learning approaches are fundamental for learners and teachers to internalize the concept of personal wellbeing. Making an environment where each learner and teacher feels loved and cared for can help create a conducive atmosphere for learning. Given that learning takes place at homes and communities, in addition to school, parents and caregivers should also be made aware of concepts regarding wellbeing.
Consider systemic and external factors
Even after high-quality teacher professional development, you may not see improvements in wellbeing if you ignore other factors.
A high student-teacher ratio may prevent a teacher from ensuring wellbeing for each learner.
Teachers may feel discouraged to take new measures if they operate within a rigid environment. Parents may not understand why teachers are trying out new ideas or lessons if they lack understanding on the importance of the psychological wellbeing of learners.
Both teacher and parent/caregiver communities may face financial hardships due to increased price hikes. Events around the world may also be partially responsible for these price hikes, events that learners and teachers do not necessarily have immediate control over.
Without creating a one-size-fits all approach for every school in the country, the government needs to also consider different options given different contexts of schools. Interventions need to be specific to the particular implementation context.
Design comprehensive guidelines and a measurement framework
Based on good practices in Bangladesh and the world, comprehensive guidelines to promote wellbeing can be compiled into custom playbooks for different actors.
Learner voices must be put front and center when designing such guidelines. The differences in contexts and geographies must be taken into account.
While measurements for wellbeing might be tricky, research into what may be currently useful as a measurement framework should be an ongoing process. We hope that we can all work together to form an ecosystem that is committed to continuous reflection and action on understanding what works and what doesn't work when it comes to improving wellbeing outcomes in the overall education system.
Finally, after reading this article, we would be curious to know whether the answer to the question has shifted, even by a bit -- how satisfied are you with your life at this very moment?
Bio of Authors:
- Salman Sabbab is pursuing a Master of Public Policy(MPP) at LSE. Previously, he worked as Senior Manager, Innovation Ecosystem and Partnerships at BRAC Social Innovation Lab(SIL).
- Hasibur Rahman Sohan is Director, Program, Teach for Bangladesh.
- Shakil Ahmed is an educator, futurist and storyteller at Ridiculous Futures and Country Lead for EdTech Hub.
- Mehdi Hassan, e-learning expert, Aspire to Innovate- a2i, ICT Division .
