Social, emotional and intercultural competencies: a literature review with a particular focus on the school staff

ABSTRACT

Framed by the EU-project Hand in Hand focusing on Social, Emotional and Intercultural (SEI) competencies among students and school staff the paper discusses implementation and professional competencies based on a literature review. Five themes were identified: 1) Intercultural/transcultural competency is not often referred to in the same research as social-emotional learning, though socio-emotional aspects appear to be `in the core´, 2) it is crucial to be aware of agency among school staff in a SEI-implementation, 3) successful implementation is about more than the activities in the specific program, it is rather about elements in synergy and professional learning over time, 4) the subtle balance between adaptation and fidelity might best be addressed in an adaptive curriculum emphasizing active ingredients, and 5) this is a field with many intervention studies, but it is urgent to consider if the psychometric measures are sufficiently sensitive to catch the subtle changes related to SEI-competencies.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher student relationship
• cultural awareness
• professional development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. IDI measures individual´s construction of cultural difference along a continuum from mono-cultural to intercultural worldviews using the five scales: denial/defence scale, reversal scale, minimization scale, acceptance/adaptation scale and encapsulated marginality scale. The scale refers to the development of intercultural sensitivity highlighted by Bennett (2013) where, differences first are denied, then people act defensive, then differences get minimized, then differences are accepted, people learn to adapt to differences in their communication, and finally they understand that culture is something constructed non-essential and they manage to free themselves from cultural influences to a certain extent and learn to switch between different cultural frames.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the EU, Erasmus+ Programme Key action 3, 582939-EPP-1-2016-2-SI-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY

Notes on contributors

Birgitte Lund Nielsen

Birgitte Lund Nielsen (PhD in Educational Research) holds a position as senior associate professor at VIA University College. She has a background as teacher and teacher educator. Her research interests include teachers’ professional learning, professional development programs for teachers and implementation related to this, student teachers’ inquiries into professional practice, professional learning communities and co-creation projects in professional practice. She is a research leader in VIAs program for professional education and a project leader in the Danish team in the Hand in Hand project.

Hilmar Dyrborg Laursen

Hilmar Dyrborg Laursen, MA in Educational Studies, holds a position as associate professor. He has a background as teacher, teacher educator and CFM Qualified MBSR Teacher, and he has participated in research activities at VIA University College since 2008 in the areas of inclusion, blended learning, students’ autonomy, professional development among others. Currently his research focus is on building communities in the classroom and  social and emotional competence.

Lise Andersen Reol

Lise Andersen Reol, (MA in psychology), holds a position as associate professor in teacher education at VIA University College. She has in her research and teaching a main focus on the bodily embedded, relational aspects of teaching and education.

Helle Jensen

Helle Jensen, Psychologist (MA in psychology), specialist in psychotherapy and supervision, family-therapist. Cofounder of the Danish Society for the Promotion of Life Wisdom in Children. Teacher of relational competence and how to develop presence, awareness and empathy for professionals working with children and youth. Is working in many different European Countries and she is a leading teacher of a two-year International Education situated in Germany (www.trainingempathy.com). Also lead trainer for a developmental and research project called “The Relational Competence Project” at the VIA University College, for student teachers, as well as for the Hand in Hand school staff program.

Ana Kozina

Ana Kozina (PhD in psychology) is a research associate and assistant professor. Her research work presents interplay between educational and developmental psychology, focusing on the interplay between social and emotional learning and outcomes on the level of individuals (aggression, anxiety) and schools (school climate, classroom climate), and in recent years also positive psychology (positive youth development perspective, well-being). She is an active member of focused research group Educational studies (2015-2020) and a member of Editorial board: Educational research Institute Press. From 2017 she is leading the Slovenian Educational Research Association (SLODRE).

Masa Vidmar

Masa Vidmar (PhD in Psychology) is a researcher at the Educational Research Institute and a docent (assistant professor) of psychology at the University of Maribor. Her expertise lay in the role of students’ and teachers’ social and emotional competences and its relation to different outcomes. Recently, her work focuses also on education of disadvantaged students (e.g. children with autism). Her research interests include also early childhood education and care. She is member of national research program group and is currently involved in several national and international projects. As national expert she has prepared national reports for OECD and Eurydice.

Maria Rasmusson

Maria Rasmusson (PhD in Education) is a senior lecturer at Mid Sweden University and Uppsala University. She has a background as a teacher and teacher educator. Her main research interest is in education on a system level as well as on an individual level in e.g. the field of reading and writing development. Currently her research is focused on investigating socio-emotional and intercultural competencies in school contexts and the effect of a science education program on students’ outcomes in Sweden.

Iris Marušić

Iris Marušić (PhD in psychology), is scientific adviser at the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb. She is a researcher with primary interests in the field of teacher motivation and personality. She has been a member of various international networks in her field of interest. She is a project leader of Croatian Hand in Hand Team.

Albert Denk

Albert Denk is a social scientist and a research associate at Technische Universität München (TUM). Moreover, he is a PhD candidate and a lecturer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). Before, he worked as a research assistant for the Centre for International Student Assessment at the TUM. In his doctoral thesis, he is focusing on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Nina Roczen

Nina Roczen (PhD in Psychology) is a research associate at DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education. Her research interests include Education for Sustainable Development, Global Learning, and Large Scale Assessment. Currently, her research is focused on developing an indicator for measuring outcomes of education for sustainable development and on evaluating the effectiveness of the Hand in Hand programme.

Svetlana Jurko

Svetlana Jurko is the Executive Director of the Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC) an international non-governmental membership organization of education policy centers.Since the inception of NEPC in 2006, she has managed numerous international projects and publications in educational access, inclusion and policy. She also sits at the Board of SIRIUS Policy Network for Migrant Education.

Ales Ojstersek

Ales Ojstersek, works in the field of EU cohesion policy and the development of human resources in Slovenia at the Slovenian Ministry of Education Science and Sport.