SAFER than SAFE: China Club as a model of a positive after-school initiative

ABSTRACT

This article reports on a study that investigated the effectiveness of one out-of-school activity: “China Club”. China Club, an initiative of Scotland’s National Centre for Languages and the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools, was established with the central aim of teaching Mandarin language and Chinese culture to young people from a secondary school in the West of Scotland. The article explores the success of China Club against criteria established in 2007 by Durlak and Weissberg to ascertain programme success, that is, how well the programme is: sequenced; active; focused; explicit (SAFE). We took an ethnographic case study approach, complemented by interviews with pupils, teachers and those leading the programme to investigate the effectiveness of China Club. We argue that the China Club has all the elements of a SAFE programme. Further, we suggest that more than these four factors are necessary if an out-of-school initiative is to move successfully beyond academic skills development to the personal and social growth of the individuals involved. We conclude that initiatives must also foster and include the opportunity for the development of effective relationships (R).

KEYWORDS:

• After-school programmes
• out-of-school activities
• relationships
• evaluative framework

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Craig MacDonald for his research assistance on the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hanban, China. Hanban is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education and is associated with the likes of Confucius Institutes.

Notes on contributors

Claire Cassidy

Claire Cassidy is a Reader in the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. Her research interests focus on Philosophy with Children, children’s rights, and concepts of child and childhood.

Ninetta Santoro

Ninetta Santoro is a Professor of Education and the Department Chair of Education at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. Her research focuses on the preparation of teachers for culturally diverse classrooms, the construction of teacher and learner identities, internationalisation and research methodologies for culturally diverse contexts.