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Exploring school features impacting the emotional well-being of primary-aged children : from children’s perspectives
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Type
Thesis
Author
Tay-Lim, Joanna Kim Hoon
Supervisor
Wong, Meng Ee
Abstract
The need to address children’s emotional well-being burgeons with growing recognition of its pivotal role in underpinning the holistic development of children. School, being a key life institution for children, has been identified as a critical setting to attend to this demand. However, the role of schools has largely been guided by a long-standing view which emphasizes a medical and/or program-based approach. Current perspective goes beyond this reductionist approach to a school-wide setting approach focusing on enhancement of school’s capacity in key aspects of its functioning to foster children’s emotional well-being.
This PhD thesis is a qualitative study which draws on the more contemporary school-setting approach to explore the perspectives of 24 primary-aged children in two Singapore schools on how school features impact their emotional well-being. Emotional well-being has been investigated as a multi-faceted subjective construct embracing both positive and negative, as well as the hedonic and eudemonic dimensions of well-being. The primary years were targeted as this period is regarded as foundational for children’s development, including their emotional well-being.
Traditionally, studies in well-being have largely reflected the measurement trend utilizing well-being indicators conceptualized from adults’ perspectives. However, these do not reflect children’s social realities adequately. By engaging children’s perspectives, the current study envisions children as capable meaning-makers of their own lives, and positions them as competent social agents who can contribute salient data to the research issue. To empower children’s voices, the current study employed a participatory rights-based methodology situated within the interpretive inquiry. Participatory techniques foreground methods which are sensitive to children’s multi-literacies and developmental competencies. The participatory framework has been created through integrating a range of child-friendly methods with the in-depth one-to-one individual interview within a co-construction process.
The findings indicate that the student participants were able to ascertain, make meaning of, and articulate reflexive accounts of their school experiences in relation to the research topic, hence affirming them as valued social agents to inform on the research issue. The current study therefore has resonance for the growing body of knowledge which looks into the methodological challenges of conducting research with young children.
The analysis of data highlighted the following school features which the student participants identified as having an impact on their emotional well-being – peer relationships, teacher-student relationships, group dynamics, instructional strategies, assessment practices, discipline practices, physical environment, guidance and support, value of children’s work, and extra- and co-curricular activities. According to their perceptions, peer relationships, teacher-student relationships, and guidance and support exerted both positive and negative impact. They held more positive views in relation to school features such as group dynamics, instructional strategies, the physical environment, value of children’s work, and extra- and co-curricular activities. Discipline and assessment practices were identified as the two school features which predominantly impacted their emotional well-being adversely. When considered holistically, the identified school features represented an encompassing view of the school setting as well as underscored the situated nature of the school well-being concept, thereby reinforcing the conceptual understanding of the school setting and children’s emotionally well-being being integrally and contextually bounded. A key development of the current study is the re-representation of a school well-being model which captures more effectively the complex interplay of school features. Hence, the findings contribute further insights and theoretical inputs to the sparse local and international knowledge base on the etiology of children’s emotional well-being from the influence of schooling. In terms of informing policies and practices, teacher education and primary schools in Singapore could benefit from having an informed understanding of how the school setting could foster positive developments in children’s emotional well-being.
This PhD thesis is a qualitative study which draws on the more contemporary school-setting approach to explore the perspectives of 24 primary-aged children in two Singapore schools on how school features impact their emotional well-being. Emotional well-being has been investigated as a multi-faceted subjective construct embracing both positive and negative, as well as the hedonic and eudemonic dimensions of well-being. The primary years were targeted as this period is regarded as foundational for children’s development, including their emotional well-being.
Traditionally, studies in well-being have largely reflected the measurement trend utilizing well-being indicators conceptualized from adults’ perspectives. However, these do not reflect children’s social realities adequately. By engaging children’s perspectives, the current study envisions children as capable meaning-makers of their own lives, and positions them as competent social agents who can contribute salient data to the research issue. To empower children’s voices, the current study employed a participatory rights-based methodology situated within the interpretive inquiry. Participatory techniques foreground methods which are sensitive to children’s multi-literacies and developmental competencies. The participatory framework has been created through integrating a range of child-friendly methods with the in-depth one-to-one individual interview within a co-construction process.
The findings indicate that the student participants were able to ascertain, make meaning of, and articulate reflexive accounts of their school experiences in relation to the research topic, hence affirming them as valued social agents to inform on the research issue. The current study therefore has resonance for the growing body of knowledge which looks into the methodological challenges of conducting research with young children.
The analysis of data highlighted the following school features which the student participants identified as having an impact on their emotional well-being – peer relationships, teacher-student relationships, group dynamics, instructional strategies, assessment practices, discipline practices, physical environment, guidance and support, value of children’s work, and extra- and co-curricular activities. According to their perceptions, peer relationships, teacher-student relationships, and guidance and support exerted both positive and negative impact. They held more positive views in relation to school features such as group dynamics, instructional strategies, the physical environment, value of children’s work, and extra- and co-curricular activities. Discipline and assessment practices were identified as the two school features which predominantly impacted their emotional well-being adversely. When considered holistically, the identified school features represented an encompassing view of the school setting as well as underscored the situated nature of the school well-being concept, thereby reinforcing the conceptual understanding of the school setting and children’s emotionally well-being being integrally and contextually bounded. A key development of the current study is the re-representation of a school well-being model which captures more effectively the complex interplay of school features. Hence, the findings contribute further insights and theoretical inputs to the sparse local and international knowledge base on the etiology of children’s emotional well-being from the influence of schooling. In terms of informing policies and practices, teacher education and primary schools in Singapore could benefit from having an informed understanding of how the school setting could foster positive developments in children’s emotional well-being.
Date Issued
2017
Call Number
LB3430 Tay
Date Submitted
2017