Driving CORE forward
“CORE recognises the stress and burnout teachers face. Supporting them to identify what constitutes a good teacher helps them strengthen their own wellbeing and to take actions to becoming the teacher they want to be. This leads to more compassionate, enabling and quality education environments where children can learn and grow socially and emotionally.'”
April Coetzee, teacher and War Child researcher
Teachers' mental health
- 75 million school-aged children in conflict-affected countries need a quality, protective education.
- Teaching in these settings is stressful. There is little professional development, resources are scarce and salaries are often irregular. The impact on teachers’ wellbeing is rarely acknowledged and addressed.
- By not addressing teachers' well-being, many people don’t enter the profession, leave it or need to interrupt their work to manage their burnout or distress.
Approach
CORE provides teachers with individualised, reflective, teacher-focused, mindful, socio-ecological and iterative support. Classes are compassionate and respectful and despite the circumstances, both students and teachers can thrive. It takes a whole-school approach and is provided through quality coaching.
It is made up of five two-hour wellbeing workshops and a three-month intensive, direct teacher coaching over 6 modules during regular school hours
Based on Evidence
The intervention has been tested with teachers and coaches in Colombia, who found it useful and relevant. The testing also confirmed the intervention's potential for more effective and positive coach-teacher working relationships. A first cycle of testing and adaptation has resulted in a draft manual.
Our partners
- CORE is being developed with the support of Global TIES for Children, New York University.
Research and development
How we ensure our work with children is effective
The War Child Care System is made up of nine Core Interventions, developed to address the urgent needs of conflict-affected children and their communities. These interventions are supported by a number of tools and enabling trajectories that serve to promote access to care and a process of localisation.
Meet our Research and Development Team
April Coetzee considers herself first and foremost a teacher. On top of that, she is also a War Child researcher and PhD student of the University of Amsterdam. She has spent over 15 years in the field of Education in Emergencies in vulnerable and conflict-affected settings.
