Supportive qualitative data Kelvin Munjile, Linda Kaljee PSS Forum, 2 September 2015 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

 To better understand the impact of this holistic intervention focused on teachers in schools and supported by community members;  Provide additional opportunity to independently examine programme quality and efficiency that will suggest ways to ensure the intervention is acceptable and feasible;  Assess programme feasibility and acceptability to ensure internal learning for all collaborating institutes. Objectives of process evaluation

 Focus groups with teachers (basic and secondary)  Focus groups with students (basic and secondary)  School observations  Known status during programme implementation  Blinded following programme implementation  Observations at Community of Practice meetings  Informal interviews with teachers and administrators  Teacher program workshop (post-implementation) Process evaluation- types of data

Results  Changes in teachers’ attitudes towards learners  Changes amongst teachers interactions with each other  Changes amongst learners interactions with each other  Changes felt by parents/caregivers at home  Teachers not on the programme were initially skeptical but within 5 months into programme implementation, they became supportive and appreciated what the programme was doing in their school  Teachers and learners were aware of the importance of a positive school environment and worked to make that happen  All data described here is triangulated using observational data and focus group discussions and blinded observations

Some quotations from teachers  “Bullying has reduced drastically. All we see in most cases are just normal fights and when they occur, some learners will stop them or come quickly to report and the learners involved are talked to. Now many learners understand the negative issues about bullying and how it affects others negatively.”- Teacher  “ … we never had time to interact with the learners on a personal level and as such, we used to see them as people who cannot change. With this program, all of this has since changed for we are able to consult the learners and they are very positive about the learning environment.” - Teacher  “We have become more aware…like providing support to the learner in a better way so the learner can realize their potential and we give them emotional support.” - Teacher

Conclusions  Qualitative data supports the changes we were seeing in the quantitative RCT  Key issues that emerged:  Student learners acknowledge changes in their teachers and school environment  Teachers on the course acknowledge being able to change  Unbiased observation documented a change taking place in the schools that were exposed to the Teachers’ Diploma.  Teachers that were initially skeptic and critical of the programme, changed their mind over time, following their lived experience of being in a school exposed to the Teachers’ Diploma.