Evaluating the impact of universal interventions for emotional well-being and resilience in secondary school settings


Linked to policy concerns about poor levels of mental health, behaviour and engagement amongst growing numbers of children and  young people, a little-debated feature of education policy and practice is a shift from targeted interventions for those diagnosed with particular problems to universal interventions.  These present emotional well-being and resilience as a set of attitudes, skills, dispositions and attributes that can be taught, learned and transferred across different life contexts are widely supported as a form of ‘emotional inoculation’. The influence of social and cognitive psychology, especially positive psychology in these developments is reinforced by growing political interest in new forms of behavioural science. 

Despite much policy-led activity around these claims and the interventions they lead to (including some formal evaluations of specific programmes) there has been very little critical engagement with the underlying theoretical base of interventions and their ethical and educational implications. A studentship in this area provides a unique opportunity to explore the following questions:
1.	What is the range and nature of interventions currently used to develop emotional well-being and resilience in educational settings in the UK?
2.	What is their underlying theoretical and empirical evidence and the warrants used to justify claims made for them? 
3.	How are different types of intervention used in day-to-day educational practice in secondary school settings?  
4.	What socio-cultural factors influence how implementers and participants interpret their aims and translate them into practice?
5.	What criteria for ‘effectiveness’ are used by the developers of interventions, teachers and other professionals implementing them, and children and young people participating in them, and their parents/carers?
The School of Education invites applications from well-qualified candidates in education, social policy and social psychology to undertake a funded-PhD study that addresses these questions and generates new knowledge for improving academic thinking, policy making and professional practice, as well as CPD programmes in mental health, social work, education and psychology.  New knowledge would encompass:
•	the theoretical and empirical evidence used to justify and promote universal interventions in educational settings 
•	the ways in which participants and implementers of interventions translate claims and underlying theory into everyday practice 
•	the ways in which participants and implementers construct the problems that interventions address, and the various socio-cultural factors that influence their translations into practice 
•	the ethical implications of universal interventions 

Methodology
The successful candidate will negotiate an appropriate methodology that combines an extensive literature review of policy, academic and professional texts related to typical interventions currently in use, and uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore and evaluate a representative sample of typical interventions in secondary schools.  Some element of comparative study with developments in other countries is also possible.

Links to related research in the University of Birmingham
The studentship will relate closely to other research in this area.  One is a University of Birmingham-funded inter-disciplinary project on how sociological and bio-science theory might illuminate the implicit and explicit ‘rules’ that underpin various ‘resilience’ interventions.  Another project explores the ways in which teachers and institutional managers in an FE college define emotional well-being and address perceived problems with it in their day to day practice.  A proposal for funding currently being considered by the Wellcome Trust (in partnership with Prof Heather Draper in Medical Ethics, and Dr Ceri Savage, a clinical psychologist at the Buenos Aires Centre for Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience) explores the ethical dimensions of transferring targeted emotional well-being and resilience interventions from mental health into universal interventions in educational settings.  

The PhD would also relate closely to 2 other PhDs in the School of Education.  One explores the connections between children’s attachment problems and emotional and behavioural difficulties in schools, the other is evaluating the links between religious education and the development of emotional well-being and resilience.  
Supervision 

This PhD will be based in the Department of Education and Social Justice in the School of Education and will be supervised by Professor Kathryn Ecclestone and Dr Lydia Lewis.

Funding and how to apply
Funding for this project is only available to UK citizens or those who have been resident in the UK for a period of 3 years or more, and the scholarship is offered solely on a +3 basis for full-time study. To be eligible, you must hold or be near completing a Masters degree in a relevant area (or have equivalent research experience and expertise). The scholarship is funded at ESRC maintenance/fee rates.

Early application is advised. You are recommended to send a draft research proposal and cv to Kathryn Ecclestone (see below) before making a formal application.

Formal applications will be considered after 0900UTC Monday 9th January 2012.  Please apply online following the URL below and quoting the code: 2223 http://www.postgraduate.bham.ac.uk/apply/

Please send any informal enquiries to:
Kathryn Ecclestone, Professor of Education and Social Inclusion, [log in to unmask]