Emotional literacy and the case for a whole-school approach to promote sustainable educational change

An emotionally literate learning environment impacts on classroom climate and builds a sense of connectedness. This has a positive effect on student's ability to engage in learning and assessment processes. To work towards an emotionally literate learning community a whole-school approach (ethos, curriculum and partnerships) can be employed. This multidimensional approach has the capacity to transform teachers' practice through a responsive classroom and increase the capacity for improved learning outcomes. This project will enable a group of schools to use this approach as a starting point to build change in ways that are dynamic and interactive resulting in multidirectional change. Schools will develop emotional literacy through explicit and implicit methods that may incorporate cross curricular links and potentially involve all facets of the school and include school executive, staff, students and parents. This two year project involves an evaluation and measurement of the intervention and process used to enable a comparative analysis of data and results. This will provide evidence as to the sustainability through qualitative and quantitative measures such as levels of bullying, absenteeism, positive change in regard to the quality of school life and perceived level of control over work.