UBUNTU: The challenge of promoting socio-emotional skills in the school context

Abstract

The relevance of social-emotional skills in education, as an essential condition to face the multiple challenges of a multidisciplinary and constantly changing society, has long been known. However, the pandemic and its consequences, namely in terms of mental health, have highlighted what the contributions of psychology and neurosciences had underlined nearly two decades ago.

The Ubuntu Schools program, by the Ubuntu Leaders Academy, is a non-formal education project, inspired by world reference models and focused on the development of a global citizenship. Based on a humanist philosophy, it is implemented through a participatory, experiential and relational approach, using diversified recreational and pedagogical materials.

This project, whose implementation possibility was extended to all schools in the country by the General Directorate of Education in the academic year 21/22, has been developed in the Agrupamento de Escolas À Beira Douro, since April 2021, as part of the Gulbenkian Knowledge Academy program. Currently, the promotion of social-emotional skills is an integral part of its educational project and constitutes an opportunity for the personal and social evolution of the students and educators involved. Preliminary data, from the impact assessment carried out, support the relevance of the program for the entire educational community and its transformative potential.