Lessons Learned from a Mixed-Method Pilot of a Norms-Shifting Social Media Intervention to Reduce Teacher-Perpetrated School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Uganda

"It has helped me solve problems because when we work together in the Everyday Heroes WhatsApp group, the challenges that children face can be solved and we can find solutions towards ending violence pupils face at school." - teacher

Violence against children (VAC) is a global epidemic rooted in gender norms. One promising but under-researched approach to shifting social norms related to violence is utilising social media. This study describes implementation and lessons learned from a pilot social and behaviour change (SBC) social media intervention called Everyday Heroes, which was designed to shift social norms among Ugandan teachers to promote gender equality for girls in the classroom and to reduce teacher-perpetrated SRGBV against primary-aged students.

Everyday Heroes is the social media component of an SBC intervention designed and implemented by Save the Children. The online intervention used discussion forums within peer-teacher networks on Facebook and WhatsApp to address abusive discipline, sexual abuse/harassment, and gender inequity in classrooms. In these groups, content was posted several times weekly by Save the Children facilitators to encourage discussion among teachers around the behaviours of interest. Posted content was developed using Robert Cialdini's theorised six principles of interpersonal influence (reciprocity, scarcity, authority, commitment, liking, and consensus) and informed by qualitative formative research with teachers and students. The content included influence-based conversation starters in the form of questions posed to the teachers. The groups also provided an opportunity for teachers to share insights and best practices with other teachers by posting their own content and engaging in teacher-driven discussion.

At the end of implementation in November 2020, 1,606 teachers were recorded in the Facebook page, 142 in the Facebook group, and 242 in the WhatsApp group. These numbers varied over the period of assessment. In addition to information on group size, the researchers extracted information on posts, engagements, and teachers' comments from intervention social media groups and conducted mixed-methods data analysis.

The study found that many teachers in the social media groups expressed strong norms upholding corporal punishment and blaming girls for sexual harassment, highlighting the need for intervention. The social media groups were largely acceptable to teachers, reached many teachers throughout Uganda, and often promoted active discussion. For example, the conversation starter "How does beating a child lead to long-term damage to the child?" received the most comments or replies (44 comments) and demonstrated the potential of the online intervention in promoting lively debate among teachers on issues of SRGBV, particularly corporal punishment. In this post, teachers posted back and forth with supporting and opposing attitudes and expectations related to disciplining children with physical force. The programme team carefully monitored online engagement, identified needed shifts (e.g., removing posts that reinforced harmful norms or showed inappropriate behaviours), and performed mid-course adjustments in response to emerging challenges.

Midway through implementation, programme administrators engaged teachers as peer-influencers to comment on posts shifting discussions away from harmful norms and highlighting the positive influence teachers can have on students. Influencers were recruited by Save the Children from the 20 original intervention schools and were principals or counselors who had undergone a brief initial training. These influencers commented in approximately one out of every four intervention posts and often shifted discussions to focus on positive teacher behaviour.

Per the researchers, the implementation experiences underscore the importance of applying a holistic SBC framework to online violence prevention interventions. They suggest using: formative research to identify appropriate media channels and discussion topics, intensive monitoring with real-time adjustments, and multi-level SBC strategies that focus on social (norms) and individual attributes (knowledge and attitudes) to shift behaviours.

Other lessons learned included focusing on positive norms instead of harmful norms, engaging peer-influencers to shift norms, and including educational resources to inform behaviour change. Building on learnings from in-person social-norms-shifting interventions, the researchers also stress that online interventions need to carefully facilitated by programme administrators and peer-influencers trained in the foundational principles of the programme - specifically on aspects related to gender and gender-based violence.

In conclusion, this study offers learnings on application of SBC communication and social norms principles that may be applicable to future online VAC prevention initiatives.