Boston College has received a $2.25 million, three-year grant from the Walton Family Foundation to fund an initiative aimed at increasing engagement and fulfillment for both students and educators in K-12 schools.
“This initiative is about cultivating purpose and belonging in K-12 schools,” said Belle Liang, one of the initiative’s principal investigators. Purpose is living a life that’s personally meaningful and intended to contribute to the world beyond self, beyond yourself.”
Liang, a professor of counseling, developmental, and educational psychology in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development (LSEHD), is collaborating with Kendall Cotton Bronk, a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, on the project, titled “Cultivating Purpose in Diverse Educational Contexts with a Scalable ‘Wise Intervention.’”
Tackling student disengagement and teacher burnout, the initiative focuses on cultivating a sense of purpose for both students and educators, according to Liang.
Liang described the initiative as a response to what she calls a “disconnection crisis,” noting that the decline in students’ and educators’ mental health began even before the pandemic’s global upheaval of education.
“Students and educators are experiencing increasing disconnection from themselves, from each other, from their workplaces and schools, and from their futures,” Liang said.
Liang said student disengagement has been a growing concern, with many classrooms struggling with a lack of participation and frequent class disruptions, and teachers facing record high levels of burnout.
“A huge percentage of students are disengaged in classrooms, and teachers report that, and then educators themselves are disengaged,” Liang said. “By some reports, more than 30 percent of educators are disengaged from their workplace, and up to 40 percent or more are feeling emotionally and physically exhausted.”
According to Liang, the project will focus on increasing student engagement and teacher well-being in a multipronged approach, including providing professional development for teachers to facilitate purpose-driven learning and supporting socioeconomically diverse school districts in implementing these strategies.
“The grant allows us to work with three different school districts—very diverse socioeconomically—and in these different schools, we train the teachers who sign up for this facilitator training,” Liang said.
By equipping teachers with the tools to foster purpose, the initiative aims to re-engage students and create a more fulfilling educational experience, Liang said.
“In our research, we found that when we studied the relational and mental health of students, there was always this small subset of students that were not struggling with the same sort of mental health issues and debilitating anxiety as their peers,” Liang said. “Instead, they were trying to do things that were personally meaningful in a way that was contributing to the world around them—and that is actually the definition of purpose.”
Stanton Wortham, inaugural Charles F. Donovan, S.J., dean of LSEHD, underscored how this initiative aligns with BC’s Jesuit values of holistic education.
“Formative education is this Jesuit idea that we owe young people holistic development,” Wortham said. “We’re not just giving them academic knowledge—although that’s crucial—we’re not just helping them get skills for a job–although that’s crucial—but we’re also trying to help them develop as whole people—emotionally, socially, ethically, spiritually.”
As BC moves forward with this project, Wortham expressed his enthusiasm for its potential impact.
“It’s great,” Wortham said. “We’re excited about it. It’s substantial support from an important foundation, so we’re thrilled to see her getting this sort of support in order to do important work.”
Liang echoed this sentiment, highlighting her commitment to the project and its broad ambitions for education in the United States.
“I’m excited about this work because I believe that it aligns with the mission of the Lynch School and of Boston College—the mission of formative education,” Liang said.
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