Kindness research empowers Junior School girls as advocates for change

To the Head of Junior School, Mrs Kate Brown, giving children the opportunity to collaborate, to think critically and creatively and to act as advocates for change is important to develop their sense of self, as well as their sense of social responsibility. As a Junior School at Pymble, we are using kindness as a way to empower our girls as learners and leaders.

Kindness is a simple word, easily understood by children and, therefore, accessible as a concept for them to unpack and lead. The Oxford English Dictionary defines kindness as ‘the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate’. Within our Junior School context, one of the many activities on embedding and interrogating the concept of kindness, Mrs Kate Brown conducted an action research to scrutinise kindness through three lenses; kindness to self, kindness to others and kindness to the environment.

Action research into kindness

Action research was undertaken throughout 2021 and 2022 to explore and analyse how a focus on kindness (as part of our social/emotional learning) could help the girls flourish as learners and leaders. As part of the action research data collection, 150 Junior School students completed a survey to track their perceptions around how kind we are currently within our Junior School and as a nation.

Some students supplied comments to show their thinking behind the score they attributed to their response. Students were asked to record a numerical score out of ten for these questions:

How kind are we to ourselves?
How kind are we as a school (kindness to others)?
How kind are we, as a nation, to our environment?

Working with Dr Sarah Loch, Director – Pymble Institute, Mrs Nerissa Davey, Deputy Head of Junior School Operations and Mrs Kimberley Tyson, Deputy Head of Junior School Students, we asked the Year 5 students to form human bar graphs in response to each question using A3 sized numbers as the key. Students formed a human number line to represent their score out of ten. A teacher took photos of these human graphs.

Following this, student representatives from each Year 5 class worked with Dr Sarah Loch and Mrs Kate Brown to analyse the data, creating graphs and collecting anecdotal evidence as the narrative behind the data. The research data showed the significant disparity between “kindness to self” vs “kindness to others”.

On the question ‘How kind are we to ourselves?’ 0% of students attributed a score of nine or ten to this question. Only 9% attributed a score of seven or eight to this question. By contrast, on the question ‘How kind are we as a school (kindness to others)?’ , 54% of students attributed a score of nine or ten and 42% attributed a score of seven or eight in response to the question. Students reflected on why this could be.

Kindness to Self

Kindness to Others

Kindness to the Environment

“Most of the girls are standing next to 5 – 7 as some of us are really busy. Most of us think we are kind to ourselves because we eat really healthy but might not sleep enough.”

“There are some girls standing in 0-4 because they might be disappointed in themselves even though they are doing well.

“Sometimes we compare ourselves to others, this can cause self-doubt and insecurities.”

“There are not many people in 8-10 as if could feel like bragging about how kind you are to yourself”

Polly, Zoe and Phoebe

“Not many people said 10 for ‘kindness to others’ as no one is kind all the time, there are always angry moments and no one is perfect.”

“Most people are positioned in 5 – 7 because it depends on the different relationship among people.”

Rachel, Annabel, Charlie, Charlotte

“Most students stood at 0-1 kindness, because a lot of people are irresponsible for their rubbish and leave it all around.”

Gloria, Chelsea, Charlotte

By involving Year 5 student representatives in the analysis of the data, students not only learnt to read the data and draw conclusions; they also reflected on the methodology of research. Students had excellent insights on the research questions, along with the recording of data, even to the day it was carried out and how that could have impacted the results.

Suggestions for ways to improve the research include:

“Could have the survey online so people could be more honest or not afraid to share as they are the only ones to see the answer, rather than the whole year group seeing. This could provide more from (the) heart answers.” “We could have done this at the start of term, then the end of term, because your feelings and relationships change over time.”- Polly, Zoe and Phoebe
“Next time I would keep better records of which photo went with which data and questions”. “We may (need to write and) ask more exact questions.”- Rachel, Annabel, Charlie, Charlotte
“Next time we could use tape for the number signs and make it easier to see them. Or make a video so we can see more” – Gloria, Chelsea, Charlotte

The action research project not only gave staff valuable insights into kindness in the Junior School, but, by involving the students, it started to build research skills and a critical mindset when interpreting data. Students also reflected on academic writing with some feeling they would be better at presenting the project verbally than writing up the results. Students are now working on what steps are needed next. Empowered with their research data – Junior School girls are certainly becoming advocates for change!