Preventing Violence by Teachers in Primary Schools: Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in Haiti

Although teacher violence at schools is a serious problem in Haiti, there is a lack of systematic evidence on the effectiveness of school-based interventions in reducing teacher violence in this low-income country.

To test the effectiveness of the preventative intervention Interaction Competencies with Children for Teachers (ICC-T) aiming to reduce teachers' use of violent disciplinary strategies and to improve their interaction competences with children in the Haitian context.

The study is designed as a two-arm matched cluster randomized controlled trial. The sample consists of 468 teachers and 1,008 children from 36 (community and public) primary schools around Cap-Haïtien (Département du Nord) in Haiti. Data will be collected in three phases, before the intervention, and 6 and 18 months after.

In the group of intervention schools, ICC-T will be delivered as a 5-day training workshop. Workshop sessions are divided into five modules: 1) improving teacher-student interactions, 2) maltreatment prevention, 3) effective discipline strategies, 4) identifying and supporting burdened students, and 5) implementation in everyday school life.

The main outcome measure is teacher violence assessed in two ways: (i) teachers' self-reported use of violence, and (ii) children's self-reported experiences of violence by teachers.

Prior evaluations of ICC-T had been conducted in sub-Saharan Africa with promising results. This study will test for the first time the effectiveness of this intervention outside the context of sub-Saharan Africa.